As I sit here in my lounge room writing this post it's hard to believe that in the last 3 days I shared 570km, climbed 5.4km and spent over 24hours riding with 48 almost complete strangers (and two good friends) to raise money for cancer research and had one of the best weekends of my life.
I've had a couple of posts along the way but I though I'd combine the summary of the last day with a look back at the whole weekend.
The last day of the Midi Smiddy was the longest and possibly the hardest day we had to do on the ride. Although our trip up the range wasn't as steep and came earlier in the day, everyone knew that it would be hard having already travelled over 360km.
We started very early in the day, before the sun had started to peek through. Most of us were rugged up prepared for the cold and potential rain that had been falling heavily all night.
Most of the morning was spent discussing the events of the fundraising dinner in Warwick the night before and how much of our hangover was a hinderance or aid for the ride ahead. Most of us were nervous with the though of another ascent of the range ahead and the weather threatening to dampen the roads even further.
Eventually the climb to Queen Mary Falls was here and after a quick briefing about carpets on cattle grids we were off. Even though this was a "go your own pace" (aka smiddy smash) section we all knew it would be a hard climb and all chipped in to help those who weren't feeling as fresh. Jon (my recently acquired cracked frame buddy) teamed up determined that our rider would get to the top without a stint in the van. I think I felt more accomplished at the top of that climb than in any other before it (no matter how many other riders I'd passed).
The scariest part of the day, however belonged to the descent. 17%+ gradient shrouded in mist and fog was ahead of us. The briefings about being safe on the descent only cemented our fears. It was here on the 5th hair pin that I'd get my first flat of the Smiddy (And the first flat on "Frank"). Hard breaking for too long and I overheated my rim and blew the front tube... fortunately enough I slowed to a stop in the clearing and yet again my frame buddy came to my rescue with a new tube and set off to chase down the peloton. Two riders ahead of me were lucky not to be caught in a stampede of bovine as they neared the bottom of the descent, if the descent itself wasn't scary enough!
The rest of the day seemed to flow by with everyone eager to get to the finish to see friends and family. There were plenty of rolling hills to challenge even the freshest of legs but there were plenty on hand to offer encouragement or the occasional push to make sure we all made it. After we passed our final stop the pace of the peloton surged as we felt closer to home and could almost smell the sausage sizzle. Congratulations and thank yous started to flow amongst the group as we realised this was the last few kilometres we'd be spending on the ride.
As we reached Indooroopilly we stopped to regroup as we headed for Park Road. We started rolling and i looked down to discover that my front tyre had flatted again. Boydie and I discussed (for probably the next 2 kilometres) whether I could make it with the flatted rim (or an alternate route to make sure I made it) we decided that a change was the best choice. In what felt like something with F1 team precision or the flurry of a pro peloton I stopped and Jimmy (from Bikeology) had my wheel swapped out in a matter of seconds. After that it was the hardest sprint I'd done for the entire weekend determined not to suffer my first "Van Time" less than 5km from the finish. The irony of course is just as I caught the peloton we hit traffic on Coronation drive and the 50 riders sat stationary for 15 minutes stuck less than 1km from their waiting friends and family.
Once we cleared the traffic we headed for home and the sound of the crowd as we pulled into Smiddy park was amazing and made the last 570km feel like a short pedal to the park.
The post probably sounds a little gushy overall and that's mostly because I had a fantastic weekend, I made some lasting friendships and helped raise money for a good cause doing something that I love. As one of the riders said "A bad day on a bike is still a lot better than a bad day at work". Mostly is sounds gushy because I feel incredibly privileged to have been able to be in a position to help even after breaking a bike, have a few places that are a little more chaffed than I'd like and most of the muscles in my legs being just that little bit sore. Especially after hearing everyone's stories on why they'd taken the time to punish themselves over 3 hard days of riding.
I have to say a big thanks to my Wife for putting up with all the training and the time away for the ride, especially after signing up for a smiddy event biannually!
Lastly a huge thank you to all the people who donated and offered their support for the ride. Your donations are invaluable and hopefully as a result one day we won't need to have a ride....
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