Tweed Coast Treadly

Mark, Rob, Adrian and me. Up early, 6:00am, to Mebbin 2010 Mud Marathon in Marks work van. Road to get to Cutter Camp was wet and slippery, with newly laid roadbase and slimy mud.  That was nothing, I say again nothing, like what was to be experienced later. The others had pre-booked entry I was left to make a late entry, and stand in a queue for 30 mins while they parked the van. I chose the 25km loop, lucky me. The other distances were all reduced, the 75 to 55 and the 45 to 35 due to the really wet and now boggy conditions.

The start was delayed and staggered with a loop of 3km covered by all riders the 25k’ers last to ride the loop. Mark and Rod started on the 45k loop and the 25k’ers had to wait 25mins for them all to get back (3k!) before we could start out, some turned the wrong way Adrian and Rob amongst them. Many riders decided that the mud on that very first stage was enough and pulled the pin (organisers suggested if you couldnt do the loop in 15 minutes you should maybe consider stopping). After a couple of hundred riders had traversed the same stretch of gravel track twice the surface was at least 50 mill thick layer of soft sticky mud, and we would all have to ride part of this section again to ride to the finish. It wasn’t a pleasant thing to look forward to. (but more on that later when the home stretch ride was comparatively easy!)

The ride continued back through Cutters Camp and then the ride falsly seemed to improve, ha! that was all to change by the time the first descent off a maintained gravel road was complete. Everyone rode many of the same tracks with minor variations. At the 6km’s point of the 25km loop it became apparent that there was to be a lot of push bike walking in amongst the pushbike riding. The uphills were really, really greasy in some locations you could barely make any headway even when you locked both brakes and stepped forward and tried to pull the 35 kilogram mud cacked bike after you. After the first downhill and a couple of crashes, one where the front wheel slid into a position at right angles to the direction of travel stopping dead with me flying into the mud, lucky I’ve been practicing a bit lately. Lost the computer on that flip and wouldn’t know how far it was to go until I again made it to the start loop.

Some stretches were a greasy sticky orange mud, others grey and sticky and yet the worst(??) was the red sticky clay. It continually built up in thick multiple layers onto the surface of the tyre. Any excess found a way of squeezing and clinging to the sidewalls of the wheels. The worst effected bikes seemed to be the rear suspension models with the extra parts making ideal places to encrust more mud. All along the route riders from both sexes were, at the start using sticks to trying to remove the build-up especially when the wheels started to lockup. Later it was fingers and hands!  Many tried to ride the less steep hills and were mildly successful, although often they would spin to a halt and tumble only to be overtaken by a walker who they had passed on the way up while they cleaned the build-up from the frame.

The rest of the ride was much the same as the first half. Except the single track section was probable the most enjoyable, the number of riders pulling out or something else meant the track was not as chewed up but still as slippery and as it was downhill you, meaning I, could actually ride (??) the bike over it. It was fairly exciting even where I managed to hit a drop or log and slide into a shrub off the track, numerous times. I even managed to only crash and fall into the mud once on the way down.

This ride was not a speed record unless you could say that 4 hours (I think, but will see when the finishers get posted) is the record for slowest time ever for completing 25 kilometres. An experience none the less.

Later I heard Rob blew a sidewall and dnf, Mark was worried about the time and Rob’s wife waiting for him at the finish and so took the short way home therefore dnf. Adrian also dnf he had to get to work and ran out of time to complete, on his brand new Avanti shop provided loaner. Also heard that 7 rear derailleur’s broke from the mud and debris build-up. Also chains snapped and others got punctures that on the course could not be repaired successfully.

An experience where I could hear a lot of frustrated anger, swearing  at machinery and fellow riders. The riding through Mooball along Wabba Rd in some way prepared us for the conditions where to stay upright I needed to ride the grass debris verges, where there were any, and avoid being sucked into the sloppy wheel ruts of previous riders and hope the derailleur’s handled the debris.

I washed the bike in the creek near the van after finishing, getting some of the masses of mud off, then I lay in water cloths and all and managed to get the surface layer off me as well. I was not alone numerous riders did the same, boys, girls, women and men.

Lucky I brought a towel.

EDIT: Results….50-59 male

Public Holiday Trip to Minyon Falls with Mark in preparation for the Freedom Ride. A bush ride on the Youcan.

We got underway about 10:45am with mark picking me up in his work van (without me leaving anything behind this time) a journey through Brunswick, Mullumbimby, etc through to the Nightcap Nat. Park. We parked at Rummery Park Camping area and rode west onto Nightcap Range Road to the sign posted Telephone Road, on the maps it is Wirupa Break, but we made our planed turn too late to the left off Wirupa onto Telephone Road instead of the Minyon Fire Break. Dohh!

This led us on to Baldwins Road and a Southern exit to the park (although the proceeding ride was a nice descent along well maintained gravel road with heaps of small jumps, created from the cross road drains and a multitude of 50mm diameter strewn branches). We would need to retrace our tracks and try to get back to Minyon Falls.
So back up the short distance to the turn off (right) to Quirks Fire Track to the Quandong Fire Track and passing through Quandong Falls. Here we rested eating our lunch to the sound of small waterfalls and cool view in total quite (except for the forest sounds) and a great view then it was onto the Minyon Loop.

Clambering over fallen trees and as often as possible riding in granny gear along a rough walking track all the way to the intersection with the Miniyon Falls–Minyon Grass walking track. Here we started to see people again. We continued along pushing and riding where possible to the Minyon Falls Parking area until we were once again on course to ride along the single track to Rummery Park and Peates Mountain Road (freedom ride course)

We then, well me anyway, grovelled up to 615 meters elevation continuing past Perlite Road, past Watts Folly Road and turned around just before Tugan Road. Then the descent down Peates Mountain Road for a breezy 5 and a half minutes back to Marks van.

Peats Road about to descend

No Photos, but here is a 5 minute video of the Descent of Peates Mountain Road from my new $120 – ALDI Oregon handlebar video camera (Warning: 7mb downloaded)…

Only 20 kilometres but a fun trip even getting lost was good!

nightcap route

Slow cruise on the old mtb with Mark today, starting at a mellow 9:00am. A paddock bash along cane roads, cattle tracks and old abandoned banana roads from Round Mountain Westwards to Reserve Creek then the same repeated through to Palm Vale. Returning via the road network. Of note was a couple of little creek crossings, climbing over an electric fence using the bike frames as ladders on either side and the discovery of another possible route into the Mooball forest! it took ~4hours to cover the ~22kms.

Paddock Bashing with Mark through private property

Ride to Work Day is on again on the 14 October 2009.  Bicycle NSW/Sydney doesn’t seem interested in showing anything on their web site and yet Bicycle Victoria is promoting it with early bird prize draw registrations…

I havent looked at any of the Brisbane centric Qld sites.

FORENSIC investigators were hard at work yesterday along the section of disused railway line which runs under the Pacific Highway at Tyagarah.

Their grim task was to try to piece together the final moments of a woman whose body was found next to the track early yesterday.

By midday the investigators had found five or six points of interest, highlighting them with bright yellow numbered markers.

Clad in their blue Forensic Services overalls, their job was to record even the smallest detail – anything that could help lead to the prosecution of those responsible for the woman’s death.

Despite their meticulous work, the bald facts of the case were apparent almost as soon as the woman was found.

About 7am, a motorist alerted police at the Byron Bay police station, handing in to officers part of a badly damaged pushbike wheel and some clothing found on the motorway about a kilometre south of the Tyagarah Airfield.

Police were the first to locate the woman. Her body was lying next to the tracks about 20 metres below the highway, apparently thrown over the bridge railings by the impact of the vehicle which struck her.

The police immediately declared a crime scene in the area, about five kilometres north of the Byron Bay interchange.

Orange cones narrowed the flow of southbound highway traffic to one lane to allow police to do their job.

A short time later police discovered a pantech truck with ‘significant damage’ to its front end parked in Woodford Lane at Ewingsdale.

The 18-year-old driver of the truck and another male passenger were yesterday taken to Byron Bay police station for questioning by the Ballina Crash Investigation Unit.

By late yesterday afternoon the men had been released without being charged.

The police were continuing to investigate.

Police said it appeared the collision which killed the woman occurred about 6.45am.

Police are urging anyone who may have witnessed the accident to contact them or phone Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Police will not be releasing details of the woman’s identity until all her family have been contacted.

Addendum:

Teen driver’s micro sleep proves fatal for cyclist

* Georgina Robinson
* May 11, 2009 – 11:25AM

A woman flung from her bicycle after a young driver fell asleep at the wheel of a truck on the NSW North Coast yesterday “didn’t have a chance”, police say.

The 41-year-old woman was cycling south along a narrow road shoulder on a bridged section of the Pacific Highway just north of Byron Bay yesterday morning when the hire truck hit her from behind.

She was thrown off the bike and over the side of the bridge into thick scrub near an old railway line, dying instantly.

Police today said the 18-year-old truck driver told investigators he fell asleep for a moment, causing the truck to veer left.

“He appears to have started nodding off with fatigue and veered to the left hand side of the road into the guard rail and she was in front so he’s hit her from behind,” Senior Constable Mitch McMullen, from the Ballina crash investigation unit, said.

“She got ejected off the bike and over the railing.”

Police have interviewed the driver and his 22-year-old passenger, who was asleep when the crash occurred.

The men told investigators they had hired the Pantech truck to make a pick up on the Gold Coast and were on their way back to Sydney about 7am, Senior Constable McMullen said.

They had been on the road for about an hour and a half and had not driven through the night.

Senior Constable McMullen said the woman, from the small town of Tyagarah about eight kilometres north of Byron Bay, was cycling on a narrow section of road shoulder – about half a metre wide – and would have died instantly from the truck’s impact.

“All the evidence points to the fact that she was to the far left as possible and the truck is actually scraping along the safety rail prior to the impact, then the impact (occurred),” he said.

“She didn’t have a chance.”

The men stopped twice following the smash, once in a road bay about 100m south of the accident and then again, about five kilometres away, after turning off the highway onto Ewingsdale Road to wait for police, who found them “in a state of shock”.

The truck’s front end was badly damaged, police said.

No charges have been laid. Senior Constable McMullen said police were waiting on the results of routine blood tests.

It was not known if the woman had children or was married. Her parents had been informed, he said.

SMH