Blacksheep Global Man Ride

Sunday was Day 1 of my Great Cycle Challenge and also coincided with the Blacksheep Clothing Global Man Ride, a ride to help raise awareness for men's mental health. It was taking place in 9 locations around the world and consisted of a 200km (125mi) loop with 2000 to 4000m (6500 to 13000') of climbing in each country.

And this is somehow meant to improve mental health I hear you ask?!?
Well, there is something about challenging yourself physically but really a ride such as the Man Ride is more of a mental challenge. Having a big group of like minded lunatics...er riders around you, bantering and joking away is a great way to meet new people and cut through many normal social barriers. There isn't time, nor energy to be too guarded when you are physically and mentally in the hurt box so a ride like this can be a great tool to get people talking about men's mental health in general and hopefully get guys who are struggling, to reach out for help.

I heard about the ride on Friday afternoon and rolled up at 6am Sunday for the ride. 200km off the couch? No problems..........

Registering at Blacksheep Cycling in Helen Street Teneriffe saw me needing to push through a huge crowd of riders to get to the paperwork. Coffee and pastries were flying out the door but I must admit, I was a bit too nervous to partake. You see, I am not much of a roady. Actually, I am not a roady at all. I am just a guy that happens to own a road bike who rides it with a few mates who aren't roadys either. That means I don't know the roady ettiquette for pretty much anything.
Not sock height.
Not kit selection.
Not wheel size.
My legs are scarily hairy, a dead giveaway from 50 yards but maybe everyone was keeping eyes above waist level today because they let me tag along!

It was pleasing to see quite a few ladies along for the ride as well with a smattering spread across each of the 5 ride groups. I was entered in Group 4 which was a 30km/h (19mph) group. This sounded fair as I can hold 30km/h on my solo rides and while it is much easier when you are hiding from the wind in a group, how would 30km/h feel after 180km?
Well, there was only one way to find out.

Just after 6:30 we found ourselves rolling out, following a couple of designated ride leaders (and wind breakers- no, not that kind of wind breaking!) and falling into a two abreast snake of twenty-odd riders.

The roads were very quiet being early on a Sunday morning which was nice as we were riding some normally busy inner city streets to get to the always enjoyable Boondall Wetlands bike path.

We fairly roared along in a large group and were on the bikeway in no time. Yep, we were dodging walkers, riders and little kids wobbling all over the track on their bikes but we managed not to clean any of them up (somehow!) and emerged from the bike path to cruise along the Esplanade at Sandgate.

Our one and only flat tyre of the group happened just a few minutes before the first stop of the day with the guy I was riding next to being the victim. I stopped with him while he quickly changed his tube then we smashed it the 3 kilometres to the Anchorage Bakery Cafe in Newport.

Here we caught Group 3 just about to head out. After a short but effective stop, we headed back out. I wasn't really sure where we were but trusted the ride leaders as we wound our way around the roads of the Pine Rivers shire.

We eventually left the built up areas and found ourselves on some more rural roads. These roads started to roll over a few small hills and I was beginning to "feel" my legs. I had deliberately not checked my GPS for a few hours now as once you start watching the kilometres tick over you are invariably disappointed with your progress and become more concerned that you 'aint gonna make it! So, when I began to feel my legs I knew we must be around the 100km mark but I still wasn't looking at the GPS.

Sure enough, we crested one last hill then rolled into the tiny town of Wamuran  for another assault on a bakery which I had overheard earlier in the day was at the 110km(68mi) point. Here we again overlapped with Group 3, so 50 odd hungry and thirsty riders decended like a plague of locusts on their refrigerated drinks. The 'fridge was almost bare by the time I got to it. I wonder how Group 5 went as they rolled in just as we were rolling out?

Now shit was getting real! We had to climb Campbell's Pocket Road which was the BIG climb of the day up to Mount Mee. Pretty much a 370m(1200ft) climb over just 7km(4.3mi). Not too tricky on a mountain bike but with road bike gearing my legs were screaming at me for about an hour and twenty minutes......needless to say, this blew the group completely to smithereens as each rider settled into his or her acceptable level of pain and grovelled on.

How sweet was that stop at Mt Mee? I was really starting to think "I might not make this thing" as I hungrily dived into my musette bag that the support vehicle had dropped off for us. How embarrassing would that be though? Giving myself a small uppercut and stirring some concrete into my bottle I reminded myself that the drop OFF Mt Mee is pretty good and I would be able to "wing" this thing.....at least until the Dayboro bakery stop.......

After this short break I felt better and was able to fall into a rhythm climbing the last 50m or so before the descent into Dayboro began. This descent was too fast to do anything but hold on as I personally got up to 63km/h. Plenty fast enough when you only have 1" wide rubber and some skin tight clothes on.

The Dayboro bakery was a welcome sight on many a dirt bike ride and so it proved to be today as I dismounted into a half trot, straight up the the pie warmer, where I took possesion of a lovely little sausage roll and coffee milk. This lasted just long enough for me to get a photo then 2.83 seconds later it was gone!

The aches were starting to manifest themselves now. Sore feet, sore toes, sore arms, sore back, sore hands, sore butt, dry eyes...the list went on. I still had not looked at my GPS but was hoping that we were into the last 50 kilometres by now.

Rolling out of Dayboro we were pushing into a strong headwind and even being tucked into the group I could feel it's evil hands at work, holding me back. Luckily, we had taken a wrong turn and needed to backtrack meaning that wind was pushing us back. Sweet! We soon turned up a road that reared up over a short but steep hill and this set the tone for the next 30-40 minutes. My legs were NOT happy at all!

Many, many rolling hills ensued and I did my best to hold onto the bunch. I kept finding myself near the back and for non road riders you have no idea how hard it is to hold onto the back of the group as it surges and ebbs along. One second you are grinding for all you are worth to stay in the slipstream, the next you are feathering the brakes to stop from running up the back of the rider 4" in front. This is very draining stuff, especially after 150+km.

We eventually got back into the city of Brisbane to be met with dark skies and the threat of rain. After three months of zero rainfall I would have been happy for the skies to open up on us but we were lucky enough to have it at least hold off until we were almost back to the start/finish line at Blacksheep.

Whew!!
That was one tough day out in the saddle!
To congratulate/commiserate, the awesome Blacksheep crew were handing out icy cold beers made in the Green Beacon brewery across the street. Dave W thrust one into my hand and with the ice dripping off it I just had to get a photo. Shame I was so shagged that I took a pic of the back of the can........ :(

I must thank Dave W (a fellow Tour Divide 2015 racer and finisher) for getting me off my butt and onto my road bike for what was a very enjoyable day in the saddle. Stats for the day were 203km(126mi) with 2180m(7150ft) of climbing. 

This was a great way to start my Great Cycle Challenge off and I hope to totally smash the distance this October to be worthy of the donations that everyone have very kindly made so far.

Thanks for checking in. Lots more rides to come this October.....