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.
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