Kinglake Ride 2012

Last year it was cold, very windy, raining and hail. This year they moved the date from Winter to Spring and it was only raining and a little bit cold.

Last year I entered the shorter 70km ride and registered myself in the fastest group (red wrist band), unfortunately I was the only rider to do this and completed the entire event by myself. This year I entered the longer 115km event and registered myself in the second fastest group (green wrist band). Numbers seemed to be down this year after several years of bad weather and there were only 2 riders with red bands and about 20 with green bands. When I first rode this event with my friend Peter several years ago, there seemed to be countless top riders and it was an effort to stay in the peleton. Today the front group comprised of weekend warriors with a little bike ability, with possibly 2 riders of any actual talent. I've posted photos taken from the event website. Neither Elaine nor I feature in any of the photos. They obviously selected groups that were not wearing vests over the event jersey, so even the above start photo is from the 70km ride (an hour after mine), as every rider in the front group of the long ride was wearing a vest.

The lead pack of about 20 took off and immediately set a cracking pace. Every time I looked down at my computer we were doing around 45kph. This was a fair bit faster than I expected, but it was pretty easy holding on at the back, I suspect we were also being assisted by a tailwind. As different riders took their turns at the front, the pace slowed a little and we tended to settle between high 30's and low 40's. The early part of the ride contains a lot of small rolling hills, none of the climbs were significant but some of the descents were quite fast. In the first 20km, it was actually the descents that whittled the pack down leaving only 7 riders from the original number of around 20.

With the smaller pack and the major hill getting closer, the speed dropped off considerably. Ironically it tended to be the descents where I had to put in the effort to stay with the group. The main hill is referred to as the Will Walker (or Kinglake) climb. Before this hill is a steeper but much shorter climb. I was surprised to notice most of the riders appeared to struggle a little up this hill, which made me think I might fare well up the main hill.

Once we started the main hill, a younger rider shot to the front. Expecting him to make a charge I quickly moved into position behind him, but disappointingly he just set a tempo pace. I found this pace a little slow, so after 100m or so I took over the lead and set a pace more to my liking, hoping that I would dislodge most of the other riders. Sitting around 310 watts, 98 rpm, 160 bpm and 22 kph, I felt pretty comfortable. Unfortunately I could still sense riders behind me, but I was confident I could hold this effort level for the entire climb (could they ?).

2km into the climb and my effort faltered just slightly. I probably dropped 1kph, but this was enough of a sign for the rider behind me to take over the lead. He didn't ride much faster than me, but I didn't think I had it in me to follow him at that pace, especially with 5km of climbing still to go. Seeing my hesitation, the next rider jumped onto the lead rider quickly leaving a gap to me in 3rd. A quick look over my shoulder saw one other rider about 40m back and clear road behind him. Knowing that I had decimated the pack made me feel better. Having lost the chance of being first up the climb, I figured 3rd place would still be a great achievement.

Another kilometre into the ride and my calf muscle was starting to cramp. Slowing down slightly eased the pain, but it returned any time I started to redeliver the power. This slight drop in pace allowed the trailing rider to slowly bridge the gap. He caught me and we rode together for a while until the gradient started to rise. I knew this steeper section was coming and had deliberately not been riding in my lowest gear - it is depressing when the road gets steeper and you are already in your lowest gear. The other rider seemed to struggle a little on this steeper section and dropped back behind me.

Disaster, a puncture in my rear tyre. I don't know how long it had been going down, but climbing was becoming more difficult and a quick check of my tyres showed the rear had definitely lost pressure - bummer. It was too cold to remove my gloves, so the change of tubes was probably a little slower than it should have been. I examined the tyre and found the culprit - it looked like a small piece of slate (it fell off my finger before I got a good look). Getting rid of the reason for a puncture is important, otherwise the same thorn or piece of glass will simply puncture the next tube as well. The next rider was at least a minute behind me, but it took me 10 minutes to change tubes, so there were 30 or 40 riders ahead of me by the time I got started again. The extra 10 minutes are also included in the Strava segment, so despite having a quicker riding time (21m02s) than last year (42s quicker), I didn't improve my Strava standings.

Having only packed one spare tube I decided it would be unwise to continue on the longer ride without a spare. So at the top of the hill I took the turn for the shorter 70km ride. It was raining and I haven't been doing any long training rides recently, so chances are I would have taken the shorter option anyway (although 3rd place may have encouraged me to continue), but using the lack of spare tubes excuse sounds much better.

The official 70km ride starts 1 hour after the longer 115km ride. I arrived back at the finish way too early. There was no commentator, no photographer and they were still filling the show bags. So I just quietly snuck through and racked my bike. Luckily one of the officials noticed me and gave me a show bag. I spoke to the organiser Dave Hanson after the ride and he said I should have simply called the support vehicle for a spare tube - but that would not have overcome the lack of training, the cold and rain and the fact that I was over 10 minutes behind the leaders.

On the event website they have the first two riders from the 115km ride - the same two that rode away from me on the climb, as well as a photo of the first two 70km riders (who I'm confident would have been slower than me even with my 10 min pitstop). Last year I was officially the first rider home in the 70km ride, but no photo. I shouldn't be complaining, because I don't like my photo being shown (despite occasionally posting them on this blog). It's funny how you feel disappointed at missing out, despite not wanting want you are missing.

Elaine had an excellent ride. She chose the 70km ride option, but on my advice snuck into the last wave of the 115km ride (which left 1 hour before her official wave) so that she wouldn't finish too late. Even amongst the riders doing the longer option (who are typically stronger riders) she still managed to pass a few up the big hill. Elaine certainly didn't find the ride easy (it is not suppose to be), but hopefully she'll have enough energy left to race the Duathlon tomorrow. I'm not silly enough to attempt this sort of lunacy, but then again I'm not looking to win the series (which involves good prizes).