Climbing Mt Baw Baw – a first timer’s experience. The bad news is that I won’t be joining the Domestique 7 Peaks Series Baw Baw climb on Sunday December 8th as I will be in Sydney for the final round of the V8s. I really think that the whole ‘Domestique’ idea is awesome. (And friendly, well organised, inclusive, unpretentious, motivating… you get the idea). The good news is that I had some time off this week and scheduled in a ride amongst family stuff (we have two pre-school kids). The important decision was: where should I ride? Baw Baw! Should I? Could I? Everything I’ve heard or read about the Baw Baw climb sounds terrifying and I’d planned to put it off until I had completed the other six peaks, but I decided that I had to face it & give it a shot. So you know a little more about me & where I’m at with my fitness: I am 45-years old, started riding on January 23rd, 2013 when I bought my Avanti Cadent Di2 (hadn’t ridden since school days back in the 80’s!). I went from being a 91kg couch potato last December, to 74kg now, by cycling, running, and swimming regularly, and eating properly. I’ve ridden the Crucifix twice (including Inverness Rd), the 250km ATB ride, ran a marathon, a sprint triathlon and Lake Mountain twice. Here’s my strava: http://www.strava.com/athletes/1579809 Despite all of this, I was still hesitant to tackle Baw Baw. Breaking it down, here’s my preparation for this ‘scary’ climb. I hope my experience can give you some idea of what to expect, and motivate you to tackle this awesome challenge! 1. Study the climb. I read Matt de Neef’s guide again: http://theclimbingcyclist.com/climbs/baw- baw-national-park/mt-baw-baw/, read the 7 Peaks tips, http://www.7peaks.com.au/mt-baw-baw-tips/ & watched Simon’s climb: http://www.7peaks.com.au/video-items/gerrans-vs-baw-baw/. Then I studied the strava segment data: http://www.strava.com/segments/5217745 Yep, definitely a scary climb. I even printed out the segment and wrote the % gradients on there (see photo below). I was going to tape it on my stem but forgot! But by the time we got to the start of the climb, I had the turns and route embedded in my brain. 2. Find a friend I sent out a message out to some friends & relatives to see if anyone was free. Ethan Edwards (http://www.strava.com/athletes/1214129) said he was free & wanted to join! 3. The day before Came back from a day at the beach so had fish and chips for dinner. Checked over my bike and packed it into the car along with the following gear: Clothing – (weather forecast was 11 – 18 degrees, 90% chance of rain later in day) so I put out: knicks, compression under t-shirt, brevet jersey, gilet, arm & leg warmers, beanie, fingerless gloves, my new ‘Domestique’ socks & shoes. I didn’t think that it would be too cold or too wet so didn’t bring the full winter gear. Other – 2 bidons of water, 4 gels, 3 bars, 2 bananas, sunglasses, chamois cream, sneakers, money & cards and iPhone in water-tight ‘Domestique’ pouches, Garmin 910XT, HR monitor. 4. Getting there (Thursday morning, 5:30am): Arrived at Ethan’s house at 6:00am, stopping on way for Maccas calories. It was Ethan’s turn to drive this time so we set off down the Monash, Princes Hwy (M1) to Tanjil Bren. From the South Eastern suburbs it’s around 1.5 hours drive to Noojee or 2 hours drive to Tanjil Bren. Then there are 3 ride choices: Start at Noojee for a 97km round trip ride Icy Creek for a ~ 48km ride Tanjil Bren for a ~ 32km ride Both Ethan & I had to be back in Melbourne by 3pm so we decided to start at Tanjil Bren (thank goodness we did – more on that later). Once off the M1, the road gets windy but still reasonable speed until Neerim South. It then becomes narrower and the huge logging trucks start to come past you. They take up a lot of room on the road and don’t really slow down. Hopefully they won’t be a problem on Sunday. From Neerim Junction to Noojee the road is still fine. Then from Noojee to Tanjil Bren, the road is very narrow with lots of turns. The road leaving Noojee is very steep and long itself. Give yourself plenty of time if you’re going to ride to Baw Baw from there! It doesn’t look too bad on Strava, but I think it would be much more than a “warm-up ride”. We arrived into Tanjil Bren at 8:15 & started our ride at 8:30. A few obstacles We counted at least 7 fallen trees that were still partially on the road (see photo). The ride Tanjil Bren is a very small town with a small car park outside a toilet block (see photos). Sign here says 16km to Baw Baw and apparently the last petrol stop as well although the bowser didn’t look too functional! It was about 10 degrees with some spots of rain but the road was dry. It felt warm. I wore my leg warmers but not arm warmers. I really think they help with cramp prevention in the calves, especially with such a short ride before the climb got serious. I had my gilet and beanie in my back pocket for the descent. http://www.strava.com/activities/97451909 The road from Tanjil Bren immediately goes down. We were surprised by this and the descent takes you a long way down for about 4km. The next 10km were comfortable at about 3 – 4%. This is where it’s a good idea to pedal a high cadence and get your legs pumping. The dreaded “Gantry”, where the serious climb starts, comes up at the 10km mark. Note that there isn’t a gantry or gate here, just a sign saying “Gantry”. As soon as you ride past this sign, you will see the road suddenly point upwards, literally. There are signs reminding you that it’s about to get steep! I was on my lowest gear immediately (and didn’t move off it until ~ 2km from the end)!! The 6.5km climb from the Gantry Everything that I read about the climb was true. From the Gantry, the steepness doesn’t get easier. It just goes on and on. You hope that there will be a flat bit, even just for 10m or so, to recover but there isn’t. I was already in my lowest gear (34/28). But Ethan was caught a bit off guard. In changing down, he dropped the chain off the front big ring and I heard a huge thump behind me. “I’m ok, keep going”, he yelled. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt and was able to catch back up. He was on his regular 39/27 crankset as it was such late notice, he hadn’t had time to put on his climbing gears. An awesome effort! I remember thinking that if you fell, you’d have to ride sideways or down to get going again before being able to head up as it would be impossible to start on such an incline. Luckily I didn’t have to find out! Thankfully, the road is quite wide. At least 6m in most parts, I think this helps mentally a little bit with tackling such a steep climb. It certainly helps when the road is so steep that you then have to zig-zag. I quickly learnt how to zig-zag, which I hadn’t ever really had to do before. After a while, I decided that zig-zagging should only be done in the really steep bits as I think it takes as much energy as just pedalling straight up, if not more. I think it should only be done when you physically can’t go straight up. (I could be wrong on that one?) Traffic I think we had a total of four cars passing us for the whole ride. That’s really another reason to get out of Melbourne to ride. There were no logging trucks from Tanjil Bren up to Baw Baw. The lack of traffic makes tackling such gradients bearable and less treacherous! Fuel I ate a banana in Tanjil Bren, had a gel just before the gantry, and another at the turn off to the Mt Baw Baw Tourist Road. I had a second banana with 4kms to go. I had a 750ml bidon, but regretted not bringing my second one as I needed to use some water to spray on myself to help cool myself down. It was hotter that expected, and there must be pockets where the heat just sits in between the hills. I ran out of water with only 4km to go so I was ok. I think it’s wiser to bring both & you can always pour some out if you think you need to shed weight! As you turn onto the BawBaw Tourist rd, there is actually a flat and downhill section for about 30m. It was very tempting to stop here as it would not be too hard to get going again but Ethan and I kept on. Once you get to here, it really is a mental challenge. You’ve already proven that you can physically climb it by getting that far! At the 5km mark, I told myself that there was really only 4 more kms, as Matt had clearly written that the last 800m was the easiest bit in his guide (very true).