jo c - epic day 15

with 190kkm of riding remaining to the south tip of the island, the day plan was ride 'as you feel' until lunch, where we would regroup and ride together into Bluff. a chilly start and a few of us began the ride hard just in order to get warm - myself, dave an douglas soon up the road out of town. when steven blasted past, david upped his pace too - that left douglas and i. something/someone had clearly put a bee in Douglas's bonnet that morning and he had a real stop on -finally enjoying the kind of terrain that suited his strength as a rider, ripping it on the frequent rollers and tearing down the other side. i was having a great time chasing him - this is also my sort of riding. we had a few chances to chat along the way, which was great. doulas is not a big noise type, but a real sound character who i've enjoyed getting to know a little on our last 3 epic camps and at races in between.
pretty soon the sun popped out and the day really started hotting up. when class, gordo, scott caught us i was on the verge of cooking in my warm long sleeve jersey and happy to let douglas go do his thing and ride with these guys who were cracking along at a nice pace.
a lot of layers of clothing came of at the drink station and from there our group of seven - me and 6 strong boys - followed the main road to invacagill with a ripping tailwind. we were riding uphills at 28mph! tailwinds, scenery, sunshine and a great mood. what a glorious day to finish the camp on. we've ridden some great roads these last 2 weeks, but this was a riding experience i'll remember for a while. a nice lone leisurely lunch whilst everyone rolled in for the final 30km which we'd ride all together. a group of happy campers bikes and bodies just about holding together for the final pat of the journey. just one more optional little challenge - bluff hill. its about 3km straight up at 15-20% - and looked a lot worse form a distance as we approached the town! It was literally just about manageable of race gearing, but worth it for the views and sense of completion that it gave the half dozen or so of us that made it up that road.

after that stunt , we regrouped and rode the final mile of our Epic journey to Bluff point together, slowly into the wind - i was sure that like me, no one really wanted he trip to be over, savouring the experience rolling through the dingy town that is Bluff!
champagne ( cold!) was cracked at the point, lots of photographs and then everyone headed out for a nice little jog on the track around the head - me on my TT bike - and found ourselves back up the top of Bluff hill!

a great evening in the lone star restaurant, plenty of beverages and knowing that we'd not be getting on the bikes the next day. The epic team have done a great job of getting us from there to here, and even back again. a totally fantasitic experience, which wodl not have been possible without john and dave's organisation, gordo and scott's inspriation and the rest of teh team looking after our nutrition, muscular and technical needs. not to mention teh group of wonderful athletes that i shared the ride with. thanks guys x