Tour de Tasmania - Day 5 - 400km around the Northeast

Route for the 400k

5AM, still dark, we mount our bikes and are off! As usual, I go out too fast, staying with or near the front group en route from Deloraine to Westbury, then I am alone. A couple riders pass, but I am still basically alone through Longford, 44 km in and headed to the first control at Epping Forest, 87 km, enjoying what is mostly a tailwind on a relatively flat course, for once! Soon after Longford I pass the entrance of the Brickendon Estate, a "world heritage" listed colonial farm village. I cross the Macquarie River, then go by an entrance to the National Rose Garden/Woolmer Estate. This apparently is the neighborhood for Tasmanian gentry. Big houses with servants and horses for racing, not just ploughing a field or hauling gear.

After Longford, sunrise is close

Just a glorious time of day to be riding ... if you can get out of bed

Eventually I stop to take off a layer of clothes and respond to nature's call. As I am getting back on my bike, Mark/Kevin/Rick/Catherine and several others come by. I join in and try to ride as part of the group for the next 10km or so.

Not a lot of social chit chat, but riding in a group does have its advantages ...

It works relatively well and we make good time until I work my way up to the front and take my pull, Catherine immediately behind me. I get to a slight downhill and, ZOOM, with a tailwind and downhill I accelerate, even though I am just coasting. I looked back and Catherine and the rest of the group are 20, 30, 50 meters back. I brake and reach the flat, and eventually the line comes up to me. It happens again in a few minutes, and again.  Each time we go down a gentle roller I am way off the front. Then as I we top a short upslope and I am about to rotate around and let someone else take the front, everyone pulls off to remove their outer layers ... as I had already done 30 minutes before.  I wait a few minutes, but there is not really any sign of the group restarting. Energy bars are coming out and people are fiddling with gear ... so I continue on alone and arrive at the Epping Forest control somewhat ahead.

On the way to Fingal

More of the same -- just sky and field today

Out of Epping Forest we are on a major road with a lot of traffic, THE main road (highway #1), for 12km, then head east on the A4. The A4 is fast, with less traffic but still paved and graded like a highway for fast travel. Usually I slow WAY down during the second 100km of a brevet, but not today. I've got a tailwind. Errol and one or two others pass, but otherwise I am pretty much alone until Fingal (over 150km into the ride), where I pull over for a toasted sandwich and coffee at a nice cafe where some other riders have stopped. Mark et al. pull in before I leave, a rotating roster of riders eating there no doubt for an hour or more today. I push on to St. Mary's, then over a slight hump and down a curvy descent to the Eastern coastline, emerging near Scamander.

A coastal inlet at Scamander ... beautiful white beaches visible near here. Sorry I did not get a good photo...

There is no more tailwind, but by 1:05PM I have already done 200km. Half the ride in just over 8 hours, including several sit-down food stops. Wow. At this rate, it would only take me 16 hours for the 400km, and the time limit is 27 hours!

But the ride is about to change, pretty dramatically. It is getting hot. And the wind is now from the side, veering to the front. And soon we will be done with the flat and downhill sections. The second half of this ride is a lumpy and bumpy as the first half was smooth. It is already 1:30PM by the time I pull into the St. Helen's Control, 7 km further up the coast. I get another sandwich at a (less nice) cafe in town, and head out.

St. Helens - view from the cafe where I ate.

At the Control, Andrew had told me that we had some rollers out of St. Helens, then the real climb starts in 20+km. In fact, only 2 or 3 km from town there was a 100m climb. THEN there were many ups and downs, including another bump that took us to over 200m elevation, and back down to 100m, before the start of the "real" climb up to elev. 600m. I stopped at a gasoline station and got some chocolate milk to drink, deciding to rest a bit before the climb. It did not work. My stomach got a bit sensitive -- perhaps the cold beverage and sugar? Several riders passed. Mark, Rick, Catherine and Kevin came into the service station, got a snack, and left. I moved to a chair outside that Rick had vacated ... and in a few seconds was stung by a bee on my left upper arm. Ouch. Really ouch. I took an antihistamine (it had been 12+ hours since my "one a day" hay fever pill, so I figured I could handle a second one), and after a few minutes I started the climb.

Fern trees - Tasmanian rain forest. Not like Pacific NW ferns!

More beautiful country

Tim Taylor, who was both the heaviest and most steady rider in the tour, usually bringing up the rear but never in doubt, had passed me while I rested, dealing with the bee sting and stomach. I caught him on the climb, but he passed me as soon as I rested further up the hill. That was a long climb, and I was now at the back of the pack. What a change from two hours ago!

Elevation profile. Nothing higher than 600m, but 4400m climbing in total!

I passed Tim's bike in the hamlet of Weldborough -- he seemed to have gone into a restaurant for some food. This town was part of the way down from the pass. And then there was another long descent. Great to be through that!  But the next 55km to our control at Scottsdale was one hill after another, up, down, dip, soar. There was a lot of steep, nasty short stuff, or so it seemed in my tired condition. 

More nice counry and blue sky!!

Looked a lot more hilly when I was taking this photo!

And more beautiful green and blue

Half way from Weldborough to Scottsdale was the town of Derby. A tiny town, there were two mountain bike stores, bike cafes, MTB tour operators, bike themed restaurants, and more. I even saw a few tourists riding bicycles. But most establishments were closed, at was 630PM already. Tim passed me again as I rested once ... and I passed him on the longest climb of this segment, after Derby, that peaked at 300m elevation.

Derby -- bikes, coffee, culture?

More Derby -- food at the "Crank It" Cafe

By the time I got to Scottsdale it was 830PM, and I did not leave until 910PM. Tara was still in the control so I made some lame joke about Scott having not been there to greet us at Scottsdale. (This did, however, set up further lame jokes about Tarraleah aka "Tara Leah", a town we went through on the 600k). Some "new" volunteers who had joined for the last half of the week, including a couple with another Andrew, the head of the Tasmania Audax group, had cooked us lentil stew and pasta. I needed the rest. The last couple riders came in while I was still in the Scottsdale control, including Tim. 

Sunset, as I near Scottsdale

After Scottsdale, riding in the dark I went slowly, knowing I had lots of time to finish. In the dark, I stopped once and could see small dark animals scurrying across the road. I could hear more in the woods. Possums, I think. A dog barked at me from across a valley -- hundreds of meters away. I got to Piper's River around 10:50PM. With only 50km to go, I thought I should be at the goal by 115 or 130AM. But it took until nearly 2AM. There were more "bumps" and one nasty climb up to a plateau above and to the north of Launceston. And at some point my dynamo light started to flicker again, and eventually shut down -- I just switched on my spare battery light. I would work on the diagnosis the next day. Finally, a fast 5km descent, and a final 5kms or so into town from the North on a main route that fortunately had NO traffic after 1AM. The first 200km had taken 8 hours, the 3rd 100 had taken another 7 hours, and the final 100 had also taken almost 7 hours. A ride of two very different halves.

Still I was happy to finish a 400 km that included 4400 meters of elevation gain in just under 22 hours compared to a 27 hour time limit. I had told myself that as long as I could do the 400km in under 23 hours, at least 4 hours to spare, I would feel it worth a try for the 600km, despite its over 8000 meters of climbing. And with the 300 and 400 done, in beautiful weather, the trip was already a success.