Santos Brisbane to Gold Coast 100km 7/10/12

[Dougie]

So, I rode like a LION!

For the last couple of years I have attended a conference at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast that coincides with the annual BrisVegas to Gold Coast ride. This year will be the first time the "Red Bike" travelled with me to Queensland and the sand covered roads of Surfers Paradise. I caught up will a mate for a bit of training in the week leading up to the ride. He frightened the bejesus out of me with a trip along Tabilban St in Burleigh Heads. I have never seen a road sign that states a 25% gradient before. Who ever said there are no hills at the beach! Needless to say I took the soft option and used the bus and truck route to the top. I don't think I have ever seen in real life a steeper piece of road.

The Sunday morning of the ride also heralded the change to daylight saving. Ah ha, but i am in Queensland i hear you say, so no daylight saving. Well you didn't say it loud enough because my phone clearly thought i was somewhere else. Work with me here and see if you can follow this. I can forward the PowerPoint presentation if you think it would help. Saturday night I set the alarm for 2.30am on Sunday morning. I am on the Gold Coast and daylight saving as not kicked in. At 3am on my phone it wakes me up. The bedside clock and all the other clocks say 2am. I sit up and spend 10 minutes staring at the phone and the various clocks trying to process a) what the time IS, b) what the time REALLY is and, c) where am I. Finally, i decided that i have been woken up before i need to leave not after and that i have been woken up 30mins before i needed to wake up rather than 30 minutes after i needed to wake up. With that firmly decided I got up.

i booked a taxi for 3am to take me to Varsity Lakes train station for a special 3.49am train to Brisbane. Judging by everyone else's look, their smart phones were equally confused. The uneventful train ride took us to South Bank in Brisbane, arriving at 5am. After conducting the usual pre ride ablutions we formed up for a 5.15am start. The weather was clear and cool and forecasted for a 32 degree hight later in the day. I hoped to break last year's time and i also needed to be back for the keynote address at 9am. So i had a bit of an incentive!

As you know, with any mass participation ride it's always a zoo to start. The organisers try hard to group people into categories. Clearly some people felt that 30kph is slightly above walking speed, but hey, it's not a race! Last year I averaged 31.2kph for the hundred K (yes, that's right. It's down hill with a tailwind ok), I was determinded to beat that this year and i had my eye on three hours. The first 12k is on the Busway. So whilst it was busy, it was vehicle free and very smooth. it is a gradual climb but only about 70 metres in total i think across that 12k, still it sorted a few weekend warriors out.

Near that 12k mark i jumped on the back of a bunch of about 20 riders in the same kit. They seemed to be holding a good pace and appeared well disciplined. As the K's ticked by a few dropped away. I held on, riding like the afore mentioned Lion. To put the ride in some sort of perspective it is an easier ride than Waterfall. Whilst i kept an average of 33.4kph for the three hours non stop (other than two sets of traffic lights) it probably equated to a fastish C28's ride. Having said that and with as much modesty as i can muster there were a number of occassions where i was alone and holding speeds in the higher 30's only to look behind me and find ten or more riders tucked in out of the wind - bastards! So just maybe some of that training has been paying off.

The course is very very flat, with very few technical parts. The roads were incredibly quiet and what traffic there was, was very well marshalled by the police. it certainly allowed for a very quick run.

I didnt wish to stop so i bypassed the two drinks stations. The last 10km were pretty dry as i was drinking very sparingly from my last bottle. With 3km to go it hit 33 degrees and it had been 30 degrees for the previous 30 minutes so i was completely out of water by the time i crossed the line. i drank a litre of water before i even got off the bike such was the temperature.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/231648880

All in all a bit of fun and good training for the ride to conquer cancer this weekend. So when i say i rode like a "lion", i wore my form fitting "race cut" DHBC jersery so it was more like a "Sea Lion".

Cheers

Dougie

[Eleri]

Dougie - you are a legend!

[Stuart]

great report as usual Dougie ...

[JoTheBuilder]

Nice work Dougie... How did the lungs hold up? All ready for the RCC this weekend?