Oct 29th Port Augusta - Quorn - Melrose - Pt Germein - Pt Pirie and home to my babies!
Total Time 6hrs 20mins & 6.57 secs (approx) including rolling to the outskirts of Pirie and back.
Total distance 182 km
Average speed 30 kmh (excludes the tv modelling and school visits)
Max speed 58.6 km
Total gain 953 metres total descent 957 metres
Calories cooked 3248 (good day in the saddle)
Wind North Easterly (great for most of the day)
An early morning rise to beat the sun up and down the local expertly operated McDonald's for the most scrumptious breakfast to date! Raisin toast, mighty muffins for those of us that are mighty, and 2 dozen B&E muffins for Stifler, thanks to the great staff for having us fed and on our way earlier than anticipated. Great job guys & girls.With the bellies & vehicles full, we were paraded out onto National Highway 1 by the Schnell twins and a full peleton made their way to the base of our trek into the Flinders.
With a well devised plan of splitting the peleton into two speed groups (Number of Women in G1 4, Number of Women in G2 none excluding Sneaky!).
To Sneaky's amazement he had been allocated the wrong group and after much protest, the judges decision was final, and he under durees took his place on Davo's wheel.
As the distant shimmering reflection from the 44 spinning teeth of Jaws cassete, gradually dissapeared from view, we began the climbing through some of the most picturesuqe scenery the peleton and grupetto had seen. The couple of drinks Sneaky had had the night before and transformed the man into hill climbing billy goat as he hung tirelessly to Dave's wheel through the 15 k's of undulations. Twinkle Toes and Stinky were right in there two as they made light work of the rolling hills, and with Stifler and Bladder in the rear guiding the grupetto back into contention and keeping Bronte on the pace, we enjoyed the introduction into the ranges. Not quite knowing where the peleton was they had briefly slippped out of site, we knew we were still a chance of hanging in as a distraction too big not to adversly affect the leading bunch was seen............3 sheep had made their way on the wrong side of the fence and onto the road, and appeared to be far more frightened of men in bikes than any vehicles. One can only imagine what had happened only moments before as Jaws was presented with this gift or conundrum?
The Honeybadger moment was only to be seen by G2, as one may have been mistaken when explaining to Sneaky to push hard as this was the last climb before he could soft pedal 10 k's down into Quorn. The sheer delight in those dinner plate eyes, to know he had made it through sitting on Daves wheel all the way and could now relax, was shortlived as he had been told this on the penultimate hill, and as we cornered the next bend and Sneaky peered around Dave's backside just willing the road to be going down and it not.................... a shattered man was now in G2!
On this penultimate climb, I was given the go ahead to push on for KOM glory, as I stepped out in the 53-12, and exploded to the top of the hill with the knowledge that the win was in sight, I looked over as a very desperate man pushed past with ease towards the lavatory that he had just seen the sign for and KOM honours were handed to the much loved pusher/bladder Chris Halley!
One more push and G2 was up and over and the boys rolled into Quorn around 30 seconds behind G1 (give or take 10mins)!
Morning Tea, again laid on and ready to go in the little town of Quorn. Hats off to all the support crew again, who have worked tirelessly day in & out and continue to do so with a smile.
Just 150kms to go and a tight schedule to visit some very excited children at Mid North Christian College meant that with a slight breeze on our tail the tempo was punched out to Wilmington & onto Melrose, where some quiet fell across the group, as we were all enjoying the memory of the climb & descent through the morning pass. What a great ride Button whispered to me as I turned to see his ear to ear grin beaming, for the ride we had just come had. As the wind picked up a notch, so did the pace and Fi 1 & Fi 2 while both still in the front rolling six, were now seperated by a Kiwi, who was not letting go of a fine tempo that saw us hold 38 - 42kph as we hammered it to Murray Town.
To be continued............................I somehow have just deleted an hours typing and will have to catch up tommorrow. Sorry but media committments from Mr Lucas took precedence over blog. I will update on completion of the tour, sorry for the inconvienience.
Oh Button...........The Pain the Pain!!!!
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