Loving the 3P wrap up. My story is an interesting read. With only a precious few hours training beforehand, finishing the three climbs was always going to be tough. After the gun went, I was quickly well into last place when my new little bag with all the gels fell off my bike and I had to go back up to the start to find it and put it back on. Lesson 1: dont use new gear on the day. Descending solo was good however, and at that time of the morning it felt like I had the road to myself. Unfortunately, this was all to true when I missed the turn off to Tawonga Gap and headed straight through the valley. Still not sure why the marshall didn’t return my friendly wave with a shriek of “why the bloody hell are you going the wrong way?”…anyway, 12 kms on and not seeing anyone but another wayward traveller and no gu’s on the road made me turn around and head back. Lesson 2: know the route and don’t rely on others to follow.
With an hour lost, it was always going to be tight. I spent the next few hours trying to catch the guy in red. He had stopped at a cafe on the other side of the first climb when I passed him. The rest of the day went fairly well. Unfortunately because of my place well back in the pack, I barely linked onto a train and had to do most of the flat stretches solo.
In the end, the SAG wagon picked me up, at about 735pm, approx 5 kms from the finish line.I was the last person to be picked up as far as I know. They guy in front of me walked the last few kms solo. I was completely beaten and am still gingerly hoping around today.
2014 it is.
Chris Parks