So, what do mountain bikers do for holidays? Go riding, of course. I needed a holiday desperately, and wanted to go away somewhere, and that's when I found the Scody High Country Cycle Challenge. It is a road event based in Mansfield, North East Victoria. Beautiful country, diverse, and totally awesome road riding. And it was even better to be there on a holiday, rather than all previous times with DSE fighting fires.
The holiday began with a visit to my family and dropping off the 'kids' at Puppy Hilton (mum's place), where they would be spoiled rotten for 2 weeks. A quick visit to Mt Beauty and some MTB-ing on the way through - why wouldn't you? - and then onto Mansfield where Evan & I enjoyed the roads, and the MTB trails around Mt Buller.
Evan was to ride the SHCCC with myself and my brother, Gav, however he was whisked away to the world of Elite MTB-ers at the final round of the National Series. So it was just Gav and myself doing the event - 185km on Saturday, 125km on Sunday.
First day was Mansfield - Mt Buller - Jamieson - Mansfield. The event began with a hiccup - I'd forgotten my glasses so we had to swing by the cabin on the way through town - so we missed the bunch ride out to Merimbah. As I found out, no big deal. With this event being my first road event, I've decided I don't rate bunch riding....too risky with too many numpties, way too close for comfort. Gav was strong on the Mt Buller climb - he'd been concerned he didn't have that sort of climbing in his legs, so he'd put in some pretty hard training days on the bike in the Blue Mountains, and it paid off....he had to hold himself back to ride at my pace! He'd made a friend with a chatty bloke named Jamie, and this made the climbing go quickly for him. A quick re-fill of bottles and we were ready to decend. At this point I came into my own, and smoked Gav on the 16km decent. A combination of the perfect bike fit - I LOVE my Cannondale feminine Synapse - and several years of chasing Evan down Bruxner Park and Ulong road decents. The remainder of the ride undulated and was enjoyable, knowing that the 900m incline was over.
Sunday was another gorgeous day of sunshine and very little wind for the Mansfield - Whitfield - Mansfield ride. We rode with the bunch for 30 minutes, then tried to get away from them....it was mayhem. Once we got to Tolmie the majority of riders turned around and headed back to town. There were very few continuing on for the entire ride, which made it SO much better for Gav & I. The decent to Whitfield was great fun, particularly passing so many riders who were using the 10km decent as recovery - bugger that! I didn't care if I crawled back up it on the return trip, but damn I was going to get as much speed out of the decent as I could! Returning back to Mansfield was quiet and enjoyable - Gav was still out-climbing me but I didn't care. Just short of Tolmie we caught up with a bunch of 4 older guys - we decided that Gav would go off the front for the last, flatter 15km and the guys would take us down the decent. Oh sweet rolling for 10km! And true to form, Gav took the front and drove us home, dropping me twice in the final 8km section. But we all rolled into town together, having shared a great ride.
We're going back next year without doubt - the smooth roads, the pleasant climbs, the scenery, the towns people, and the perfect time of year in NE Victoria.
