Ride report: Mt Tamborine.

Steven made me get up at 0430 yesterday, we were on the bikes by 0500
and he made me go the hilly way to the meeting point (Broadwater/Logan
Rds). I had no sports drink, a few gels and a protein bar, and a spare
tube but nothing else, because I left my spares bag etc at home. I did,
however, take those stupid tri bars and gel flask holder off my bike. I
left the bidon cages behind the seat because I hate being dependent upon
the kindess of strangers for water, plus I was worried I'd put the seat
back on at the wrong height!

There was only one other girl there, but I got reassured more would be
starting from Waterford. The ride out to Tamborine was lovely, and I had
plenty of chat time, and most of the time I ended up sitting behind
Steven hehehe. At Tambo, they sent us up in groups. I missed the
first group because I was sucking down a gu so they were a couple of
hundred metres ahead already. One of the girls was suffering asthma, I
passed her very soon. I went up on my own, just sat and spun, and ended
up catching two of the other girls before the summit. In hindsight I
could've ridden it faster, but it's the first time I've done it, and I
didn't want to blow up. One of the girls said later, "Well, for the
first 2 km I thought I'd die... then I pulled over and thought I would
throw up, but then it was okay!"

Steven started 4 or 5 (I think) minutes later and flew past me by the
time I was halfway up, making it look disgustingly easy, and after he
won KOTM, he came back down to see how I was going, so he could do an
extra few km of hill climbing in prep for France in July.

Up the top, everyone stopped at the forest cafe for breakky or drinks. I
had a nice big flat white, and then went to get some sports drink from
the servo. My bike was "parked in" so I ran down there barefoot, it was
only 400m, and everyone thought I was insane. (They didn't know I'd run
35km the day before, either.)

On the way home, we TT from Tambo to Waterford... I started with the
girls at the bottom of the hill but when the first guys came past they
gave me no warning, I was hurting on the front so just gave up but the
other girls managed to jump on. It was disgustingly hot and I struggled
on my own on the bumpy rough road. I kept looking behind for the next
group but couldn't see them coming. Eventually they passed me without
warning, just as a truck was approaching - all I could see/hear when I
looked back was the truck, and I didn't get a chance to wind it up as
they came along.

I slowed down further and just kept looking behind me, determined not to
miss anyone else. Eventually a guy on his own came through, he actually
called out on approach anyway, and I wheelsucked him for a bit. I let
him know when some of the really fast guys came along... who also said
nothing (must have been a weenie comp or something) and when I saw there
were only two I yelled a desperate "that's last man!" at my free ride
and he did a little effort and then there were 4. I got very nervous as
this lot were hill climbing at 38-39km/h which is about what I average
in a crit on the very flat circuit at Murarrie, so sure enough about 8
minutes later they dropped me up a slightly bigger climb. A few minutes
later I caught one of the girls who had been dropped, she was extremely
grateful for the company, and after I took a 30s rest on her wheel, she
wheelsucked me back to Waterford, giving me one short rest on the way.
I felt good and was holding about 30km/h which I was impressed with,
given I had just clocked over 100km.

At Waterford lots of people headed home, Steven promised it'd be slow
but wouldn't take to long. As we approached the turnoff to my place he
said he'd ride home rather than stop for a swim, and I decided that,
having now done about 125km, I might like to keep riding to his place
and make it 140km. We did, and I made him go along Logan Rd which was
much less hilly. We had to stop for more water, and at the servo near
his place, stop again for iced coffee. Mmmm. Then we rolled the last few
hundred metres, put the bikes away, and enjoyed some nice cold beer.

My new bibknicks were awesome, I have less damage than I'd normally get
from a 60km ride!

Recovery consisted of an absolutely appalling effort at the Beer Mile.
Yes, I was female champion, but I was very bad. I need to learn how to
guzzle my beer.

Tam

Stats:

distance: 140 km (tied longest ride ever)
time riding: 5:17 h
average speed: 26.5 km/h

total time: about 7:30, we probably spent over an hour at Tambo, half an
hour at Waterford on the way back while Jess bought stuff, and plenty of
short stops for water and lights and so on.

On 2006-01-27, Tamyka Bell (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
Steven started 4 or 5 (I think) minutes later and flew past me by the
time I was halfway up, making it look disgustingly easy, and after he
won KOTM, he came back down to see how I was going, so he could do an
extra few km of hill climbing in prep for France in July.

France in July? Doing the TdF?

distance: 140 km (tied longest ride ever)
time riding: 5:17 h
average speed: 26.5 km/h

Up a mountain? Not bad at all.

--
TimC
hey Beavis, we're segfaulting, heh heh heh, I know, Butthead, so let's
SIGBUS from inside the handler, heh heh heh --Stephen J. Turnbull

Tamyka Bell wrote:

tube but nothing else, because I left my spares bag etc at home. I did,
however, take those stupid tri bars and gel flask holder off my bike. I

The last vestiges of you being a triathlete?

DaveB

DaveB wrote:

Tamyka Bell wrote:

tube but nothing else, because I left my spares bag etc at home. I did,
however, take those stupid tri bars and gel flask holder off my bike. I

The last vestiges of you being a triathlete?

DaveB

Pfft, trihardletes, what-EVER!

Hehehehe.

Um, I honestly prefer my drops to my bars anyway, particularly on
descents, and the velcro on that flask sometimes scratched my knees. My
bike looks much prettier now, she's all silver and sparkly like a
L'una... in a non-cf kind of way.

As I said to the boys yesterday... anyone can ride 50km, how many of
them can run it? I am an ultra runner. (They asked why I cycle) - well
how many times a week can you run 35km?

Tam

TimC wrote:

On 2006-01-27, Tamyka Bell (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
Steven started 4 or 5 (I think) minutes later and flew past me by the
time I was halfway up, making it look disgustingly easy, and after he
won KOTM, he came back down to see how I was going, so he could do an
extra few km of hill climbing in prep for France in July.

France in July? Doing the TdF?

Of course!

Okay, not quite. Following it, doing one of those nasty rides, found
the non-official ones are cheaper and have more hills for the same
price. Idiot. "Only 75km of climbing over 170km of riding, it only
averages 10%-ish" (and he'll enjoy it too, freak)

distance: 140 km (tied longest ride ever)
time riding: 5:17 h
average speed: 26.5 km/h

Up a mountain? Not bad at all.

Er, only 7km of it is up the mountain. The rest is undulating on
not-hotmix. When we got hotmix patches where they'd done road repairs,
all the girls went, "aaah, hotmix!"

And I was very pleased to note the descent is all well-banked, wide,
sweeping curves, only 2x 180deg turns and they're both very wide (for
trucks), so you can ride down QUITE FAST!

Tam

Tamyka Bell wrote:

how many times a week can you run 35km?

Tam

Once, but it takes 7 days. Actually even when half-marathon training
I don't think I ever hit 35km in a week.

DaveB

DaveB wrote:

Tamyka Bell wrote:

how many times a week can you run 35km?

Tam

Once, but it takes 7 days. Actually even when half-marathon training
I don't think I ever hit 35km in a week.

DaveB

ROFLMAO A few weeks ago I was boasting about how I never run more than
50km a week, but I'll run 50km in a single race... and the next week I
clocked up 75km. Watch out!

Tam

Nice work, only rode Mt Tamborine once when I was up in Brisbane... very
scenic, excellent climb, nothing overly steep, very similar to the 1:20
down here, I think in terms of gradient, however, that ride down the
other side towards the gold coast, now that is scary steep, only went
down that, my ride took me from the North Side (Nundah), all the way
down through Logan, Mt Tamborine, then over to the Gold Coast via
Nerang ??? I caught the train back to Brisbane from Helensvale.

Very nice ride, although yours sounds better, because the ride over to
the Gold Coast was horrific, cr**py roads and moron drivers, would have
been better riding back, but would have been a bit longer than i wanted
to ride that time!


--
MikeyOz

MikeyOz wrote:

Nice work, only rode Mt Tamborine once when I was up in Brisbane... very
scenic, excellent climb, nothing overly steep, very similar to the 1:20
down here, I think in terms of gradient, however, that ride down the
other side towards the gold coast, now that is scary steep, only went
down that, my ride took me from the North Side (Nundah), all the way
down through Logan, Mt Tamborine, then over to the Gold Coast via
Nerang ??? I caught the train back to Brisbane from Helensvale.

Very nice ride, although yours sounds better, because the ride over to
the Gold Coast was horrific, cr**py roads and moron drivers, would have
been better riding back, but would have been a bit longer than i wanted
to ride that time!

--
MikeyOz

Interesting that the ride over to the Gold Coast is so bad... most of
the people who live in the hinterland seem to be very considerate to
cyclists and I've never had a problem there before.

My boy got clipped on the elbow as we reached the top of Tambo, by some
bogan in a v8 conformadore, and that scared the crap out of me.

Tam