How can we sleep when our thighs are burning?
A tale from today: the Thighburner
All smiles on the Moggill Ferry, only 20km to go!
Stats that matter:
The group: Andrew, Les, Rob W, Mark, Ernie, Sally, Susie, Bruce L, Steven
Flats = 1
Crashes = 2
Thighs cramping = not really sure, but I heard a few groans around me on the last couple of hills
Pies consumed at Fernvale Bakery = once again, don’t really have a tally, but I’m pretty sure that after we left the bakery staff just closed up for the day and went home with smiles on their faces.
Stops for Rob W to take a leak = 18290347
Stops for the girls to use the facilities = none other than scheduled stops
After a brief chat at the start we cruised out to The Gap, and set off up Nebo towards threatening skies. After 50 minutes of climbing, the first bunch pulled into Mt Nebo State School for a regroup. With only a 10 minute wait all riders had arrived at Nebo, and with full bottles we set off for a coffee at Glorious.
The climb barely seemed to matter on a nice cool morning, and there was plenty of chat whenever possible. Once again, the group arrrived at the bikers’ cafe at Mt Glorious over about a 10 minute span, and coffee and muffins and Earl Grey tea was ordered and disposed of. The water started to trickle from the sky as we set off along the ridge, for the 9km before the descent.
I arrived at the top of the descent first, having given an extensive safety briefing to my companions at the break. I descended carefully, obeying all advisory speed signs, and got down to the sign that says “End of Steep Descent”. Good work, I thought, and pulled off the road to wait for the others.
After about five minutes of waiting, I began to think something might be amiss. Another couple of minutes later and I was imagining crumpled bodies bent around armco barriers and a tangled mess of carbon fibre tubing. So I started riding back up the hill.
I got about a quarter of the way back up Northbrook Parkway climb when I saw Bruce coming down.
“Who came off?” I asked.
“One of the girls,” was the answer.
So while Bruce waited at a corner I went a bit further back to see what was going on.
I eventually discovered that I had missed all the drama by the tactic of leading from the front. Early in the downhill, Steven had lost it in a corner, and demonstrated how to slide across wet bitumen while losing only minimal amounts of skin on his lower leg.
Then further down the hill, Sally had come to the decision that her brakes were no longer going to stop her, so she did a controlled crash into the dirt banking beside the road. Once she was upright again, Sal found she had lost her taste for descending for a while, so she walked down the hill for a bit.
Eventually all of us were back up and riding, and we made it to the bottom of the hill.
The group began to ride as a very cohesive bunch, and we rolled along nicely until Splityard Creek hill, where we spread ourselves out all over the climb.
Then it was off to Fernvale for a pie, amid occasional showers of rain.
Leaving Fernvale fully fortified, we turned onto Pine Mountain Road, which has a series of rolling hills, guaranteed to seek out the weakness in any legs that were starting to feel the pinch. Bruce managed to get a rest break by causing himself a puncture. So while we all relaxed he changed his tube, and Les demonstrated his prowess with the CO2 inflator.
As we got to Ipswich, the rain began teeming down. It absolutely bucketed. We navigated through the metropolis, and on the hills departing the CBD Bruce announced to the group that he was going to bail out and take the train back to Brisbane.
OK we said, and we stopped at a servo for drinks and so ROB could go to the loo again. Bruce rolled off, ostensibly in search of a train station.
We got going again after drinks, and made our way by superb navigating to Moggill Ferry.
While we crossed the river, the ferryman told us: “One of you blokes was here just before, he says you are all a bunch of wimps and he will see you back in the city.”
So apparently Bruce had started feeling better once he could go at his own pace, and was ahead of us.
So off we set in pursuit of the breakaway. We caught Bruce on the little climb coming into Kenmore’s shopping area. Which is also where we dropped off Rob. I think he went home to have a leak.
And then we just cruised back to South Brisbane via the Western Freeway bikeway and Coro Drive, with more occasional light showers to keep us cool.
It was a grand day out. About 155km by most calculations, and we arrrived back at South Brisbane around 2.30pm.
Great training for G2I. And some good stories to tell as well.