Cloudrider reflections, book launch, race dates ….

James Garriock’s 2018 Cloudride post race reflections. Part 1.

Dan Oakman's book launch ... 'Oppy'

Cloudride 2019 race dates.

FOR SALE: Debt recovery plan, a collection of surplus to needs.....

bikepacking, racing, touring …. they all seemed like a good idea at the time.

I first exchanged eMails with James Garriock a year or so ago as he moulded his thoughts and carefully considered observations around the data flow of ride history from past Cloudrides.

When I found this picture of his bike and rye comment taken while out on a scoping ride over the 2017/18 Christmas hols … I knew he was serious. As it was revealed he had also traversed across KNP a year earlier getting a feel for the terrain and … the pain!

James finished this years Cloudride in 3rd place 4d:20h:11m chasing home a couple of young whips in Calum McNamara and Lewis Brocklehurst . I’ve been looking forward to reading his promised ride report to see how his race stacked up against his best laid plans and thorough preparation…..

Part 1. by James Garriock

Cloudride advice for Groadies:

The riding thing started off innocently enough as a convenient way to get to work. Then you went for a few rides on the weekend, and hooked up with friends. You can do it any time, you don’t have to drive to get there and it made you feel like a kid again.

Somehow you’d always wanted to do the Around the Bay, and you did it, then you travelled down for the Amy Gillet as well. When you first heard about the Peaks Challenge you thought the riders were mad, but then you found yourself doing it, and doing it again and again.

You’d ridden every road in the hills how many times? Then a friend gets a CX, and so do you, and it opens up a whole parallel universe of roads, all connecting the same places but in different ways, like the nervous system and the vascular system.

You find a new world of content too, and start spending time on bikepacking.com and Melbourne Randonneur and Adventure Cycling Victoria and There Will Be Gravel and The Overland Archive. Then new events and routes drift into your consciousness like the Around the Bay did all those years before: Searching for the Bunyip, the Mawson Trail, the BNT, Tour Aotearoa, Munda Biddi, the Hunt 1000 and Tour Divide.

But I didn’t have three weeks for Tour Divide or even ten days for the Hunt 1000, so I cashed in all my domestic chips for a shot at the Monaro Cloudride 1000, a “mountain bike” event running from Canberra south all the way to Victoria and back. Steve Watson organises the race for the love of it, and he is a legend of the Australian bikepacking scene. He doesn’t curate his social media presence anything like as much as the Curve crew, but why should he? Steve isn’t trying to make a living from it, he’s just trying to spread the spirit of adventure and audacity.

So this story is for you, you dirty groadie you. I’ll tell you what I did right, what I did wrong, and why you should be doing events like the Cloudride.

But the first thing you are wondering about is the bike, and multi surface rides like this one aren’t about choosing the perfect bike but the bike that is least imperfect. Not all of these bikepacking events are the same. For example, the Tour Aotearoa is about 60% sealed.

There are four key choices about your bike: bars, tyres, sus and gearing, so let’s get through them one by one. You know the pros and cons of Fe and Ti and C and Al so I won’t waste time on the periodic table.

Bars: there are three kinds, drop, flat or Jones. Ride what you have – you probably have drops. I used aero bars because they seemed popular on gravel events, Tour Divide and Tour Aotearoa, but it was a waste of time. Not only did I rarely go fast enough to warrant their use, but the elbow pads stopped me from using the bar tops. If you must use aerobars, get the flip up ones.

Suspension: this is really a related topic of tyres, so I’m going to propose a rule of thumb, which is basically unencumbered by knowledge, so feel free to disagree, but here goes: front sus is worth 10mm of tyre width and rear sus is worth 5mm. Read on.

Tyres: For the Cloudride you need 60mm (2.4 inch) tyres without sus as a minimum, or 50mm with front sus, or 45mm with dual sus but that would be a bit weird. On that scale a sus headstem like the one made by redshift sports might be worth 5mm on the tyres. You could also ride plus tyres (2.6-3 inches) without suspension quite happily or a hardtail MTB with stock tyres. Oh yeah, and if you’re not riding tubeless you’re nuts. We had about 50kms of blackberries and they gave me at least a dozen punctures without getting a single flat. I rode Riddlers, which were great, but Ikons would also be good. Something with traction but not too much.

Gearing: when you read about how far people go in these events and how long it takes them you wonder whether they are riding one legged. Or maybe you think they are just touring….whatever it is, you couldn’t go that slow if you tried. Your CX’s lowest gear is a 46x34 and you ran out once, but that hill was nuts. When I decided to go for 38x46 on my g bike I had friends say “I can’t ride that slowly!”

So before you compare my gear choices to what you might need you probably need to know what sort of rider I am, which is OK but nothing special. My ftp on the start line was 4.5w/kg, I do the Peaks Challenge (235km and 4,000 m vert) fairly comfortably in under nine hours and my endurance is good. And what gearing did I use? I took off my 38 front ring and put a 30 tooth ring on, so my lowest gear was 30x46 and my biggest was 30x9. Was that right? Did I run out of gears at the bottom or the top? Let’s just say that if someone had offered me a 28 tooth front I would have taken it, but 30 was fine. Hard to believe? I spent 54% of my moving time on the Cloudride travelling at less than 10kmph.

I used a single, narrow/wide, elliptical ring and I’d highly recommend it. I never once dropped a chain or even had chain slap. One by can be frustrating on the road when you need to go at the same speed as those around you, and when a shift from the 10 to the 12 tooth means a drop from 48 to 40 kmph. On the Cloudride it never once frustrated me.

So there it is, you need a bike made of something, you need handle bars, you need 60mm of tyre width (2.4) but you can go skinnier with sus, you need Goldilocks tread, and 1x1.5 as your lowest gear, whether that’s 30x46 or 28x44 or 34x50.

In the next instalment I’ll tell you about the three mistakes I made on the Cloudride.

Dan Oakman’s book launch of ‘Oppy’ at the National Library of Australia

Dan Oakman was a Cloudride finisher in 2017 and has been an accomplished Audax rider over many years. In his spare time and other life Dan is a full time Curator at the National Museum of Australia….. in between these pursuits he turns his hand to writing and publishing the odd book. Last week I was privileged to be invited along to the launch of his most recent completed work ‘Oppy’ the first biography of the benchmark of Australian Cycling Sir Hubert Opperman.

Oppy’s exploits in the early Tour de France tours was a for-runner of our contemporary bikepacking races … up before dawn, follow the route and often finishing in the dark, very self sufficient and nothing like the Tour de France as we see it on television today.

Former Grand Tour rider Stephen Hodge reflected on this disparity in launching the book and historian Ian Hancock added flavour to Oppy’s amazing career recounting his pathway into politics and his role as a Minister in the Menzies Government …where he voiced his concerns about the introduction of the automobile leading to ‘obesity’ in the population… hmmmm.

It’s an inspiring read … if you’re feeling a bit soft, get a copy, read it … and get out on your bike!

Congratulations Dan, and wishing you successful sales!

Monaro Cloudride 2019 Race dates for 2019 look like this …

Cloudride Prologue - 500k

Saturday 9 March [Public Holiday Monday 11 March - ACT, Vic, Tas, SA]

Prologue course will be more on the eastern side of the Cloudride route … Tallaganda NP, Gourock NP, Braidwood, plenty of fast gravel and a bit less Vm than this years Prologue course but a tempting sample of the full Cloudride experience.

Monaro Cloudride - 1000k [Counter clockwise]

Friday 19 April [Easter long weekend]

Easter falls late for 2019 and Friday 19 will be the latest start date since the Cloudride’s inception, falling one day later than the inaugural Cloudride in 2014. The high country temps can fall quickly in April and strategic ride planning will be a factor in riders considerations tackling the 2019 event.

SALE SALE SALE!

EFTPOS available, Bank Transfer, cash... + postage. Message or phone Steve. 0417710999

or email steve@cloudride1000.com

Some highly prized but no longer required bikepacking treasures….. they seemed like a good idea at the time!

In the evolution of suck it and see I’m coming to the view that less is best. These items are perfectly functional and suitable for multi-day bikepacking however I’m a super light traveller ....... bivvy, celestial navigation, riding is warmer than sleeping sub zero renders some of these items surplus ….

ONE PERSON 3F UL GEAR ULTRA LIGHT TENT Au$100

This is a pretty schmick one person tent, a Chiner knock-off of a US$300+ tent.

I’ve used it 2-3 times, including a vicious rain/wind storm and it’s very functional dry and robust. Packs small and light [740g] and great bikepacking tent for those who want some overnight cover for self and a vestibule cover for gear and clothing. + 9 Ti-light pegs. No ‘hiking pole’ that 3F UL suggest but a simple fold away 3 x 35cm fibre pole is a few bucks. Fabric materials and finish are all fine. It arrived with a small conveyor rub hole on the bag and fly now patched. I’m now a committed light bivvy sleeper so it can go.

SPOT Gen3 Satellite GPS Messenger Tracker Au$165.00

I’m reducing my inventory of SPOT trackers … lightly used, original packaging, D Ring, velcro secure strap and mini USB cable.

NOTE: There is an annual subscription fee required to activate these units [ Currently US$199.99]