Now I've gone and done it

It looks like I'll miss this weekend's Glorious Mee ride for the first time in six years. I'm still waiting to get my light back from St Kilda Cycles, and I'm fairly certain it won't be ready for Saturday. Instead, I've just logged onto the audax website and submitted my entry for the 2008 edition of the Alpine Classic. For those who aren't aware, this is an organised ride in Bright, Victoria, and is rated as one of the hardest rides in the country. The 200km edition (i.e. the one I've signed up for) is estimated to have 4,000 metres of climbing, and in the mid-summer heat.

This might sound like suicide for someone who traditionally doesn't like heat, but it's not all bad news. First of all, it's likely to be a drier heat than what I deal with in this part of the world, and having grown up in that environment, I can say from experience that it's like knocking 10 degrees C off the temperature. Let's also not forget that my lead up rides will be in the aforementioned Queensland Summer. Then, there's the matter of my prior experience in rides of this nature. I've done the Wonders of Glorious Mee (Queensland's hilly ride with over 3,000 metres of climbing) five times. Last year I went to Tasmania and completed the ASH Dash, despite taking a wrong turn, doing an extra 10km including the climb of Vince's Saddle for a second time.

Of course, I now have the matter of organising all the transport options, which looks like a flight to Melbourne, a train to Wangaratta and a ride to Bright the day before. It's a challenge, but this is what cycling is all about. Now I just need to put the little Audax ride booklet away so I don't sign up for any more attempts at madness between now and then.

• In other news, some of you may have caught this story in which the notoriously poor response time of Queensland police has led to the death of a woman on the Gold Coast. I've written about this before, and the saddest part about this story is that it will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever had reason to report anything to the police in this part of the world. It's been an ongoing problem for as long as anyone can remember. I suppose the one positive to come out of this is that now the problem is actually getting some attention -- assuming the various stakeholders can stop the blaming and finger-pointing for long enough to actually do something about it (which is doubtful). It's just a shame someone had to die for the issue to finally get some attention.