April Animation 09

This is just about my favourite 300k on the Audax calendar in Queensland. This year was going to be harder than previous because I was so underdone in terms of kilometres cycled (the first time I've not reached 5,000km by the end of March since 2001). On the positive side, the weather forecast included rain, meaning I might be lucky enough to avoid the heat. As it happened, only five riders made the start (nine had planned to start, but some must have bailed on hearing the weather forecast, pour souls).

I set off with another guy who spent about 20km telling me about his various charity rides, before riding off into the distance, I decided it was best not to attempt the pace he was setting, and settled into my own rhythm, although I did feel a little stronger today than in any of my lead-up rides. I made the first checkpoint at Dayboro in reasonable time, and decided to buy some bread rolls to carry on the remainder of the ride at the local bakery, somehow not realising that they were HUGE. I ended up giving a couple of them away later in the ride.



The first act after Dayboro is the 530 metre climb of Mt Mee. The south side is relatively easy, and I simply coasted up the mountain in a consistent rhythm rather than going for an all out attack - I still had 240km to ride. The sweeping views across the top kept me occupied until I reached the crazy descent on the other side. I always seem to get stuck behind traffic here, and today was no exception. That said, it probably wasn't a bad thing as there was still water running across the road from the previous days' rain. I continued on across the rolling hills toward Kilcoy without even raising a sweat. It was the return on that stretch that has caused me problems in previous years.



Shortly after the Kilcoy turnaround, a powerful wind started from the south east, followed by a squall of rain. I've found headwinds difficult to deal with on this stretch, but they always seem a little more comfortable when accompanied with rain. 10km later the rain and the wind had gone anyway, and I was able to start the climb of the Peachester Range (the other noteworthy climb on the ride) in a relatively fresh state. Some idiot threw something at me on the way up the range, but the climb felt easy, and I was almost disappointed to reach the summit. The descent to Beerwah was done in more rain, but that stopped in time to allow me to mop up the remaining kilometres to the checkpoint near Ewen Maddock Dam.



It was in the following stretch that I would suffer for the first and only time of the day. I'm not entirely sure how or why it happened here, but for some reason I was forced into slowing considerably. There wasn't any noteworthy wind to speak of by now, the surroundings were pleasant (for the most part), and although there was a little rain, I normally revel in those conditions. Either way, I coasted through the Glasshouse Mountains (where the road is almost dead flat) and back into Suburbia for the final checkpoint before the loop around Moreton Bay.



Last year I heroically led the bunch home across this stretch into the teeth of a brutal headwind and with a lot of drunks to negotiate. Tonight the drunks were gone (I can only assume that Uncle Kevin's beer money hasn't reached these parts yet) and the headwind was much lighter, but I ended up on the front again, this time navigating the rather convoluted route this ride takes through Redcliffe, Shorncliffe and surrounds. This was despite the fact that one of the other riders in the group had a GPS system pre-programmed with the route (I'm not sure whether or not that's considered cheating, but nobody else cared). As it was, we did manage one wrong turn about 2km from the finish, but overall the final stretch was mopped up without any real drama.

I was happy with my finishing time too, a touch over 15 hours elapsed time. Not bad for a bloke who was out of shape going into the ride. As for what comes next, I have another 200km on this weekend (after Monday's rainy 100km "recovery ride"), and shortly after that, the touring season starts in earnest. What can I say but, "bring it on!".