“Hell of the North” Cause we all can’t do Amy’s Grand Fondo

“Hell of the North” Cause we all can’t do Amy’s Grand Fondo – Spike’s Ride Report

While Eastern states cyclist tackled Amy’s Grand fondo, over in WA, we tackled The Hell of the North, a fun 140km course run as either a graded scratch race or a grand fondo.

For the graded scratch race there is a large prize pool available, and A grade had quite a few of the Satalyst Giant guys one the line, B grade also had a reasonably large field of guys some of whom normally ride A grade locally who’d gone down a grade, and also D grade was full of eager hopefuls, some big groups, but poor C grade had 8 people, I was in C grade….

I hate the course with a passion, it’s exposed, and you’re into the wind most of the way, it’s never flat your constantly going up or down slight rises, the road surface is horrible, and it contains one long gravel climb and one long section of road so bad they term “in pave”, hence the hell of the north tag. I’ve done the ride 4 times now, the first 3 contained, puncture fest, massive ambulance requiring crash, and a puncture fest, I’d always done well until either punctures or crashes ruined my chances.

Sunday was going to be different, I had specially prepared new tyres, I’d filled the tubes with sealant, I was going to stop for punctures this time around, I also had a spare set of wheels in the neutral service vehicle also similarly prepared.

We had a rolling start before being released for the race, and within the first 2km it became apparent that most of the group were going to take the “lets have B grade catch us and then work with them to make it easier in this hellish wind, and rain” that was not my plan, so together with a riding buddy and one other we establish a break, that grew and grew and grew, by 7km in we were out of sight, and rolling along nicely at 40 kph, swapping turns easily and working well together, for 2 hours we kept it up, time gaps to A grade where coming down but it wasn’t too bad, we looked good for staying away or at least holding on till close to the finish.

But each small rise was taking it out of me, and we were pushing hard, with only 3 people turns where short and eating on the recovery phase was tough, the wind was ridiculous and the speed we were pushing made it hard.

The gravel section loomed, it had been raining the day before so it wasn’t graveled it was mud, toffee treacle like mud, climbing in that was hard, it’s not steep, but power was through the roof so just needed to keep going, and then wheels started slipping in the mud, horrible, horrible.

I got unhitched on the last bit of the gravel climb, not by much, but enough, then spent a long time slowly clawing my way back to the other two, agonizing, finally I made contact after 10km of chasing, 110km down 30 to the finish, A grade hadn’t caught us yet.,,,

Minutes later the motorcycle Marshall came past told us to stay left, A grade were coming past, and fly past they did with a smattering of B grade riders a large group. I tried to hang on the back and managed for awhile, but I was toast. I was unhitched on a small climb, and would ride 20 odd kilometers to the end solo into horrid wind, my body finally expressing it’s distaste for me, and my bladder protesting how full it was and my mind telling me if I got off and stopped pedalling it would go on strike and never ride again.

I finished 50 minutes faster than I’d ever done before, placed 3rd in the Grade, I held an average power close to my FTP for almost 3 hrs, while it hasn’t been a part of my overall training goal, I definitely notice the difference in my fitness and ability to manage the physical demands since starting the training program, definitely helped get through the last 20 km broke it down into 5 min efforts….