Conquering the Great Divide Gran Fondo 2013

It's 4am Saturday morning and the group of brave souls have gathered at Calliope for the 2013 edition of the Great Divide Gran Fondo.  We were joined by several Northerners - Vicky, Jamie, Andrew, William and Brett.  The plan for Vicky and Jamie was to swap riding/driving during the day.  I'm not sure how they worked it out, drew straws?, but Jamie got to be in the warm car and drive the Bilo range.  The Skipper gave a quick debrief about the road conditions and safety, then before we knew it, we were off.  It was cold and I knew it was going to get colder as The G had arm warmers on!!

L to R: Robin, Vicky, Andrew, William, Brett, Gerard, John, Daryl, Wentzel, Mark, Schalk, Kaye, Mike.  Behind the camera is Jamie.

12kms from Calliope, with about 25 minutes of warmth built up we get the first flat of the day.  This was repeated 12kms later with the 2nd flat.  The sun was nowhere to be seen and it was about 8 degrees.  Wentzel warmed some of up with has motivational speech about the day ahead and what to expect, using his experience from the previous year - we got colder.  We encountered a few road works before the bottom of the Bilo range but passed them without issue.  Gerard left us to return home, as was his plan, near the bottom of the range.

At the top of the range we met up with the support (SAINTs - Support And IN-car Team) vehicles for the first time.  The cold weather meant that we hadn't consumed a lot of water or food.  William got a chance to sort out his tubular tyre, then we set off for Bilo.  After a long stretch of road works we passed the SAINTs at Mt Murchison, who were vigorously waving and shouting encouragement.  First stop of the day was Andersson's Fruit Market, where we rolled in at about 8am.  Apparently you can buy fruit there, but they definitely had coffee, pies, coffee rolls, cream buns, etc, as many of us sampled.  Note, don't park in their car park.  If anyone is riding out Bilo way we have a contact in the Biloela Cyclists group, which may be interested in meeting up.

After a 45 minute recharge we headed north towards Dululu.  We passed through Jambin and had a stop further up the road where the SAINTs had pulled up in a shady spot.  Some riders were lucky enough to get a massage. 

The Skipper had earlier, mistakenly, advised that we were 70kms from Dululu, and when 70kms passed and Dululu was not in sight, the ladies were not impressed.  It's a wonder he didn't end up in the savannah or the Don River. 

It's about this time that Craig had his radio call sign changed from Eagle1 to Dove1, apparently after flying the coop.  He was chased down by Mother Duck, who bought him back in line with Bravo1, Bravo2, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Chick Wagon.  A lot of fun was had in the SAINTs vehicles, including D&M conversations about marriage and games of I Spy.  With a slight tail wind we made good progress and at 12:30pm we arrived at Dululu pub for lunch. 

After carbing up on burgers and beer, and taking a photo opportunity, we headed towards Mt Morgan.  Dove1 sat behind us beeping the horn to let us know when vehicles were overtaking us, which was a great help particularly on the narrower roads.  A slight climb towards Mt Morgan was followed by a speedy descent towards the pub.  We'd been on the road now for 10.5 hours and travelled 204kms.  The end was in sight, not literally though. 

Leaving Mt Morgan we climbed again to get to the start of "The Razorback".  The name sounds much more fearsome than it is.  That said, my rolling speed topped out at 88km/hr on the descent - probably would have been higher if I didn't have to brake for a slow Wilier.  We'd conquered the Great Divide and were steaming on to Gracemere.  I think Kaye was getting cranking with Craig for sitting back in the air conditioned ute beeping his horn, so she decided to do some mountain biking on the Pina.  A flat rear ensued and Craig was out in the heat with the rest of us.  A quick 7 minute stop and we were off again.  Coming into Gracemere we were unsure where we were actually going but luckily for us Mother Duck marshalled us down the right path.  After 12 hours and 234kms we had arrived at Anzac Park, Gracemere.  The SAINTs were there to cheer us in. 
For many of us this was the greatest distance we had covered in 1 day, and an achievement that is going to be hard to better.  Without doubt it would be an extremely tough ride without the support of the amazing SAINTs - on behalf of the riders I would like to say a heartfelt THANK-YOU.  Several riders had planned not to ride for the entire 234kms, yet carried on to the finish as part of the SAINTs.  Overall, it was a fantastic day with a great bunch.  Bring on Gran Fondo 2014.