So what happened?

I went down to do the 200 Km ride at the Alpine Classic, and only ended up completing 100 and ended up DNFing. What happened?

Well I always thought the 200 (which included over 4000 m of vertical) was a stretch target. Longer than I’ve ever ridden on a single ride (my longest to day is 140 Km), more climbing than I’ve ever attempted on a single ride (I’ve never climbed more than 1700 m in a day).

Biting off more than you can chew and chewing hard sounds cool, but it only gets you so far.

On reflection it was also probably a mistake not to change my plans when the route changed from Buffalo-Mt Beauty-Front of Falls to Buffalo-Hotham. (Based on the thoughts of others) Hotham is significantly tougher than the front of Falls Creek. Don’t get me wrong – the Front of Falls is no picnic, but it never gets beyond 7 %. Meanwhile Hotham has sections like the Meg, CRB Hill and The Diamantina, all of which go to over 12%. And yes, you do add Mt Beauty, but it too steep isn’t nor overly long. Not saying I would have finished the old route, but to me it looks an easier day out.

I think I tripped over my ego in that respect. Having originally said I was doing the 200, it seemed a bit weak to drop back to the 130, especially when there was still a 200 on offer.

I also now realize the shortcomings of my training. Did I become a stronger cyclist over the last 6 months? Absolutely. I think though my training lacked specificity. I ran around the pancake flat ‘burbs of Townsville with the odd Castle Hill thrown in. Castle Hill is tough (2.5 Km at 8%, with ramps of up to 14%), but it’s no Hotham. I needed to be doing longer rides and longer climbs. Yes, I’m limited by the NQ climate and the local topology, but perhaps I should have Zwifted much more? Or even better, started the prep properly in February rather than June, so I could have my fitness to the point where I could put those 150-200 Km rides in the legs when the seasons allowed.

And as much as I lost 13 kilos, I’m still a Clydesdale in cycling terms. Dragging 90 kilos up Mt Hotham is bloody hard work. I need to get that down to at least 80.

I don’t want though to rake this over to damn hard though. I rode strong on Saturday - 106 Km & did 1900 m of vert - it was almost certainly my biggest single ever day on the bike. 

 Unfinished business for 2024 perhaps.

Rather Cool Vid (in which I feature precisely nowhere)

 

Early scenic shots from Buffalo, later shots from Hotham. Well worth watching

The Big Kahuna: Alpine Classic Weekend 2023

So I got to Bright on the Thursday and settled in. Cool town Bright is. Lots of cafes, microbreweries, restaurants, all of which is in a lovely bush setting.

Dave, Anita and Sara rolled in to town Thursday night. Reassembled the bikes that night (thankfully Jetstar hadn't done any significant damage to my machine). And we decided on doing a quick rail trail ride in the morning just to stretch the legs and shakedown the bikes before Saturday.

We punched out a easy 50 Km on the Friday morning. And I was feeling confident - the temperature was lovely and it was the easiest 50 I'd done for a few months. A pancake flat 50, but still 50. I was feeling bullish about Saturday.

We then thrashed out a simple plan for tactics, stops, ride nutrition, etc. It was coming together nicely.

That confidence though collapsed spectacularly around 5pm Friday. I was texting we few mates about the ride, how to track me via the app, my ride number, etc, and Foz came back to me and asked what I thought would be my likely times for the various timing checkpoints on the course. Reasonable question that I hadn't thought about. So I ran the numbers and quickly came to the realization that I was going to be riding for 13 hours plus. And that's if things went well. Fucking hell. 

Now you could say "Well how long did you think it would take Greg?", but I'd been looking at the ride through the lens of kilometers not time on the bike. 200 Km didn't seem like a ridiculous step up. 13 hours certainly fucking did.  

My anxiety levels went through the roof and stayed there. I don't think I got a wink of sleep that night. Literally. We were starting the ride at 4 am, and it was a relief when the alarm went off at 3. I didn't need to lie there worrying & trying to sleep any more.

"Ready" to roll out at the start:

So the starts of these large rides are often a little hairy, but the only starters at 4am were experienced people doing the 200 or 250. It was pretty smooth.

Hit the slopes of Mt Buffalo around 15 Km down the road. It's a very steady climb - sits at 5-6% gradient for pretty much the whole 20 kilometers (and you rack up 1000 m of vertical over the climb). Settled into my work, Dave chaperoning me the whole way (Anita & Sara had settled into their own rhythm). It was hard work. 5-6% doesn't sound too bad, but the 20 kilometers of it without respite made it tough. I'd kind of expected to go up Buffalo in a canter. 

The sun came up about 2/3 the way up the climb, and I got to appreciate just how beautiful the country was. Loads of great views, imposing trees and highland meadows. 

I ground my way to the top (Dingo Dell), stopping for a quick snack break and taking a quick pic with the posse (Anita & Sara were only a minute or 2 in front of us)

Smiles aside, I was feeling pretty damn sore already.  I'd done 35 of the 200 and maybe 1/3 of the climbing. Surely I was no chance of finishing.

At least the ride back into Bright was largely descent. Now just as I'd never done a 20 Km climb, I'd never done a 20 Km descent, but I took it cautious and got to the bottom. I was passed by plenty of people on the descent, but it was all about staying upright. And it made for a cool pic:

Rolled back into Bright. A quick food stop, another iced coffee, a quick chamois cream top up, and we were off again. I was feeling a bit fresher. Maybe I could get up Hotham?

From Bright there's about 20 Km of ground to cover before you get to the base of Hotham. We jumped off the roads for that stretch and stuck to a newly laid rail trail. That was a super enjoyable 20 Km. Great surface, no cars, lots to look at and see. Great riding. But Mount Hotham loomed large.

Hotham. Brutal. Hits you with a hard slap to the face as soon as you set out (8%-ish), then doesn't really let up. My goal was to get to The Meg - a short steep (10-12%) chunk of the climb that's about 5 Km into the ascent where you cross from the West to the East side of the mountain - and I'd see what happened from there. It was starting to get pretty damn hot though, and the rail trail feelings seemed years ago. I needed to stop 3 times in 5 minutes. That signaled the end. I was spent. About 500 m shy of The Meg as it turned out. By that point I'd racked up 102 Km and 1900 m of vertical (over 5 hrs and 40 minutes).

I was going to roll down the descent back to the coffee shop and rest up before retracing my steps on the rail trail, but Dave was worried about leaving me to descend on my own (he was going to push on to try catch the girls) - I clearly wasn't travelling so well. One of the motorbike support guys stopped to check in on us, and he agreed to shadow me down to make sure I got there fine. One last pic and we went our separate ways.

Uneventful descent to Harrietville (which sits at the base of Hotham), but when we got to the coffee shop the fellow on the motorbike got me to go to the ambulance rather than grab a skinny flat white. Another sign that I clearly wasn't travelling so well. The ambos gave me a thorough once over (HR, blood pressure, blood sugar) and then sent me on my way, though they did say no more riding for today (I was a little tachycardic, but as I said, I did just try to ride up Mt Hotham).

So my Alpine Classic 2023 finished in an Ambulance. Not the finish I'd been hoping for, but I was really pleased on the day that I rode over a century and had a crack at Hotham. I could (perhaps should?) have dropped back to a shorter distance/easier ride even during the ride itself. Mt Buffalo is also the biggest climb I've ever done (by quite some margin)

I can also now better see the shortcomings in my training and skills that I'll need to address (if there will be any future attempts). Until you try a ride like this, you don't know what you don't know. I'll probably write a post along those lines in the next few days.

And yes, it was a Did Not Finish, but in spite of that it was an awesome few days with great friends in an awesome part of the world. And I feel like I laid it all out there. 

So my prep is in the bag

 A quick 30 minutes on Zwift this morning. So my prep for the Alpine Classic is done.

5000 Km in the last 8 months. Solid.

I also like how I've build into more climbing. A nice progression over the last 5 months. Check out the screen grab off vertical gain month by month off Strava

I guess the thing being Saturday's ride involves as many meters of vertical as the whole of January. And the longest ride I've ever done, by 60 Km. 

Annoyingly Townsville is too damn hot, too damn humid and too damn flat to replicate a ride like the Alpine Classic. A 200 Km ride with 4000 m of vertical is a ticket to the hospital over summer up here. Training Peaks published a good article on the challenges of a humid environment when it comes to training. At least it won't be humid in Bright even if the weather is hot.

And if you're interested enough to track me on the day

If anyone feels excited enough, you can download the SportSplits Tracker app:

https://www.sportsplits.com/tracker

I've not used the app, but it looks pretty cool. 

I'm also on Insta, and depending on coverage, my state of exhaustion, etc I might also stick up some mid ride ride pics. 

https://www.instagram.com/the_wellerman_comes/

Weather starting to turn a bit scruffy

 5 days out now, so you can be a bit more confident in the weather forecasts.

And the news on that front isn't great. I was hoping for mid to high 20s, but it's looking more like low to mid 30s.

Here's the forecast for Bright, which is where the ride hubs out of.

Now the one piece of good news is, I'll spend a lot of the day at elevation, which is forecast to be cooler:

Mt Hotham forecast

I'm a little bit disconcerted about the wind forecast for Mt Hotham, but it is what it is. 

No I'm not turning into a Weight Weenie

When I was busted stealing my daughter's (significantly lighter) headlight for the Alpine Classic, she accused me of becoming a weight weenie.

Weight Weenies are a bunch of cyclists obsessed with saving every gram on their bike. And I mean obsessed. Weight Weenies do crazy stuff. Replace brakes, saddles, stems, bottle cages & handlebars, often at vast cost trying to shave a few grams off their bike. Great example - my mechanic told me the other day about a bloke he knew who spent $1200 (not to mention a heap of hassle) to get the paint stripped from his frame - weight saving about 100 grams.

Occasionally weight weenies have even been known to their bike with a drill trying to make it lighter. Behold the drillium groupset:

Thankfully drillium was consigned to the weight weenie dustbin when it was proven any weight gains were swallowed entirely by aerodynamic losses. (not to mention obliterating any warranty or resale value for your componentry)

Actually the whole aerodynamic thing has sucked a lot of air out of the weight weenie movement. It's long been proven that bike weight isn't the be all and end all of bike performance. That said, weight weenies are still very much a thing. 

So back to my daughter's (wild) accusation. It must be said if I'm a weight weenie, I'm possibly the world's worst weight weenie. I'm 90 kilos and am riding a mid range big standard aluminum bike. Most weight weenies scorn anything other than blue chip carbon customized to hell, and have to run around in the shower to get wet. 

(Granted though, my swapping of headlights has an element of weight weenie to it).

So how much will the famous lighter headlamp save me up Mt Hotham? Using bike calculator if I go up Hotham at 150 W, it's take me 171 minutes, 58 seconds. 100 grams less, and that drops to 171 minutes, 43 seconds. 

15 seconds. That's precisely 2/3 of 3/8 of fuck all. Even I was rather underwhelmed with that. Weight weenie my arse.

Up the Alpe

So rode the Alpe Du Zwift today. It's a Zwift clone on Alpe D'huez the most iconic climb of the tour de France. The tour doesn't go up it every year (rather, most years) and every time the climb is rammed top to bottom with cycling fans.

The Alpe:

The Alpe during the tour:

The Alpe is 21 hairpin turns cut into the side of a mountain, connected by a number of short straights. It's a bloody tough climb (13.1 Km, average gradient of 8.1%, 1071 m of ascent) - by no means the toughest climb in France (there are indeed longer and steeper climbs), but still damn hard. And it has done a fantastic job of capturing the imagination, and damn near every rider has an ascent of Alpe D'Huez on their bucket list.

So it was rather cool when Zwift embedded their own version of the Alpe into their platform. And these's been many an article written to see how Alpe Du Zwift compares to the real thing. And long story short, the answer is really bloody well: the subtle changes to the gradient, the feel in and out of the hairpins, and most critically, the ascent times.

Today was my fist full Alpe on the whole preparation (I've done plenty of 30 & 60 minute efforts on it, but this was my first crack at the whole thing in toto. And it bloody hurt.

I punched out a muscular 2 hours, 5 minutes and 56 seconds (here's the Strava link). Now given the fastest legit (i.e. free of doping) up the Alpe is 39 minutes, 22 seconds by Nairo Quintana (a Columbian pro cyclist), i don't think I'll be getting smashed with calls from pro teams anytime soon.

It was though a completed Alpe Du Zwift. And I had to suffer like a dog to get up it.

I've zero idea exactly what that means for Hotham or Buffalo on Saturday. That said, it's nice to have the Alpe under my belt. 

So what happened to that Win the Tour of the North thing?

So when I started the blog, it was initially with the aim of winning D-grade in the Tour of the North. That's a local stage race run by the local cycling club. Over the subsequent months it evolved into a let's do the Alpine Classic 200 Km ride. What happened?

Well the 2022 Tour of the North was run and won without me. The bottom line is I simply hadn't done enough training for it (well I could have ridden it, I'd have just gotten my ass handed to me). My eyes turned to the Alpine Classic in March - I like the idea of long enduro rides more than racing, and I think the writing for the Tour of the North was probably on the wall already back in March

I also managed to fall sick the Tour of the North weekend - now that's not really any excuse, though I'd have been filthy had I trained my ass off only to get sick.

Who knows what the future holds. Maybe the 2023 Tour of the North could become a new target? Let's see after the Alpine Classic

A mere 10 days to the Alpine Classic

Starting to feel very real now.

Been a solid couple of weeks on the bike. So far this year I've run up 470 Km, and a bit over 3000 m of vertical. The monsoon arrived in Townsville last week (which means a metric assload of rain), so I've been Zwifting for much of the last week. It does look like it's starting to dry out a bit locally though, but that also makes for crazy humidity with the ground so wet. I dare say a lot of the riding I do between now and travelling will be on Zwift.

I do though need to taper soon. In the last 7 days before the ride, it becomes too late to improve. After a hard ride, your body needs time to rebuild, replenish & strengthen, and that process takes over 7 days. Really all you can do is make sure you are refreshed.  I'll still ride a couple of times in the last week, but more just gentle 20 and 30km spins to keep in the rhythm of riding rather than hard climbs or long rides. Saturday will be my last hard ride (I might go up Alpe De Zwift actually).

I've started keeping an eye on weather forecasts for the day. 10 days out, it's still to far away to get a good read on what Huey will give us on the day, but it doesn't look like a heatwave or a blizzard. Good.

I'm also making some final tweaks to my bike. I'll stick on a new set up GP5000 tyres this weekend, which are universally regarded as an excellent tyre - fast & light. I like to run a bit more puncture resistance for day to day training on Townsville roads (so use either Maxxis Refuse or Schwalbe Duranos), but I think for an event like this a faster, lighter tyre will help. I'm also ditching my heavy duty light setup for a more lithe option. I doubt either make a significant difference to the bike weight or my speed, but if I drop a couple of hundred grams or find 0.5 Kph, but over 200 Km & up 4000m, it might save me 10-15 minutes on the day. I'm not worried about my time per se, but after 9-10 hours on the bike, finishing 15 minute earlier will no doubt sound great.

I was toying with the idea of removing my Wolftooth Derailleur Extender, and dropping back to an 11-32 cassette, but now the steeper Mt Hotham is part of the ride, I think keeping the 11-36 cassette is a better bet. And the shifting is good with the Wolftooth. So I'll wear the extra 17 grams.......

New PB up Castle Hill

On this morning's session, I did a a Castle Hill mid ride. And I cranked out a 16.25 - 15 seconds off my PB.

Here's the Strava link to today: https://www.strava.com/activities/8349756428 (carpark to top is the segment)

I was also rather happy that I had a few ks in the legs before I hit the hill. Most of the time when I do hills I go straight there (and it's around 10 Km from home). 

(And if you go into Analysis tab on the ride, check out the temperature graph on the bottom)

Few Stats off Strava & Plan for the run in

Just had a dig around Strava

Racked up 4350 odd Km in the last 7 mths of 2023 (and June was when I got my finger out after some tough love from Lang). That's around 620/mth or 150/week.

Here's the distances split into months:

And here it is cut up by elevation gain:

So the distances have been fairly consistent, but I've certainly ramped up the climbing of late. 

I'm hoping for a big 20 days from here. Lots of distance, lots of vertical. But by the time we hit the last week, the window for improvement has basically closed - all you can really do after that is basically refresh. That works in OK with the travel though. So my last hard ride might be Sun 22 Jan, I'm flying to Melbourne on Wed 25, and driving to Bright the next day. Alpine Classic is Sat 28. That'll give me a chance to roll the legs out & shakedown the bike on the day before.