7 Cols – 7 Riders | 6.5 hrs of riding

This weekend I rode for the second time ever a “cols ride”. Its an epic day and this time was no exception. With a total of 6:31:00 actual moving time – and 2,700m+ of climbing the objective was easily completed.
There was 7 of us in total at departure but we only returned home with 5. One of the Geoff’s had seen enough by Kurrajong and decided to return home. On the final descent at Bellbird we also lost Churchy. He was very luck to not end up on the ground. We were descending at about 80km/hr when a car in front didn’t really time his braking that well and ended up causing Michael to over heat his front wheel from braking and de-laminating it.

Honestly I was as nervous about this ride as I have been for a big race. My last Cols ride hurt me so much and I knew this was going to be even more demanding. Every time any of us spoke about it more hills were being added. LOL!

I really expected to be in a massive world of hurt when arriving home as well as being [like last time] the slowest of the bunch. I met up with Micheal, Terrance and Dave at Micheal’s house then we rode to Emu plains to the meeting point. With three other riders, 2 x Geoffs and Craig [spoonboy] we set off to climb all morning.

I had thrown the GP4000 on the front and the Re-Fuse on the back of the RS80′s. There was no way i was going to climb on the aksiums when I have such a lightweight set of wheels sitting at home. We headed to Old Bathurst and I was blow away by how well I climbed up. I felt super strong, smashed the climb and was astounded as I didn’t really even hit the red zone. Then up to Sun Valley, Mitchels, followed by Lappo – across to the NP and over the causeway and across the plains to Bowen.

By this stage I was still feeling A-OK and took lead out a few times. We then took on Bowen and moved on to Bellbird/Kurrajong only to return to the plains for the final ascent up Alpé de heights. It was such an amazing day to ride. The weather was perfect and by the time we had started across the plains the first time legs and arms were off. Just magic.

The ride for me was way beyond what I expected. I have grown so strong in the last 4 months its a bit over-whelming. I made every hill with a fair amount of ease and that was without even hitting red zones on the climbs. When I arrived home I wasn’t very sore at all. I felt as though I could keep on going. Even today, the day after, I was with out much pain at all. I’m so stoked about my riding level and now that I am about to complete a week of R & R – the first phase of build is going to be really exciting.

The 7 guys who rode were such good company as well. Everyone was easy to get along with and we all rode really well together. Ludenia is a freak as I watch in awe when he passed me on the climbs or just shoots off the front. His climbing and fitness level is outstanding. Next weeks road race will be interesting. I’m hoping I feel as strong as I did this last ride.

Having just finished the little freelance job it’s going to be interesting to get a trainer and put a few week nights to good use at home doing intervals etc. as well as some nice UST tires for the new MTB rims that I still haven’t even set up on carbo.