Is Donna is Good #3
| Route | Mount Donna Buang loop via O’shannassy Aqueduct and Don Road (GPS Log) |
| Elapsed time | 5:14:41 |
| Ride time | |
| Total distance | 57.01 km |
| Max speed | 55.7 km/hr |
| Average riding speed | 15.4 km/hr |
| Weather | Cool and snowing… perfect! |
| Bike | Jamis |
| Who | Me, Harng, Andrew, Andrew, Victor, Victor, Martin, Wendy, Matt, Doug, Scott, Errol, Ro(h? w?)an, Rod |
What started out as a crazy idea between a bunch of friends of going riding up in the snow appears to have gone all mainstream and stuff. Not that I’m complaining, because I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of folks to be riding with.
With all of the planning that had gone into this year’s edition of the snow ride, Melbourne weather also decide to play nice and actually snow leading up to the event. To top it off, it then become warm(er) and dry a few days before. In fact, aside from some rain early in the morning, we actually had a dry ride this year, which made all of the difference (to most of us… except Victor who decided to roll out of the house at 3am and ride to the start!).
With Victor’s super, super early start, he arrived at the start point around 7:00am for the 8:00am meet up. The rest of the group arrived in dribs and drabs up until about 8:15am. All up, 14 people… What a crowd! Andrew L decided that such a tough ride warranted busting out the Xizang titanium race bike. We were also joined by another Andrew, who turned out to be one of the guys we used to race with at Bushy Park. Wendy decided that this ride would be the best way to break in her new Baum. One of Scott’s friend’s Errol, who came along for the start of last year’s ride came again… this time with a rain jacket (although it didn’t rain this year).
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| Wendy’s shiny new ride. |
As ride director, I felt inclined to say a few words, but I remember thinking that I didn’t actually have anything meaningful to say, so I think it came out something like “umm okay then… well.. let’s go”. Which… we did. I must remember to prepare something insightful to say next time.
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| Victor riding up front, after having ridden to the start. |
Stage 1 – O’Shannassy Aqueduct Trail
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The best part about this section of the ride is that I was meant to lead the group and I only had a vague idea of where I was going. This year’s route was slightly different from previous years in that we took O’shannassy Aqueduct, rather than the Warby Trail. In doing my recon ride of the trail a few weeks ago, I’d actually ridden the the aqueduct trail from Don Road and turned around before hitting Warburton itself. Thankfully, some well placed signs along the road climb ponted us in the right direction and we set off… and straight into a 17% gradient climb. I was immediately put into trouble from overheating. The balmy 8 degree weather, combined with the fact that I was dressed for the top of the mountain, not the bottom, meant that I went from the front of the pack, into the granny ring and getting passed by everyone.
Thankfully the climb wasn’t too long and we found ourselves at the gate to the aqueduct trail. Which, as it turns out, was actually the gate at which I’d turned around at during my recon ride. Anyway, the pacelines formed up and we settled into a nice, comfortable warm up along the flat aqueduct trail. I’ve decided that this is a much more civilized way of starting this ride, because it gives you a good 10km flat section where you can get warmed up and comfortable on your bike. I sat right at the back at Wendy and we had a nice cruise along and chat, while I admired her new Baum bike. We were soon joined by Martin and the three of us cruised along comfortably to meet up with the rest of the bunch for the Don Road climb.
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| First regroup point. |
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| Martin’s Masi CX bike was in its element here. |
I have to say that I really love this part of the trail. Except for a few funny climbs and descents near the road crossings, this trail is for the most part, dead flat, making for some really comfortable riding. With the towering mountain on one side and gaps in the trees providing some pretty decent views of the valley, it’s a really nice place to be. I must make an effort to get out there and ride this entire trail at some point.
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| The Don Road regroup point |
Stage 2 – Don Road to the gates of the national park
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As we turned up Don Road, I decided to move up towards the front of the group, where I found this…
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| Why would you wear white??? |
Now I know it’s very Euro-pro to have a white jersey, shoes, knicks, saddle and bar tape, but it’s very un-pro to actually get any of them dirty. I mean really, why would you wear an uncovered white jersey on a ride where you are guaranteed to get wet and muddy. Not only that, Harng actually turned down my offer of a rear mud guard earlier that morning.
Anyway, as the road turned upward, the group splintered and we each settled into our own pace. For the most part, the chatter died down and was only punctuated by the odd call of “Car up!”. At this point, I started to realise again that the saddle on my mountain bike is very, very hard. This is not actually the only time that I’ve realised this. In fact, it’s on this very ride every year when I realise the same thing. Of course, that’s never actually a problem when I’m out on the trails, since I hardly ever sit down, but for a ride like this… ouch! Of course, I will promptly forget this in a week’s time and remember again during next year’s ride.
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| Le peleton rolls out from Don Road |
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| Victor and Harng pushing the pace |
The climb in this section is pretty comfortable, with nothing too steep and the road surface quite easy to manage, so it wasn’t long before we found ourselves at the end of Don Road, ready to cross into the national park. The road signs here were the cause of a bit of confusion. Is it…
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| 14km to go? |
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| Or 16km to go? |
Stage 3 – Behind the gates of the national park
To me, this is always the best and worst part of the ride. The closed gates means that we can ride anywhere we like on the road. At this point, the weather always starts to close in and eventually the bitumen road gives way to gravel and in this year’s case – mud. One important thing to note about this part of the ride was the fog.
Very… very… dense fog.
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| That’s the flash being reflected by the fog |
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| More of Mr Poopy Pants |
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| Spirits were still high |
As we pushed on up the hill, the group started to get well and truly broken up along this section, with the lead group containing the two Andrews, the two Victors, Harng and Martin up the road. My mid-pace group with Rod, Matt and Doug, generally riding alone. While not far behind was the group of the floral lei containing Scott, Rohan, Errol and Wendy were all a bit more chatty. I have to say that the forest at this point is absolutely stunning. Massive trees on both sides, shrouded in fog, with streams of snow melt trickling along most of the gullies.
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| Lovely scenery… the trees, not Matt & Rod. |
However, during this part of the ride your body gets the real test. You’re starting to get tired. Hunger will kick in if you haven’t had enough to eat. Your mind starts to get annoyed about the fact that you’ve been constantly pedalling with no respite. The cold starts to seep through your gloves. The muddy trail makes smooth riding hard. PLUS, the snow starts.
Except this year, the snow didn’t start.
Actually… I was getting kind of worried. We pushed on and on and yet, there was no snow to be seen. I was actually getting kind of worried that the elements had conspired against me and the previous day’s 10cms of snow had become nothing more than mush overnight. We pushed on and on, yet there was no snow. Past the point when I was blown into a ditch two years prior. Past the ski jump.
Nothing.
I was honestly quite worried that there would be 13 disappointed riders who didn’t get any snow.
Then, we hit the snowline! Whew!
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| Woohoo! Snow! |
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| Last one up the hill |
The road also turned to bitumen which I knew meant that the gates wouldn’t be far… and the end of stage 3.
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Stage 4 – Homeward bound… almost
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| Just a little bit of fog. |
With the bulk of the climbing out of the way, it was a matter of a formality to do the final ascent. Everyone was quite tired, but we all knew that the end was in sight. Unlike last year, we actually took it a bit further and rode all the way to the top, which involved dodging peds along the final section of ungraded road. Thankfully no one fell on top of any stray kids on toboggans.
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| Where’s that foot going? |
At the top, I attempted to get some folks to try riding across the snow, but no one seemed interested, so it was on with all of the ski gear that we’d lugged up to the summit and it was time to bomb the descent. For the first time ever I was totally comfortable on this descent. More than that, I was actually warm. Wow. What a difference it makes. Unfortunately high speed descending doesn’t make for good opportunity to take photos, so there aren’t any, however we all made it down safely and back to the cars, some, a lot slower than others.
As we rolled into the carpark, I started to feel an huge feeling of satisfaction. I’d actually managed to plan a snow ride one month out, had a huge turnout and not only finished, but finished quite strongly. I was quite pleased with that outcome. Also, no one spat the dummy this year and there were no concerns about freezing or broken teeth.
Makes me want to ramp it up even further next year. :)
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