Tour de Brisbane...

Cycling.  What a funny sport.  Predominantly made up of pudgy, middle-aged men, squeezed into material about 0.000001mm thick on bits of metal/carbon worth some people’s half yearly salary.  The flipside is the SUPER skinny, young bucks, flexing their power/watts and making every concerted effort into becoming the most aero being known to human kind.  Probably all a little harsh but also true and it makes me smile!  I detest the pretentiousness of cycling (mainly road cycling…and triathlon for that matter) but I do love the act of burning the candle very slowly and being able to cover large areas of land running does not led itself to.  The freedom and relative simplicity of bike adventuring is luring.  But, I digress……

This past weekend saw me line up at Tour de Brisbane, a closed road Grand Fondo event which was meant to be in March however postponed due to, you guessed it, covid.  Anyhow, the event was on, I was keen, all be it undertrained for 110km on road with some solid climbing, but I was there.  Flannel, long hair, gravel bike and a smile bigger than 50 of the serious strutters combined I saw on their over-priced steeds.  Lets get this party started!

Although I was at the event solo, its kinda hard not to be caught up in the excitement and fun of riding roads you never normally would get to with thousands of other people.  I rolled out the first 10-20k through the bus ways, over the Story Bridge, onto the bus way south and onto Roachdale.  I road with Damo (who was there from Bundy and my good mate….a much better cyclist than I that is for sure!) for about 20min before he shot off into the distance.  Upon reaching the exist off the bus way, I started a big loop and hit some solid rollers.  Not expected.  I kept moving and I got chatting to a lad on a CITY BIKE named Kent.  I recognised him from the news a while back where he Everested (cycling the equivalent of Mt Everest, over 8849m going up and down one hill) on said City Bike!  What a weapon.  We chatted and went back and forward the rest of the race.  Such a cool guy to meet!

Anyway, the Roachdale loop was pretty savage on the hills.  About three quarters of the way though though, Damo came up behind me.  What the heck?  We laughed, thought we were on the wrong track and are still not sure if he did an extra loop or if I missed one?  By the by.  He shot off again and before long I was back on the bus way.  There was a guy a little ahead of me riding a flat, straight road and just like that, BOOM!  He goes down HARD!  I stopped and it was pretty apparent he had broken his collar bone.  A second later, Damo comes up from behind AGAIN!  We laughed again, still confused but I think maybe he stopped at the feed station and I went by when he was stopped?  Who knows!  Anyways, old mate was left in the capable hands of some volunteers and we set off again.  Damo left again (would I magically see him again….no….), for the last time.  I’m still laughing about the back and forward!

I then cruised back into the city, through South Bank and before long was on the Inner City Bypass and then into the Legacy Tunnel.  What a RAD trip that was!  At 4.6k in length it was a cool experience to hammer down and back up out of it.  So rad!  Then….onto Mount Cootha.  

Wow.  What a climb!  I believe about 2.4-2.5km of steep grade averaging 9% I was pretty darn gassed by the end of it!  I refused to walk though like countless others (still in their super hero suits…..sorry lycra) and got it done.  I was VERY happy to be at the top and I wasn't hanging around.  After a couple more rollers it was DOWN HILL time baby!  And I hooked!  I got up to 70km p/h and I was hootin and hollerin.  So freaking stoked and excited to be alive, descending with no traffic, in the wrong lane, with my brain playing tricks on me thinking a car was going to come around the corner and end my life.  What a trip!  For the rest of the ride, I couldn't stop smiling.  Such a rad decent and then final 10-15k, back through the tunnel, the Inner City Bypass and back to the Showgrounds to end the ride.

All in all, I am so stoked!  I had SUCH a good time and for my first ever Fondo, I just loved it!  All I wanted from the event was to have a good time and finish which I did.  Oh, and look rad….think I did that too.  As a side, I road a good time and average speed so all in all, GOLDEN!  It is cool to do different stuff sometimes that's for sure!  

NOW, in saying that…..when I finished I couldn't help but think about doing that nearly two more times to complete the 200mile gravel event I have coming up at the end of August!  I have much work to do but look forward to that madness too.  Life is good, endurance and the slow burn is good and I long for it in any means possible.  This one, in its own way served that purpose.  Another great day at the office.

Thanks to all who followed along and sent well wishes on another adventure.  I hope your finding your own and having a super week friends.  Much love and until next week, keep chasing the suffering.