Hurricane Ridge

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ianbrown
Posts:11
Joined:Thu Jun 11, 2015 12:42 pm
Your Ride:Rainbow Specialized Allez
Favourite Ride Style:Road
Hurricane Ridge

Post by ianbrown » Sun Jul 05, 2015 7:52 pm

The day started early for my first ascent of Hurricane Ridge, rolling out at 5am to make sure I made the ferry. Being there with plenty of time to spare allowed me to get my first dose of caffeine for the trip ahead and take my seat among the 100+ other spandex clad Shit Cyclists of Victoria (soon to be the Shit Cyclists of Port Angeles) .

Upon leaving the ferry I found myself in a group of ~20 others including Aruss and some other Wheeler's. Foreshadowing the main climb to come, when the road turned uphill to the toll both Aruss began riding everyone off his wheel. Myself, Aruss and Mike Dawson were the first to reach the toll both, with a handful of others right behind, so we paid are fairs and then took up camp at the picnic benches waiting for everyone else to get through the gate.

When the main group started up I was sitting tight at the back, but I started to move myself up when others started slipping off and I feared being caught out. As the tunnels approached the big guns were starting to push the pace and riders were dropping like fly's. I was definitely starting to feel the burn, but was sitting in among the front 10 so felt I would be able to hang in for a bit longer. Mat Shape had other plans, in the darkness of the tunnels he put in a big acceleration and the group shattered. Exiting the tunnels I was in the red with the 15 or so riders lead riders slowly (read: quickly) slipping out of grasp. Backing off and finding my own pace, and with the motivation of passing some of the weaker riders who had given themselves a head start, I was was able to keep a handful of other who had also fallen off in sight (and those behind at bay). With my hamstrings tingling I was caught by two Human Powered Humans, who I latched onto with everything I had (one was on a TT bike, so I would be a disgrace to my carbon wheels if they beat me up). From this point out to the top of climb I can't really comment of the scenery, with my eyes only leaving the wheel in front to check my heart rate. Coming up to the final corner (which I was unaware was the final corner) the TT'er had long been dropped, but I had given it everything and it was time to say my last good byes to the wheel I had been staring at for the last 20 minutes and had come to call my friend. I was relieved to see the rode flatten and my suffering come to end. Luckily I took my own time, as Strava failed to pick up the segment, which came out to about 59 minutes from toll both to hut, which was under my goal time of an hour so I was quite pleased. I was about 8 minutes behind the winner Mat 'To Good for Strava' Sharpe, who was closely followed by Aruss. Stephane was about 5 minutes in front of me and Scott probably about 3. My apologies if my math is wrong though.

After a few bottles of water and some snacks we were ready to descend, the fun ended early tough as tucking gave me a massive cramp in my right leg, meaning I had to sit up and go easy to let it work itself out. After some burgers and beer we were ready to board the ferry and head home.

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