The calm before the storm

So I haven’t been riding since Bright. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to, I’ve just been too busy with work, uni and, well, life I guess. I figure that we are going to struggle like no-one’s business anyway so why stress about riding in the last week before the ride? Nothing like a bit of self-justification to make you feel better.

We head up to the high country tomorrow, Bogong Alpine Village to be more precise. I’m planning on getting some photos and notes for a couple more climbs for the site while we are up there and I’ve got this idea of interviewing some other riders to see what their thoughts are.

At this stage I can guarantee that most riders will be a little concerned about the weather, and rightly so. The following is the Bureau of Meteorology’s forecast for the alpine district on Sunday;

‘Cloud increasing. Showers and isolated thunderstorms. Locally heavy falls possible.Winds northeasterly averaging 20 to 35 km/h tending north to northeasterly up to 50 km/h later in the evening. Overnight temperatures falling to around 13 with daytime temperatures reaching around 17.’

So yeah, pretty good cycling weather all round. Bicycle Victoria has a series of contingency plans in the event of inclement weather but it’s interesting to note that the only weather event that will cause the ride to be cancelled is a bushfire. So we could well be riding in the wet for much of the day.

To be honest I’m not sure if we will be able to finish the ride on Sunday. I’m not convinced that we’ve done enough training and if the weather is as bad as the forecast suggests, then it mightn’t be all that pleasant a day. Having said that, I can only imagine what it will feel like to finish the ride having done significantly less training than we probably should have. And then there’s the added incentive of the finisher’s jersey.

I will endeavour to tweet throughout the day on Sunday so for all of you that have been following us on twitter, please continue to do so. It’s @climbingcyclist for those that are wondering.

Before I go I would like to thank everyone that has followed Brendan and I as we have trained up for this epic event. To the ‘fans’ on Facebook and ‘followers’ on Twitter, thank you for your support and to those who left comments, we are most appreciative.
With any luck we shall speak again soon, hopefully having completed the 3 Peaks Challenge.

1 day to go…