Week 12 – Time to re-evaluate priorities

Its a been a few weeks since the announcement of Amy’s Gran Fondo moving to November from September. This has been the same weekend of Gravel Nats, but as yet there has been no announcement of Gravel Nats. Its disappointing, but like all things in life, sometimes you cop lemons. Time to come up with a lemonade recipe.

So with that in mind, our new goal will be Amy’s Gran Fondo. Not exactly an ideal course for me at this point, but nonetheless a goal of worthy level. It doesn’t have a massive impact on training at this point, however it will in the weeks to come.

So let’s have a look at the week just gone. We started the week and I was heading to Bright to scope out a couple of rides for a planned Bright Gravel Camp (yeah watch this space its coming), but with a return to Stage 3 Lockdown, I was no longer able to leave Metro Melbourne. Then a change of plan was needed. We kicked off our week with the typical VO2 Lung busting, leg crushing session. Yeah I love Tuesday’s LMAO.

Now where I had two days of Bright Gravel planned this became replaced by some a solid Zwift session including a solid climb up the Epic KOM. This was a solid effort resulting in a 6min PB on the climb. I could have done without the last section up to the Radio Tower, preferring the downhill back to town for recovery.

Friday I decided to do a solo impromptu CCW Shop Ride on the roadie. The 2020 Izalco Max 9.7 Force Etap AXS is moving to a new owner, who I know will totally love this bike. He has been coveting it for a while now. Hell he nearly bought my 2019 Izalco Max, but missed out. A cracking ride with a strong power out on the 1:20 averaging 272w. Need to get that up to 300w in the next 3 months.

I love Saturday’s sessions. We have a great little core group that take part in our CCW Zwift Shop Rides. While the numbers have dropped a little, those taking part are having a great ride. This particular ride was pretty solid and one of our quickest over the Road to Ruin’s course. I had a few technical issues which had me dropping in and out. When I got logged back in I was dumped back in the group where everyone looked like Mikey Bacon lol. I think if the weather turns to crap we will see a few more guys and girls.

Sunday was an absolute belting ride. Originally I had planned to use the day as the last ride ont eh Izalco, however the weather forecast was for drizzle, rain and showers. Lovely. So despite my Gravel bike being serviced and being beautifully clean, out it came. A great day out. A pretty easy ride out to the Basin via bike paths, then out to the Dirty 1:20. A great climb and in amazingly smooth condition. By the time we reached the top we still had not needed to ride on the road (though we might have spent a km or so on it at the start).

After hitting a whiteout at the top it was time to roll up through Olinda. The place was a complete Ghost Town. We continued on down the Wall on the road, before exiting the Olinda-Monbulk rd for Upper Coonara Rd and the grvael yet again. This gravel road had held the moisture a bit and so the spray was pretty amazing. This joined Holden Rd, taking us down to Perrins Creek Rd. Back on the Bitumen and up the Crescent before ducking into the Alfred Nicholls Arboretum. Its a great short cut (though hilly) through to Sherbrooke Rd and climbing up the Tan track back to Sassafras.

This is where things got very interesting. A quick drop down the 1:20 to the bottom of the false flat and a right hander onto Ferndale Track. I would love this in slightly drier conditions. A little rocky and pretty wet in palces, with a couple of fallen trees, but was an absolute pleasure. It brought us out onto Old Coach Rd before dropping back to the Basin-Olinda Rd. What a bloody awesome loop. Heading back home the way we arrived, it was a 3hr ride without stopping – Just awesome and one we will add to our shop ride schedule.