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.