"If we don't start pushing the pace along we won't hit Warwick until 7pm tonight!" said Sharky and a few nervous sideways glances were taken as this could mean only one thing - PAIN!!
To make it worse we told that things would start to get a bit lumpy as we rolled out from morning tea. So we headed off with full bellies with Christine handing out last minute lollies to the riders as we headed to Boonah.
Things did get a bit lumpy but the peleton navigated its way through to Boonah without too much difficulty and as we hit a flat section of road we were riding well at about 28kph which was comfortable enough but again things were to change. Sharky cruised up the outside towards the front and as he did he turned to me and said "Get some of those domestiques of yours up the front we need to push this along".
So it was the call went out to the Cyc'd boys to take control at the front of the peleton but alas only one other responded to the call with Gav bravely taking up the challenge with myself. Fortunately we were joined by 4 other hardy souls and soon all 6 of us were cranking up the pace to above 32kph. Not much was being said at the front as each of the 6 took their turn at the front to drive the peleton and dish out some pain to those behind.
Sharky had asked for a job to be done and a job we set about doing. It was after about 20kms of this that Gav while riding beside me mentioned the fact that the other Cyc'd boys had better perform on the big climbs we would shortly encounter as we continued to punish ourselves for them.
Gav also mentioned that he now knew how Stuey O'Grady must feel and almost immediately Cyc'd had morphed into Team Leopard Trek with Gav "Stuey" Bryce and Kent "Jens" Beasley dishing out the pain to the other climbers behind and with Jase "Andy" Nowlan and Damien "Frank" Windle sitting comfortably in the pack saving their climbing legs. You might ask where the 5th member of the team was well Brad "Spartacus" Scriven was also well protected in the peleton saving his legs for the following day for the Warwick to Brisbane One Day Classic. His day would come just not today. So it was that Team Cyc'd now Team Leopard Trek settled into the job at hand.
Did I mention it was raining? Well we were now some 6 hours into the ride and the rain hadn't eased up a bit. By now everyone was pretty comfortable with the wet roads and spray in their faces but that too was about to change as we reached the foothills of Queen Mary Falls. For those of you who don't know this area its a great area for cattle and where there are lots of cattle there is lots and lots of cow sh*t. The road was not only covered in it the rain has caused it to become liquified sludge that was picked up by the tyres and sprayed on those behind. Soon we were all covered in cow sh*t, our bikes were covered our water bottles were covered and yes even our faces had the odd drop or two.
This brings to one of the other interesting facts of the day. Now as you might know cyclists are notorious for loving everything light weight with carbon being the preferred material and some will go to extraordinary lengths just to save a few grams so when Sharky turned up with a full set of mud guards on his bike you can imagine that the comments from the peleton flew thick and fast like "careful not to catch your skirt in the mud guard Sharky" etc etc. We all had a good laugh but as we rode through the sludge Sharky stood out like a shining beacon of pristine lycra not a drop of cow sh*t to be seen. He was immaculate.....well done Sharky you certainly had the last laugh.
With the job almost done the 6 weary riders at the front delivered the peleton to the base of the mountains and to the start of the first epic climb of about 4km with a gradient between 17 and 20%.
Part 3 - The climb to The Head......coming soon
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