The decider!

This morning was time for my third ride to Mt Nimmel. For the record, this mountain had beaten me back in 1998 to such an extent that it took me nine years to return. In January of this year I came back and conquered it. Today was set to be the decider.



To be fair, this isn't a massive climb -- with a maximum height of 470 metres that pales when compared to some of the climbs I've conquered in Victoria, Tasmania, New Zealand, Scotland and even locally. It does, however, gain 380 metres in the space of 4km, including a vicious start that ramps up to 19% at one point. This morning the conditions were kind, an unusually cool October morning gave me a temperature of just 16 degrees C at the base -- just about ideal.



Having signed up for January's Alpine Classic in Bright, I'm still refining my strategy for dealing with climbs, and I'm becoming convinced that the cold, methodical approach is what's needed. I took to this today, and found it to be devastatingly effective. I rarely left the saddle for the entire climb -- despite the early gradients. It didn't seem to take very long to reach the point where I could see the clearing at the summit. There is a final kick in the climb here, but again I remained composed, my face like stone, and clinically took it apart. At the finish I was left wondering just how this climb was so problematic as I surveyed the gob-smacking views at the summit.



I opted to celebrate my ownage of the decider by taking a detour into the rainforest at Austinville on the way home. This is always a beautiful ride, day or night. I had an interesting conversation with a couple of beginner cyclists near the rockpool. They seemed interested in the idea of touring, and were looking for more climbing. I suggested they give Springbrook a dash before taking on Mt Nimmel. The one down side of the day was to learn that a few people in the council want to make this place more hoon-friendly, with some "improvements" or "safety features" by the rockpool taking away it's character if the plans go ahead. Why on Earth would anybody think a hoon suffering a spinal injury could ever be a bad thing?