We did discuss how those of us tackling the 3 peaks were travelling. You know "they should be over the Tawonga gap now, which road do they climb back to Falls Creek on" etc
I can now report how they were travelling.
So Major Kudos to Phil and John who completed the 235km and 4000 vertical metres of ascent
https://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/peaks-challenge-falls-creek/the-route/
Phil who finished in 12 hours 22 minutes.
"It Nearly killed me. Cramping on Hotham slowed me down a bit that's for sure. Came good in the end. Felt like throwing the towel in for the first five hours but ended up pulling myself together and getting on with it. Thanks for your support"
Big John who made it look easy and did the ride in 8 hours and 48 minutes
We believe that makes him both 53rd overall and an absolute legend
Coffee stop will be extended this Sunday to allow for the complete story download assuming of course that Phil wants to get back on the bike..
Ride Report
The Sunday Group did the full Meadows loop which we haven't done for quite a long time. We gathered at the bollards with Brian and Michael pushing hard on the climb. Michael went sub 30 (28:20). Brian was so focused and spent he didn't even acknowledge Graham and I as he went through the bollards. For a second I thought he would reprise Franks famous excursion into the trees to look for Ralph but he held it together.
As mentioned above the weather was almost perfect warm, no wind and except for some really weird fog on the road into Meadows it was sunny. The perfect weather was marred by the early departure of Hugh and Echunga with a bent hanger. The slow group had gone ahead in an attempt to reach Meadows and let the fast group catch up once the mechanical was solved. However when they caught me about 5km out and I could tell by the lack of "whoosh, whoosh" wheel noise that Hugh wasn't with them. They passed yelling "get on the back" doing 40kpm plus. I chased but it was always optimism over realism.
Yes there were tasty things at the Meadows bakery as well as the err dulcet tones of bagpipes. After a quick discussion it was diced we would do the proper loop and return via the Clarendon.
The road from Meadows was busier than we recalled but it was no real issue and once we were out of the Traffic, right turn after Clarendon, we enjoyed some of the nicest climbs in Adelaide. I had forgotten how enjoyable the climb from Claronden to the Cherry Gardens was. We regrouped at the top of ever climb and got back to the city around 12:15.
