Sunday Training Session

Hi Folks... Spartacus here again. Yes thats right, there has been further evidence to suggest that the real reason why Kent "Jens" Beasley is not riding is due to the knee. Hence again why yours truely is writing the blog for today. Rest up the knee mate as we need you fit and well to drag Gav and Dammo up to Townsville. Of course Spartacus will be there helping you.

The good thing about some Sunday morning sessions is that we start a little later which welcomes some extra sleep for some. Start time today was 5:30am whereby Gav, Dammo, Jase and myself were anticipating if anyone else was going to meet us for this mornings session through Dayboro, Mt Mee and back through Samford range then back to Coffee.

There was some thought whether our plans should change as most of us were feeling the effects of yesterdays session. The call went out by Gav "Stuey" Bryce to continue with what was planned so we headed off. "Think of it as a recovery ride" he said.

Dammo and I looked at each other after that comment and rather than make some smart remark back we decided to take the front in the initial stage to save the legs of the climbers (Gav & Jase) and continued up front for the first 20k's or so past Strathpine. When it was time to change at the helm the call went out to Gav and Jase to take the front until Dayboro. Now for some of you that may not have riden this section of road before, I have heard reports that they call one section the 7 sisters due to some of the rolling hills. Well I swear that today the sisters brought their husbands as well as it just felt like one of those days when the hills just come out and all seem like a 15% climb.

Anyway, when Dammo and I made the call to the boys we glanced briefly at each other with that sarcastic smirk stating "Yeah, As if". But they did... The lads held the front for the next 25k's to Dayboro which was a stella effort. Thanks again lads.

Well here we were on the approach of Mt Mee and considering that in just under 4 weeks we will be climbing this stage once again. As we continued to climb Gav made the comment that he might have been talking S$%t stating this was a recovery ride as we just kept grinding away.

After we have climbed for about 6.5k's up the mountain we were all still in reasonably close formation which was great however you can't climb a mountain without contesting who is King. So with about 500metres to go Spartacus decided to engage the big chain ring and ask the question by exploding away from the group in chase of the KOM title. The answer was obvious with 150 metres to go as I glanced back to see the faces of broken men as they couldn't find the energy to lift their game to a new level. And so, Spartacus took another KOM title for the week.

The stretch down the mountain was welcomed by all as this is the reward for any cyclist that has just spent the last 7k's climbing 360 vertical metres. Once we were down at the bottom, Gav was pretty quick to remind Dammo and myself it was w=once again our turn to take the helm which we did. Now by this stage we had climbed some 870 metres which included Mt Mee (360m) and considering we finished the ride with 1370m in total, you can put two and two together to realise we still had some work to do.

The Dayboro to Samford stretch is never easy and was sporting its usual headwind however not too fierce thank god. Regardless, by the time we reached Samford a few of us were hurting and the task of climbing the Samford Range was the only thing between us and COFFEE!!!

Once again we tackled the climb as a group and by the time we were half way to the top, I noticed ta Gav and Jase looked like they were about to start a tea party so I ramped up the pace again and screamed past them once more. However my fate was not worthy of another title as Jase took out the title for Samford on this occasion.

The final stag of the ride was getting long in the tooth as it was warming up and we just wanted to get back for that much deserved Coffee. Dammo found some extra legs and took the last leg like a man possesed and dragged Jase along with him.

Overall a great day with fantastic weather, good laughs and good company ending with fine coffee and a phone call to our cyc'd buddy Kent to sumarise some of the antics.

A total of 100k's at an average speed of 28k and climbing 1370 vertical metres.

Good efforts Lads.