The Rock Riders NT hit the road again as a group on
the 12th May and some of us were ready to tackle a 100Km ride....
training remains pretty low key at the moment as the mornings are bitterly cold
however we never get sick of the beautiful sunrises we witness out here in
God’s country... Each of us had a Challenge and this time for some of us it was
Ride from Yulara out to Kata Tjuta, have a rest and Ride back Approx 100km...
Jen Clarke’s Challenge was to Ride out there with Mandy. Ben was keen to get
over the 100km mark as was Roger, Leon and myself while Matt was just keen to
ride on his new bike with new shoes and new shirt.
The every reliable Road Crew...well Adrian, was there to
drive out and support all of us, drinks in the car and he was also carrying our
special training food....”Allen’s Red Frogs”. Adrian was going to stop at the
25km mark for us to take on water and a snack and also had the bike rack on the
back if any of us got into trouble....and to bring Mandy and Jen back when they
reached Walpa Gorge
8:00 was the meet time at the bus stop out the front of the
camp ground...at 4am a text came through from Ben saying he had a meeting at
10:00 and was heading out now.......Mandy and Jen hit the road at 7:30 to get a
head start on the guys......As the clock ticked over to 8:00 Roger, Leon, Matt
and I headed out looking every bit the professional Cyclists we are.....or the
New term I just learnt; MAMIL’s (Middle Aged Men In Lycra) which is probably a
better description for us.......
The first 10 Kms went well, averaging 27kph and all of us
were pretty comfortable in the saddle and had a good rhythm ride as 4....We
turned right at the intersection of the Lasseter Hwy and the Red centre way
(road to the rock) and came across Ben just returning from his ride out and
back, the poor guy was freezing he looked like he’d just stepped out of the
cool room at the Outy! The wind was blowing the sun just starting to shine...we
didn’t have time to stop, a wave and a “g’day” and Ben was behind us.....
We were all riding well as a group, taking turns leading for
a couple of kms each and then slipping back to the end of the group, this was
making the ride easy and we were recording good speeds of 31-34kph and feeling
good.....then what Roger and I had been waiting for happened....Matt went to
the front of the group and kept going...we caught up with him and stayed with
him as our speed started to nudge 36kph and I thought “Bloody Freak” we’ll
never keep up with him.....and then Roger went to the front and I followed
along with Leon as Matt shuffled to the back, order was restored and a more
gentle speed returned....but Matt kept falling behind and after a couple of
bends was out of sight.........
At the 25km mark Adrian was parked on the road side and we
stopped and refilled our water and Powerade and grabbed handfuls of Red
Frogs...”The official food for MAMIL’s”....Then Matt came around the bend
complaining that his bike was not working correctly....After a quick inspection
we discovered his front wheel was not in the forks properly and was very
loose...Problem sorted, his gears were slipping badly, Roger finetuned the
gears and he was ready to go again.....Adrian advised us Mandy and Jen were
making great time and were probably 8kms ahead of us and riding well...
The Next 20kms flew by averaging speeds in excess of 36kms,
but unfortunately Matt could not keep up, we kept an eye on him for a while but
he just slowly dropped away into the distance (we didn’t slow down and wait as
we have a rule that everyone rides to their own ability) and then we hit this
thing called head wind that dropped our speed to under 20 for large sections of
the final 8 or 9 kms... and slowly rode into the car park of Walpa Gorge and
waiting for us were Mandy, Jen and Adrian.....we all had a bit of a rest, re
filled our water and hooked into more Red Frogs, bananas, Snakes and other
goodies. We hung around for about 20 mins waiting for Matt, but figured he was
probably waiting somewhere on the roadside for Adrian to collect him and got
ready to head back
A group photo was taken and then we were off on the return
journey, about 5 Kms into the return trip and we were cursing the wind, we may
have been averaging 36kms a while ago but we were now struggling to get above
22kms now and the thought of riding another 45kms like this was not one of
great Joy....Adrian, Mandy and Jen drove past us with the girls bikes on the
back rack...I was thinking there was room for another bike on that rack as they
drove into the distance...but then thought when they found Matt it would be the
place for his bike. So, head Down and dig in boys and we continued to ride in a
close group battling the wind.......
At about the 70kms mark an Uluru Express Bus pulled up
beside us and the driver was waving at us and pointing to the back of the
bus...we thought he was joking and saying ...“get on boys”... but what he was
saying was... “I have one of your team on here”... and there was Matt sitting
in the back seat with his bike, He had ridden to Valley of the winds car park
and was waiting for us, we were at Walpa Gorge waiting for him.....He was
cramping bad and it was game over for Matt and off the bus and Matt drove into
the distance......Leon made comment “We should have got on the bus” and at this
stage he was right.......so we pulled up and had a quick break
85Kms and we started looking ahead to see where Adrian
was...no sign of him and we thought he must have taken the girls back home and
would come out for us to refill our drinks.......we had another stop stretched
and rubbed our calves as we were all starting to cramp up now.......no Adrian
so off we went again.......at 95 Kms stopped again for a breather.... we were
all struggling at this stage and still no sign of Adrian.........We turned onto
the home Hwy and suddenly we found our groove again and the speeds picked back
up and we cruised into town averaging our normal 27kph...
All glad we had completed our trip, apart from Matt, a
couple of celebratory beers and a good afternoon on the couch made for a great
day....ready for a night with Elliot Goblet at the res club later on......
So now our next challenge will be to back that ride
up....two days in a row
So far we have raised just over $25,000.....A big thank you
to all who have supported us so far, we still have 4.5 months to go and the new
target of near on $40,000 is well and truly in reach!
