February 23, 2025
Crash and Burn
Sunday I was determined to start early. Molesworth Cob Cottage was 80km away and there would be lots of serious hills. I leapt out of the tent (actually it was more like an unglamorous crawl) and looked over to inspect the cyclist who had arrived at 9:30pm last night.
It was a young guy, probably in his 20s, all muscle, sinew and exuberant energy. Not an ounce of fat on him.
‘Hi’ says I, ‘where are you headed?’
‘I was hoping to get to Hanmer today’. What, hold on, that’s 170km and about 2,000m of vertical ascent. Is that possible?
I have since met a number of these super-human individuals. They seem to exist in a parallel universe, going where we cannot and only occasionally interacting with us mere mortals. Now I don’t mean this to sound critical or anything, it’s just that the limits of human ability are truly amazing.
Well there was no time to waste. Displaying my own less-than-superhuman abilities, I changed out of several layers of sleeping insulation, packed up and loaded up the bike (it took a while; a warning sign). I didn’t make breakfast because I didn’t have time (another serious error). My bike and I then rode out of the campsite at a less-than-superhuman pace, saying ‘see you on the road’ as we went.
Riding up the first hill of the day there was a funny banging noise coming from the back wheel. Before I could stop there was a terrible racket as one of my elastic ties caught in the back wheel and into the disc brake. The back wheel wouldn’t turn at all. Not good.
At this point my young friend from the campsite turned up and helped me put things right. Note to self, check the bike nose to tail at the start of each day.
I continued on climbing hills. There were spectacular views up and down the valley.
But it was really hard work. Because of the weight of the bike I was walking up each hill. Some were several kilometres with grade above 10%.
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And it was getting hot, sweat was pouring off me. Temperatures were mid thirties Celsius. No clouds to temper the sun.
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My lack of eating and drinking together with all the ‘stuff’ I carried made me hit a wall.
With big hills behind me and big hills infront of me, I had no options but to stop. I staggered into the Camden Cookshop and successfully begged for a bed, which I promptly collapsed into, with no idea whether this was the end of my trip.
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 97 km (60 miles)
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