Alpine Classic Extreme 250

Well here we go with the big one – the ACE250.  It’s been a long wait – ever since the disastrous 3Peaks ride back in March 2010 there’s been unfinished business with this course.  The format of the ACE is much more to my liking than the 3Peaks which starts with a descent and finishes potentially in the dark up the most grueling section – the ‘back-o-Falls’.  With the ACE we get a nice friendly 25km roll out to Harrietville before beginning the first climb, Mt Hotham and it gets even better from there….

After a reasonably relaxing night that actually included some sleep I woke at 5am, a bit earlier than the alarm, but what the hell, might as well get up and take more time to apply the sunscreen 😉  The weather gods smiled down on Audax yet again with the predicted ‘shower or two with risk of thunderstorms’ not eventuating.  A clear deep blue pre-dawn sky would develop into a cloudy morning followed by a sunny afternoon with temperatures in the high 20’s on the lower sections.  Perfect riding weather!

The extra preparation time allowed me to double check that I had absolutely everything on board this time before I rolled out into the brisk morning air and down to the start line.  Fifteen or twenty riders were already lined up including Tim, one of our group of four.  Nick and Quentin arrived shortly afterward.  Wow!  All on the line with 5 minutes to spare, unheard of in 4 years of Alpine Classics. I had uploaded the course onto my Garmin705 from a Track created on the Cycling Profiles website with a view to being able to check the distances to the next water stop along the route.  It didn’t turn out to be much help but I thought it interesting to give it a try.  So I set the thing to Navigate and it began the process of calculating the Track.  Unfortunately it continued in this mode for nearly ten minutes and I wasn’t able to start the timer until we were well down the road and heading out of Bright.

The ACE250 route (Click to zoom) Garmin Training Centre

The official transponder on the bike beeped as I rolled over the start line and provided useful  time checks along the route.  The run out to Harrietville was the perfect start with a group of riders seemingly happy to drive the bunch along at between 30 – 35kph.  I think the entire 6:19am group was rolling  along in pairs with plenty of chatter going on in anticipation of a great day.  The earlier group set off at 4am in darkness and were probably slipping over the top of a cloud covered Mt Hotham by now.  I don’t know the split of numbers but I understand there were about 280 total starters and seemed to be maybe 150 in our bunch. However I’ve learned the hard way to never look back when rolling in a bunch so I’m not sure how many were behind.

I had already devoured a banana on the start line and began sipping water and Endurox from my 2 bidons and nibbling on chunks of muesli bar as we made the gentle climb along the valley towards the first climb of the day.  Already Nick had taken up a possie towards the front of the pack and continued to push away as we hit those first steep sections of the climb.  Quentin decided he wasn’t going to need all those thermal layers after all and stopped to stuff them into whatever spare pockets he could find.  Tim also stopped (for water already!) and I suggested they’d catch me up anyway and so began to climb alone looking for a comfortable rhythm. Cruising at this pace was much more enjoyable than my ‘race pace’ back in December when I’d competed in the Tour of Bright.  I’ll take this any day.

Once the shock of the first km is sorted I fall into a comfortable rhythm through the nice wooded curves continuing to nibble on Endura Energy & muesli bars. Up out of the saddle to climb the notorious 300m of The Meg with it’s 13% gradient and on to the ‘false flat’ section where one can slip onto the big ring for a while.  Tim has zoomed up from behind and decides to join me.  He needs to govern his young and impetuous speed if he’s to survive the day and apparently I’m a calming influence :-0  Once again he’s riding on a shallow base of the odd run down the Bay!  Ah to be young again…  The fun of the ‘big ring’ eventually had to end and we both had to dig deeper on the higher sections towards Hotham Heights.  It was there that a sudden chill went through the lycra as a reminder that we were truly in the High Country.  A glance to the left confirmed this with that awesome view across the mountain ranges  to the misty horizon.

As we continued to grind our way up the final third of the climb we wondered where Quentin might be.  Surely he would be joining us soon given his climbing prowess.  We were later to discover that he was practicing his German with the 2 Champs who had joined the ride – Anna Wilson and Judith Arndt.  They were spinning it up at a relaxed pace so he joined in and cruised to the top.  He eventually hooked up with us at Dinner Plain from where we rolled grupetto all the way back to Bright.  We also ran into Nick just as he was about to depart from Dinner Plain, looking good and rearing to go.  We doubted we’d see his hide again today.

The blast down to Omeo was, well, a blast!  Top speeds around 80kph are hit in this section with the only concern coming across  a herd of cattle grazing just a little too close to the road.  Don’t want to hit one of those ‘guys’!  We were travelling well as we rolled in to Omeo where we were greeted by the ‘paddle-pop’ traffic controllers who guided us safely to the check point for a salad roll and refreshments.  How amazing are these people standing out on a hot country road for hours waiting for the sporadic arrival of us crazy rouleurs?  Just another side of the fantastic Audax organisers who put this great event together each year.

Tracking speed vs elevation around the 'loop' (Click to zoom) Garmin Training Centre

Just when you think you’ve seen the best rural scenery on offer comes the gorgeous run through to the Blue Duck Inn and beyond next to the Mitta Mitta and Big Rivers.  We heeded the warnings not to ride over the two wooden plank bridges featuring nice rim sized gaps just asking for trouble.  Imagine riding over those babies on a pitch black rainy night in March illuminated by nothing more than a single flashing LED!  That section of the Omeo Hwy was the nearest thing to riding in Europe.  We were enjoying it so much we almost forgot what was coming up next.  We were startled back to reality by 4 marshalls standing at an intersection beaconing us like the Sirens of the Hespress to take a left and somehow pass through the wall that faced us.

I’ve never shifted faster between a 50/14 and a 34/28!  A gradient change of 0 – 15% in 10 metres is a rude awakening and the heart rate responded accordingly rising from 130 to 180 in the blink of an eye.  First thing is to get that back in check then worry about speed and rhythm.  It took a short while to achieve and coincided with an easing of the gradient back to 10% – ah!  False flat!  In fact it was all of 5km before anything vaguely resembling flat arrived.  However this kilometer of relief was enough for us to at least regain consciousness and perhaps gasp a few words of encouragement to each other.  Both Tim and Quentin decided cadence was the key word – particularly Tim with his 39/27, normally highly geared enough to climb a tree but at this point 155km in on a now hot and sunny day was proving very taxing on the legs.  They both dug in and moved up ahead of me.

I was in my own word of pain, lower back pain for some reason, causing quite some difficulty in getting any power down especially out of the saddle.  A rising tide of nausea was also something to be managed.  I wasn’t going to lose that salad roll and all those nice sticky sugary gooey gels now!  Argh!  Stop mentioning it…  concentrate on the grinding pedals .. grrrr grrr grrr … yep, that’s working.  Set the mind to thinking about chasing those shady bits under those overhanging trees where the blazing sun was at least slightly diminished.  The edges of the road were more ‘crunchy’ with more of that loose quartz that caused puncture and wheel spinning for those poor 3Peak souls who rode this section back in March.  Thankfully now the gravel in the middle of the road, at least, was embedded into the tarmac even if the radiant heat was excruciating.

That 10km! Garmin Training Centre

And so it went on, mind games and that strange sense that there’s a physical body out there suffering somewhere beyond that dreamy adrenaline induced fog.  The elation and sense of achievement that one might expect on reaching a downhill section didn’t arrive as expected.  It was only after we had spent some 10 minutes resting up at the next checkpoint, Raspberry Hill, that the smiles began to return to our faces.  We’ve cracked it wide open!  From here to Falls will be a soda and Tawonga Gap, aaah!  Too easy.

A bit of a head wind had kicked up once we emerged from the forest making the route around the open Alpine terrain of the reservoir a little tough.  With a bit of rolling of turns we managed to kick along in the big ring for much of it.  We’d been passing a lot of riders since making ‘that turn’ on to the High Plains Road and now we were rolling past even more riders sporting twin headlights.  Members of the 4am bunch.  Long day in the saddle for them – chapeau!

Eventually we arrived at Falls Creek and were greeted by the usual happy smiling faces of the volunteers serving up watermelon, rice pudding and muffins (as best I recall through that adrenaline fog).  A quick natural break and refill of the bidons and we were away.  The warmth of the day was at that comfortable level where you don’t even notice it.  Perfect for a rapid descent without flapping wind jackets.  In spite of a nagging pain in my previously broken shoulder, I was feeling remarkably nimble and flexible and was able to rest onto the drops and sythe my way down to the valley below taking maximum advantage of the lack of traffic – either 4 or 2 wheeled.  Here was yet another of the huge advantages of the format of this 250 route.

And another wonderful aspect was rolling through Mount Beauty in the late afternoon light and then climb Tawonga Gap in the shade.  No hint of the blistering bubbling popping tar or the searing sun eating into your back as experienced on earlier AAC200s when this section is tackled in the mid morning heat.  This was a treat and Tim and I enjoyed it together while Quentin pounded up the road presumably seeking enlightenment as to how much energy could he possible have left in those legs.  Clearly plenty.  We grouped back together at the summit and zoomed down the other side to eventually turn right back onto the the road we’d last seen in the wee hours earlier that day.

With the scent of home in our nostrils we went a little crazy for the final 5km with Quentin and myself swapping turns in a team time trial-like train steaming into town.  Tim, with his young legs cooked from grinding those gears all day (Tim, get a compact!) stuck to our wheels like glue and it wasn’t long before we zoomed over the beeping timing mats greeted by friendly cheering folk gathered all around the finish.  Fantastic!

The Official Timing:

Bright (Start)     06:18:12 AM (5 min earlier than when the Garmin finally got clocking)
Dinner Plain     09:32:33 AM
Omeo               11:14:19 AM
Falls Creek     16:14:19 PM
Bright (Finish)     18:31:26 PM

Total time: 12hr 13min   Ride time:  11hr 03min  – with one sore butt to prove it 😉

Here’s also a link to the Garmin website:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/65047553

Thanks for reading – hope to see you out there next year!

There we are up in lights! photo - Viv Dilkes-Frayne

If we could have finished just 10 minutes earlier our names would have been up in lights alongside Anna Wilson and Judith Arndt – cool!  However we would not have been able to catch the aforementioned Nick who completed the ride over 30 minutes ahead of us.  Top ride Nick!

More pics and stats to tell the story.  Click to zoom in new window.

Job done. photo - Helen Dilkes

Summary Stats

Ha! Speaking of spin, check out the max cadence.

Split times - add 5 minutes overall while Garmin was calculating the route!

The full picture including gradient - from Garmin Training Centre app.