2022 - On the road

[Mr Purple]

Nice picture of why I should actually get a bike fit from the Tour de Brisbane yesterday - also probably why I cramped up after 100km in that position!



At least I know I'm getting my back straight (ish) on the Cootha descents.

[Arbuckle23]

Think you might nearly have enough numbers on there!

[warthog1]

Looks nice and aero for descending. I don't see too much wrong with it. You can clearly put out the watts and if you are comfortable too, whilst being able to present a low frontal position, job done.

[Mr Purple]

Think you might nearly have enough numbers on there!

Yeah, there was a spare sticker as well that I didn't put anywhere because I didn't know what to do with it. Seemed a bit excessive!

Worth it doing the occasional event to get some decent action shots, it's not often you see yourself descending. Like this one too from the climb onto Story Bridge - much more my preferred position.



Pictures start getting a bit messier towards the end!

[elantra]

Think you might nearly have enough numbers on there!

Yeah, there was a spare sticker as well that I didn't put anywhere because I didn't know what to do with it. Seemed a bit excessive!

Worth it doing the occasional event to get some decent action shots, it's not often you see yourself descending. Like this one too from the climb onto Story Bridge - much more my preferred position.



Pictures start getting a bit messier towards the end!

Kudos on giving it a crack. I’m guessing that your bike is just a tad small in the frame but if the shoe fits….

Two of my Kingscliff mates had a go at this event.
One “took on” the 110 km event and said that he suffered pretty badly on the Coottha climb after about 80 + km of speedy riding
He told me that the number of entrants was maxed out at the 7,000 rider cap.
A lot more than last year.

Other bloke did the 55 km event and said that it was not his cup of tea - too much of that distance was spent in the boring tunnels.

Interesting route up to the Coottha from the Western freeway.
Frederick St is damn steep and then Birdwood Tce has got some little leg-burner ramps also.
I will admit that I love riding on Birdwood Tce but rarely get the opportunity these days because it ain’t in my backyard anymore

[Mr Purple]

I had a free entry but don’t think I’ll do it again.

The course is honestly very poorly set out. Lightening fast, tight and technical first 20km when you’re running four wide. I was 190bpm+ for the first five kilometres, 180+ for the first 20km. Some of that was a lack of fitness for sure but that seemed a crazy way to do it.

Then 70km of flat, largely featureless tunnels and freeways and you put Cootha 90km in? Why? All the actual climbers are mainly knackered by that stage and the big guys were always going to suffer.

I passed about 30 people going up Cootha, cramped within 400m of the top, stopped for two minutes and still passed half the people I’d already gone past on the remainder. That’s not a climb, that’s a death march!

To top it off the finish is an huge debacle with three u-turns and volunteers directing you the wrong way at each one, and there’s no difference in the bibs for the 16km, 50km, 90km and 112km events so you have no idea who you’re actually racing.

Either way I suppose it’s good experience and a lesson that if you’re doing a 110km group ride event you might want to try both riding in a group and doing 100km+ first!