RR: BR45 – Strictly Hardcore

Hardcore riders 😛

DaveB

hippy

(TT’ers excused, where were all you softies!!??)

2.5hrs sleep and two previous nights on the piss – perfect preparation for a ride like this!!

Wake and it’s raining. Great! I like nothing better than to ride off into the rain. I decide to wear a polypropylene undershirt for the first time (practice for Europe!) and I thought it was cold enough to warrant knee warmers and arm warmers too. Clamped the rat-tail rear mudguard on to keep my arse dry(ish).

I’m running late so no brekkie (last night’s Beam doesn’t count does it?) so I just grab a couple of fruit bars to eat on the way.

Bike felt a little strange.. get to Whitehorse/Mitcham Rds and sure enough, that crazy valve problem I had last week is happening again and the front tyre is flat.

“Of course it’s happening again you idiot! You didn’t change the frickin’ tube!!” (Oops..)

So I do a quick front tube swap, getting myself covered in black rim crap in the process, and proceed to Doncaster Rd.

Spot DaveB riding east and I pretend not to notice him – so I can just ride home and go back to bed!

“Nah!”.. I chase him down and off we go.

No downhill speed runs this week because 1) I notice my brakes have almost NO pad left and in the wet, they simply don’t work! and 2) I seemed to have rubbed something into my left eye and spend half the ride tearing up – blurry vision not so good for riding fast (couldn’t see through glasses so they were off for the duration of the ride).

I know where ‘the climb’ timing points are now so I started the clock (just after the bus stop) and left DaveB to his PB attempt. HR stayed around 180bpm for this ITT section. I didn’t want to push it any harder because I was dehydrated, very tired and could just ‘tell’ I would cramp hard if I overcooked it. Arrived at ‘the rock’ in 14m 31s. At the top, there was a guy and his Cannondale (with cool orange ano hubs and orange ano rims!). He had punctured just before the top and was using C02 cylinders to reinflate. The first one messed up – lucky the second one worked! 🙂

Dave arrives and I ask him his time. His reply? “ah hah ah hah ah hah”

No, he wasn’t laughing.. he’s trying to suck down air, as if tomorrow there wont be any left! The thought “Fark.. I don’t know CPR!” crossed my mind! :S

Eventually he regains his composure and is damn happy to tell me he’s KILLED his previous PB of 16m 50s with a new PB of 15m 40s!! Nice one Dave!!

We roll off and turn left at the round-a-bout, doing the nice, ‘lots of downhill’ BR option. I try for a high speed down Foote St. but can only manage 87.3kph. Not sure if it was the climb TT or the alcohol that stopped me cracking 88kph?

Say “adios” to Dave after some more riding and I head home, glad I managed to drag my sorry arse out of bed.

In the shower at home I notice my legs now have three lines, “untanned”, “tanned” and “tanned and covered in road grime” hehe. It only takes 5-10mins for the feeling to come back to my toes, so it’s not “proper cold” yet..

Stats:

Distance: 70k on the dot

Time: 2h 47m

Heartrate: 148/187 (avg/max)

Speed: 27.5/87.3kph (avg/max)

Cadence: 94/160rpm (avg/max)