Conquering Corksrew

I think I'm finally making a little bit of progress. Leading up to the Mt Lofty Challenge in March, I'm focusing more on the hills. To that end, today's ride was pretty intense (for me at least) - 1150m of elevation gained over 56km.

I dropped Ruby at the Gilles Street market, parked the car in the CBD and headed up to Norton Summit. My legs felt pretty good and I managed to knock over a minute off my best time. From there I thought I might try the Lobethal Road, not having been down there before. It's a really nice road but I only made it as far as Basket Range before turning back, partly because I was running out of time and partly because there was a few too many motor bikes on the road for my liking. Bikes don't normally bother me at all but there seemed to be constant steam of boy racers around this afternoon. I'm all for sharing the road but when I'm plodding away up a hill on the edge of the road and a bike flys by doing 70 or 80km/h, 2 - 3 feet from my right shoulder I start to get a little un-nerved. I'm not normally riding in the hills at that time of day - it's less of an issue in the early mornings.

So I headed back up the long hill to Ashton then headed towards Montacute Road and my date with the Corkscrew, keen to have another bash at it. I rolled down the hill, admiring all the signwriting on the road from the TDU a week and a half ago. Just past the bridge I turned around and steeled myself for the climb.

The first stage is deceptively hard. It doesn't look as severe as the hairpin section - it starts off okay but pretty soon becomes a hard grind. I went past a couple of guys on the first part of the climb who were both clearly struggling on this section and they both ended up stopping. I have to say that overtaking someone on a climb always gives my ego a boost because it doesn't happen very often. I reckon the hardest bit is the 300m or so before the first hairpin. I struggled through it - I got down to walking pace but I was determined to keep grinding away. The hairpins, well .... they're also the hardest bit. As I approached the first one, my determination was strong but I was concerned that my legs would blow up.

The Ride for a Reason signs (ie. the "think this climb is tough ... imagine fighting cancer" ones) on the first few hairpins helped to strengthen my resolve. It was timely, especially with Sandra back in hospital last week and still having a tough time. The latest thing she's had to endure is surgery to have a pick line thing installed in her chest, so that chemo and other drugs can be administered. She's had quite a bit of trouble with the one in her arm and decided to pay to have the chest one done because it's much better in many ways. Unfortunately the surgeon snipped her lung (apparently a one in five hundred occurrence) so she's had to spend a week in hospital recovering. It's put her treatment back a bit but I think she'll be starting chemo again over the next few weeks.

She's now been on the latest cancer roller coaster for nine months or so. She had bowel cancer about three years ago and had a fair bit of her bowel removed. This time she's been treated for two spots on opposite sides of her liver and two on her lung. The prognosis did not look good in the early days as there was considerable doubt about whether the liver would be operable. Thankfully, there was a surgeon who was pretty confident that surgery could be done, so in September she had 40% of her liver removed. This was followed up with several weeks of chemo. They've recently discovered another spot on her lung so she's about to get back on the chemo treadmill.

I am so much in awe of how she has handled herself over the last nine months or so. It's been such a emotional roller coaster but she still manages to just get on with things. It's obviously been pretty tough for her but, to me, she seems remarkably positive and she steadfastly refuses to let cancer define her life. I guess you don't really know how you'd handle something like this until it actually happens to you, but Sandra has revealed remarkable strength, courage and resilience to us all, which is quite inspiring.

Back on the road, I counted down the hairpins out loud ....one down....painful....two down....really painful...three down....agony.......but at that point I knew I was home. I took the high line in the middle of the road and almost cruised around the fourth and final hairpin.

From there to the top it's still steep, but I knew it was manageable. The last third of the climb was the best feeling - I was so happy I did a bit whooping and shouting (I can't actually remember what I said), which is not normally my style. I even had enough left in my legs to get out of the saddle a couple of times. Then I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. I guess it was partly that thing of driving yourself pretty much to the edge physically which overwhelms you emotionally as well. I also think I may well be turning into one of the blokes who cries more often when they get older. Anyway, I reached the top and felt so elated I had to ring Karolle and tell her. Then I got choked up when I tried to tell her that thinking about what Sandra's been going through helped me to hang in there. Of course, I'm just riding a bike up a hill - no one's forcing me to do it. Like Belinda, Sandra doesn't have a choice with her pain. But it doesn't stop me admiring her and being inspired by her.

The Corkscrew Road climb is 2.4km at 9.4% average gradient which is definitely the steepest hill I've done. It took me just under 19 minutes - I think the pros did it in 7 or 8 minutes on Stage 2 of the TDU last month. I suspect there's been many thousands of cyclists over the years who've been up there faster but, for me, it was all about getting to the top without stopping. I'm pretty damn chuffed about it.

Bupa Challenge

Well, the Bupa Challenge has been and gone. The ride went pretty well - it was relatively cruisey with a tail wind for the majority of the ride. Mind you the day got off to a fairly ordinary start because I had terrible trouble sleeping the night before. I reckon I had no more than two hours sleep. I wasn't nervous or anything but I did go to bed quite a bit earlier than I normally do and it was a stinking hot night. I just got into that horrible insomnia cycle and couldn't seem to get myself out of it. I finally nodded off at 3.30 but the alarm was set for 5am so I'd make it to Kersbrook for the start.

Anyway, I was a bit concerned about how I'd go on the ride with such minimal sleep. I felt pretty tired at the start but I managed to get myself going and felt okay for most of the ride. I was feeling pretty buggered towards the end, especially the bit just out of Angaston which was uphill and into the wind (the picture below was taken there), but overall I'm glad it was a relatively easy route. It was only about 800m of climbing which is not that much compared to most of the rides I've been doing for the past few months. It took me a touch over four hours and I averaged 25.6km/h which, all things considered, I'm reasonably happy with.

Troy did the 46km ride from Mt Pleasant and went really well. I think he was surprised that they (he and Bevan) made it to Tanunda so quickly - a bit over an hour and a half, I think he said. I met up with them (ie. Alison, Charlotte and Troy) at the finish and took them up on their offer of a lift back to Kersbrook. I was a little disappointed about not riding back to my car, as was the original plan, but I would have had a headwind and there was nothing much left in the tank after that crappy night.

I'm not sure if I'll do the TDU ride again, unless it's a really good route. The logistics were a bit of a pain, it's expensive and the jersey was pretty ordinary (and not optional). The best community ride I've done was the the Mt Lofty Challenge - cheaper, great (and optional) jersey, more interesting and challenging route and a CBD start/finish. It comes up again in March so that's what I'll be preparing for over the next six weeks. The goal I set after the ride last year was to do the 110km circuit in around the same time that I took to do the 80km last year. I'm sticking to that - I'm not 100% confident because it's an awful lot of climbing (around 1800m) but I'll give it a bash. I better get myself up into them thar hills.

Riding, riding and more riding

I've covered a fair bit of ground since I last updated this blog a month ago. I've done just over 600km with around 6000m of climbing, which makes it the most intense period of riding that I've ever done. I've done a bunch a nice longish rides. I rode down to Encounter Bay to see Barrie and Ruth and have been up to Norton Summit and Mt Lofty a few times. I'm slowly starting to show some improvement - my average time is creeping up a bit and I've done my best times on a few climbs (Old Willunga Hill, Mt Lofty specifically)

It's Tour Down Under week and it's a great time to be on a bike. I've encountered a bunch of pro teams in my travels over the past week or so. I went up to Norton Summit last Tuesday night after work and while I stopped and filled my water bottle, the whole BMC team (led by Phillip Gilbert resplendent in his world champs rainbow jersey) came up the road then disappeared down the Old NS Road. Then last Saturday I came across 10 different teams out training around West Lakes and Semaphore. It was great fun to be riding around in amongst all that.

It was a pretty big ride on Saturday - 105km, which is the longest ride I've done. I went up to Mt Lofty, then across the ranges and descended down Montacute Road, which has been partially resurface ahead of tomorrow's TDU stage where they go up Corkscrew Road and down Montacute Road to the finish line. That's going to be a seriously hairy decsent. Unfortunately they've only resurfaced the worst bits so it's has a bit of a patchwork look. Still, the new bits are beautifully smooth and overall it's better than it was.

Anyway, from Monacute I worked my way across the city, down Grange Road and across to Semaphore. By the time a reached Semaphore and stopped for a toasty I'd clocked up 78km. I was surprised at how good I felt - I'm normally starting to feel pretty well spent by then. As I bogged into my toasty, I started to wonder if Karolle had laced my orange juice with EPO that morning! I decided it was a combination of things - paying a bit more attention to carb loading over the 24 hours before the ride, taking a higher potency magnesium powder ('Ultra Muscleze Energy') which seemed to help with my cramp issues, mild weather (27ish) and getting my bike fit sorted.

Heading up Cross Road in the first part of the ride, I kept getting the feeling that, if I raised my seat a bit more, I'd probably sit a bit lighter on my bum. When I first started riding my seat was quite low (only slightly higher than the handlebars) because of my lower back issues left over from my disc injury 12 years ago. As my back has been getting stronger, I feel like I've been able to cope with having the seat higher so I've been incrementally raising it over the past year. Anyway, I stopped just before the Tollgate and raised it by 15-20mm, which is a fairly significant increase. After doing the 40 kilometres or so through the hills it was pretty obvious that I'd got it right because my bum wasn't nearly as sore as I normally would be.

Anyway I felt remarkably good at the end of the ride. I even had enough left in my legs to boogie the night away with Karolle at Peta-Ann's 80's theme birthday party on Saturday night. Mind you, my legs have been pretty sore for the last few days.

The Bupa challenge ride is coming up on Friday. I've decided to do the Kersbrook start (92km), mainly because it fits in better logistically. I can drive to Kerbrook, do the ride, hang out in Tanunda with Troy and Allison (Troy's doing the 46km), watch the pros come through, then ride back down to Kersbrook (35km). That's the theory anyway. I can't wait. The weather forecast is good - 25 degrees with south-westerly winds, which will be a tailwind for the majority of the ride.

I'm also doing the Ride for a Reason cancer fundraising thing. It seemed timely with my sister-in-law Sandra riding the cancer rollercoaster for most of the past year and with my neice Belinda passing away 14 months ago. I'm doing the Bupa ride for my own sense of acheivement but I'm also riding to honour them both. Here's the signs they've put up on Norton Summit Road recently that put it all into perspective.

Today is also the second anniversary of giving up smoking. I'm pretty damn happy about that. My, how life has changed.

TDU training ride

With the TDU ride just 5 weeks away, I've decided that I need to start doing some longer training rides. Given that I'm not sure about which distance I'll be doing, I thought I'd do a ride today that roughly equates to the shorter Kersbrook start distance (92km). It ended up being a bit shorter at 83km but had 880m of climbing which, according to bikemap.net, is about 150m more than the Bupa Challenge.

I went up to Mt Lofty (yet again) and this time I kept going around the 'Scenic Route' to the Norton Summit turn off. I'd forgetten how nice this part of the road is - here's some pics:

From there I did the Norton Summit descent for the first time, which was great fun. Then it was across to Greenhill Road and basically 30km of spinning on the flat down to Glenelg, Henley Beach and back home. Overall, it was a cracking ride with hardly any stops. I tried to maintain a slightly higher pace than I normally do and ended up averaging 22.4km/h, which is slow of course, but pretty good for me.

Mt Osmond

I continued my quest for new and interesting climbs on Monday night after work. The most noteworthy part of my journey from the CBD up towards Mt Lofty was some dipshit in a car yelling out 'wanker' to me as I was getting towards the top of Glen Osmond Road.

I don't really take much notice of that stuff - he was just a dickhead passenger in a dickhead car showing off in front of his dickhead mates. Interestingly though, it's the second time it's happened recently. The last time was a couple of weeks ago on Main Road at Coromandel Valley. On both occasions I was minding my own business in my little 50cm patch along the edge of the road and the offending twats were nowhere near me (on the other side of the road at Coro and one lane over Glen Osmond Road).

There does seem to be a bit of a feeling around the place that there's an increasing amount of agro from drivers towards cyclists. The issue is certainly talked about quite lot on the Adelaide Cyclists forums, which is the main voice in town for the cycling community. This may or may not be the case - it might be like the apparent belief in the wider community (perpetuated by Today Tonight/Current Affair etc.) that there's more violent crime than there was 30 years ago when clearly the statistics don't bear that out. Anyway, like I said before, the yelling abuse thing doesn't particularly bother me. I just go 'yeah, yeah ....whatever' to myself and continue on my merry way. I'm far more concerned about drivers who do stupid things that can endanger my life. On that subject, I think I'll give Glen Osmond Road a miss in the future. It's not because of the heckler, but there's no bike lane and I really don't feel particularly safe, especially when trucks and buses go by.

Back to the ride... I reached the bollards at Crafers in a reasonable time (for me). I still get overtaken by so many cyclists when I'm doing a climb - it's a good thing I'm not easily deflated. If I did take it to heart I'd be in a permanent state of depression about my lack of progress. I'll keep plodding along up these hills and hopefully, I'll eventually see some improvement. I'm sure I'd progress quicker if I did some more structured training but I really just want to go out for a nice ride in the hills on a sunny day.

Spooky tree and a view of Adelaide from Mt Osmond Road

Back to the ride ...again... I decided not to go all the way to Mt Lofty this time because thought I might detour up Mt Osmond Road on the way back down. I haven't been up there since the 80's when I used to play golf there. I remember the road was pretty steep in parts so I thought I'd give it a bash. As it turns out it was probably steeper than I remembered - the first ascent that overlooks the freeway is particularly severe. Once you veer right at the top of that bit it does settle down a little and becomes more undulating. I followed it around the edge of the golf course then descended back down and eventually ended up on Portrush Road. The road going down looked nice and smooth - I might try going up that way next time.

Oh yes, I have another 'note to self' ..... when you stop at a traffic island thing for a red light at a level crossing and the 'ding, ding, ding' for the oncoming train starts, always take note of where you are in relation to the boom gates. I was at Emerson crossing on Monday night and clearly wasn't paying enough attention to what was happening and I suddenly sensed a large, heavy, very hard and unstoppably automated object descending over my left shoulder. I ducked forward and out the way just in the nick of time but it gave me the fright of my life. Needless to say, it was also slightly embarrassing - I'm quite sure drivers behind me were guffawing at my predicament.

Anyway, despite all that it was a really nice 45km twilight ride and another climb ticked off the list.

Another new hill

In the spirit of trying new climbs, I did a new ride down south this morning. From home I headed up the Veloway into a pretty stiff southerly, then turned onto along Panalatinga Road and up Cox Hill Road. The main part of  the climb is 3.2km at an average gradient of 4.8%, which makes it a reasonable little climb (for me at least).

Cox Hill Road looking bak to the coast.

From Cox Hill Road it was a lefty onto Piggott Range Road. I really enjoyed this part of the ride - it's a great road for bikes. The surface is really smooth and there's a metre wide, crack free edge to ride in. The views are nice too, with the coast off to the left and the valley across to the right.

From there I turned onto Grants Gulley Road then onto Main Road which descended down towards the Blacks Road intersection and onto Coromandel Valley. The descent was a ripper, again, with some great views down the coast.

View from the Main Road descent on the way to Coromandel Valley.

Coromandel Valley through to Blackwood was just awful. The road is rough, narrow, busy and I didn't feel particularly safe. It's a road I'll avoid in the future. Reaching Blackwood I deliberated  briefly between Shepherds Hill or Belair Road for the descent. I went for the latter and I'm glad I did. I got to the bottom in 4:25 minutes at a touch under 50km/h which, needless to say, was great fun. The ride was 50km with 800m of vertcal ascent, which still took me 2.5 hours.

With only six weeks to go until the TDU ride I need to start some more serious training and ramping up the distances. I'm keen to get some 90-100km rides under my belt over the next few weeks. I'm still intending to do the 126km TDU ride but I'm a bit concerned that it might be too much for me (and my dodgey back). The other concern is that I might be too slow and get caught by the pro tour riders who are evidently due to finish the race in Tanunda at just after 2pm. This gives me 7.5 hours, which should be enough time, allowing for plenty of breaks. However, I'm stll not 100% convinced so my backup plan is to do the 92km ride from Kersbrook. I think I'll just see how my fitness goes and what the weather forecast is and decide which distance to do a week or so out from the ride.

Just like last week, only different

Another Saturday morning, another Norton Summit and Corkscrew ride. After my terribly slow initial attempt at both climbs last week, I needed to go back and do it again. I certainly improved this week - I took four minutes off the Norton Summit climb and seven minutes off the Corkscrew Road. So, my mediocrity has been restored and I've assumed my rightful place at around 10% from the bottom of the Strava leader board for the relevant segments. I still had to stop on the Corkscrew climb, but only once this time and only for a 2 minute breather before the last few switchbacks.

Since I was in the mood for difficult climbs today, I though I'd have another bash at the the top of Morphett Road. I got up there, just, but it seriously hurt. I didn't think I'll do it again in hurry - the last 100 metres at the top must be 20% +. It's just too damn steep for me and it takes everything I've got to get up there.

The other acheivement for the week was a particularly nifty descent from Mt Lofty on Tuesday night. I had nice enough ride up there after work, but it was into a head wind most of the way, so my time wasn't fantastic. However, the descent with a tailwind was magnificent. I did the 8.5km from the bollards at Crafers to the Tollgate in 10:39, smashing my best time by about 35 seconds. Yippee!