Hello Peddlers of the North,
Since there has been no ride report of this year’s 3Ps, I thought I would have a crack at it while the memories are still burned hot in my mind (and legs). This ride report will be much shorter than my last one (I took a hint from the feedback from the last one!).
The Pre-amble
Getting to falls creek was easy. Many people pushed hard leaving sub 6am – we left Sydney around 7 and got into falls by about 4pm and I arrived into my accommodation by 5pm. I stayed down the road away from ER base camp. ER’s predominantly stayed up on the mountain, whilst I stayed at the very awesome YMCA with all meals provided in a very large mess hall – great results. We met up with the group for the rider briefing at 6pm after we arrived – which turned out to be a total waste of time as the sponsors blasted us with their propaganda and provided absolutely no value in terms of tips for the next day! And we also had to listen to a fairly weak election campaign from their local member…but I digress.
The start
Arrived at the start line around 6.15am was one of the first 100 in the line up. Jumped at the back of Wave 3 and waited for the rest of the pack to dribble in. VD and Darcy started ahead of me, the rest of the group that passed me (Flash, Satnav, B1/m) started behind me. The descent was amazing, it was warm by the time we made it over the start line at 6.50am. The start was an anti climax in that it was a very slow rolling start over the start line, then sped up around the corners. I attempted to GoPro the descents but lack of attention on my behalf meant a technical failure in the recording department and only filmed one descent (Mt Buffalo) the whole day – guess I will have to do it again in 2014 to get better pictures.
The first third of the descent people were over taking like crazy. They were risking some pretty crazy blind corners, where unless they knew turn for turn what was coming, they were really going out on a limb. The second and third third of the descent it was the opposite. I really got into the rhythm of the descent, and started picking my lines that were doing most of the braking for me, but then I would get around a corner and come across a person who was riding dead centre of the road and just hard on the brakes – really quite hard to pass when you are picking your own line. About 2/3rds of the descent down took off my jacket arm warmers and long fingered gloves, left my leg warmers on until the top of Mt Buffalo (shoulda really taken them off here)….At this point Satnav and VD (I think?) passed me, and Flash joined me at the rest stop to stop for a tea break.
Started eating and drinking at this point and also had a banana that I had pocketed from breakfast (Egg, Hashbrown and Sultana bran @ 5am). I was on Perpeteum for most of the day – but more about that later.
The first ascent
Tawonga came in no time at all, with a nice gentle flat from the bottom of the descent to the first climb. Flash over took me on this hill screaming something along the lines of “Why aren’t you going faster Danny!? what about all the training we have done!?!?” and leaving me for dead. WBA passed me on the way to the top of the hill. I was also filmed at 3 separate occasions by a film crew going up this hill (and Mt Buffalo) so maybe I will make it on a promo? I made it up the hill and checked my timing sheet. I had gained 10 minutes on the 13 hour cutoff time for this checkpoint. Feeling good. I then rolled down the hill to the next rest stop which was in Bright. I made great time down the hill and overtook everyone that I came across – it was a much cleaner smoother descent than the first one, and much shorter. I only started drafting someone 5 kms out of Bright (there was about a 10 km flat section before that) which was shame – I could have achieved a faster time on this flat had I drafted. It was at this point that I started to feel the heat warm up. I jumped off the bike at the Bright stop, and grabbed my nutrition and was back on the bike in less than 3 minutes. I rode off with WBA and stayed with him in a small train until the base of Mt Buffalo.
Mt Buffalo the terrible
Unfortunately I had to reface my nemeses Mt Buffalo which I had climbed twice before for the Audax – it wasn’t going to be any easier this time. I started climbing up Mt Buffalo and had a great pace. This was when the groups really started to thin out. However I didn’t see the first Easy Rider until about half or more of the way up (Stealth, followed by NNNick), which was a great confidence booster. I knew that Mt Buffalo climb up was 2 hrs and climb down was 30 minutes so they couldn’t be more than an hour ahead. I know this sounds pessimistic, but knowing that some were going to finish at 8 hours and myself at 13 hours at the best – this was a great confidence booster. Mt Buffalo was harder this time not because of the heat (was about the same temperature as the Audax back in January) but because of the lack of water. I finished my water about 90 minutes into the climb up, and there was about another 30 minutes to go. The Audax they had 2 water stops on the way up and a proper rest stop at the top. The 3Ps should have had lunch at the top so you could digest on the 1 hours full descent (30 mins of down hill and 30 mins of flat), but instead they had it at the very bottom of the hill instead. They also could have put in some more water stops. By the time we got to the top there was only 1 tap of water. There were 20 people here, and I did a 15 minute stop instead of a 3 minute stop (as planned) due to the wait. Luckily I was 40 minutes ahead at this point of the 13 hour cutoff, when I departed Mt Buffalo – feeling great.
Scary Descent
A couple of bad things happened on the descent which I haven’t mentioned until now. I spotted the Lantern Rouge half way up the mountain (about 1~ hour behind me) in the shade having a rest! My GoPro whilst filming snapped off the handlebars while in full motion. I had to slam on brakes to pick it up. My Garmin stopped recording, had to do a restart while descending. Also someone almost crashed in front of me on the gravel section (which I avoided subsequently due to their near crash). Not going to plan! GOPro was fine, Garmin started recording again, all good.
Lunch
I caught up with a departing ER group at Lunch – I should have refilled and tried to catch and stay with them. I made the mistake of trying to get changed into my fresh kit at lunch. I say try because I got halfway through changing and decided against it, bar changing socks. But this cost me 10 minutes of fumbling around. I also packaged my broken gopro up, grabbed lunch, filled water bottles, went to toilet, this cost me 20 minutes of ride time. Big mistake. I was a bit incoherent due to the heat at this point, and really didn’t take notice that it was getting so hot and that I might have to change my nutrition plan. At this point i was sinking about 750ml an hour + 750ml at each rest stop, with perpeteum dose as recommended + 1 SIS gel an hour + electrolyte tablets. This turned out not to be enough water or electrolytes to sustain. I pulled out of lunch feeling very fresh and hydrated (took my left warmers off here), and continued on. I did have my jacket, leg warmers, arm warmers, long fingered gloves still on person (they were a bit big though!) due to fear of cold in the final climb. Next year I won’t touch my extra kit unless needed and I will breeze through here and skip the yucky lunch!
Lunch to Ovens
This was my biggest win for the day. I got on a descent paced train, held 35 km/h most of this, took turns, got it down to 60 seconds rotation on the front with a group of 4 other strong generous riders. I did my turn with no problems. However 2 people joined the back of our train, I got behind them, they slowed not being able to keep up, I lost the front bunch because I didn’t look up, and then they pulled off into the distance leaving me at sub 25 with 2 duds. Not impressed.
Ovens – dehydration sets in
When I arrived at Ovens, all of a sudden a terrible feeling set it. I felt absolutely shattered. Worse than I have ever felt before. I felt like I have absolutely no energy. I downed an extra couple of litres of water but that didn’t make much of a difference. When I pulled out it was over 40 degrees, just passed 1pm I think and all of a sudden I could only manage sub 20 km an hour on what was very flat terrain. I also started getting terrible stomach pains and cramps which were even more draining than the dehydration. I finished by two water bottles almost as quickly as I had got them and ran out of water until the next rest stop. There was a hill in this bit but that didn’t get me down. It was the lack of water in the heat that really slammed me. I left this rest stop with about 45 minutes in the bank ahead of the 13 hour cutoff – what gains. But then emptied it all out on this next stretch. The pedal to the next rest stop seemed like an eternity through happy valley.
I was on my own for most of this and quite worried that I was going to go into dehydration. As the water had run out and my stomach was having its own party that was causing pain, I really started to worry and listen closely to my body for any signs of real dehydration. There was marshals and ambulances galore going by so I knew if i was going to cark it I was going to be in a stretcher in minutes, but I didn’t really have any other options other than to go slowly to the next rest stop.
Running creek
By the time I go to Running Creek I knew it was all over. What I had experienced on that last section had eaten any of my advantage and then some. I had also wasted body resources on both my stomach and my dehydration rather than on my legs where it should have been. I left this rest stop after about 15 minutes of again drinking as much as possible, mixing more perpeteum and picking up my last food drop off. I knew I had to have about an 18 km/h average to make the 5.35 cutoff at the next stop, and a plus 20 km/h average to make the recommended 13 hour cutoff time of around 5:10 for the next stop. I was struggling to do 15km/h on the flat. This was the most depressing part because if I had a second wind here and could push out even 50% of my normal ability I would have made the cutoff at 5.35 at the next stop.
I stopped at Tawonga for a coke at about 5.25 because I knew I wasn’t going to make it. Jumped back on the bike and at 5.30 a sag wagon drove passed and said “you can keep riding it will take another 10 minutes and you will probably miss the coach and have to sit in the back of the sag wagon the whole way up. Otherwise come with us now we will get you there in time”. I then jumped on board and got a lift for the last 5 km to the Happy valley rest stop. I had my photo taken with the sign that says the rest stop is now closed and the guy said that it only closed 5 minutes ago!!! So bloody close! Ah well next year.
On the coach on the way up the mountain we passed many ER still going hard. VD was the first who was carrying his bike, over his shoulder, about half the way up, and walking on the wrong side of the road (there was traffic both ways!). We then passed Simba and BT half way up. What a great day.
The finish
Took us only about an hour by coach up the winding road, not bad keeping in mind we were dodging the last cyclists up teh mountain. As we were going up we saw many bodies on teh side of the road waiting for the sag wagon. Luckily none of these were ER!
I got to the finish and exchanged words with the others who had finished. While waiting for my bike to be unloaded from the truck, I saw Darcy and Flash finish which was great. At this point I also heard that Stealth had taken the best time in the ER, making him the undisputed grand master of the cycling group (no matter what anybody says!).
I packed my bike in the car and was about to go, but I got a message from Darcy saying that he was at first aid and that he needed some company. I joined him, brought him a coke and sat with him for an hour as he regained his energy. I then dropped him off at his accommodation and headed home to the YMCA to swap stories of the night. He pulled out alright, turned out he was in an ambulance at the bottom of the last climb for 45 minutes while he regained vitals in order to climb the mountain (against the medical opinion of…everyone) so well done Darcy.
Prologue
I think many things went wrong for me and many things went right. I really enjoyed the challenge and was mentally ready to ride so much of it on my own. Nutrition will need to be tweaked and I need to work out why I got stomach cramps. Too much water? Not enough eletrolytes? Not enough perpeteum? Too many gels? So many what ifs! The real challenge was the heat. I was really happy with my times on the climbs and on the flats, where I wasnt struggling from the heat or stomach problems. The downside was the lack of water stops, the failure in the nutrition and not being able to put the middle section (the “easiest”) in the bag. More training on flats required. I did get some really nice ER and non-ER member messages (specially training master Flash) after I finished – thank you all for your kind words, I really did enjoy my 200km ‘effort’ this year. Hopefully there will be next year!
And more importantly hope to see you all there!
Danny Boy