Australia’s most well known and challenging grand fondo.
Smooth tarmac to roll back into Falls Creek for last 12km – Bogong High Plains Road
I have ridden Peaks Challenge Falls Creek once before in 2020.
The ride on that day was notable for being wet and very cold especially at the the top of Mount Hotham. I managed a respectable time of 10hrs and 5 mins and felt reasonable on the final climb of the back of Falls Creek. Reasonable meaning not too deep in a cave of physical and psychological pain. Us cyclists like to suffer, but the back of Falls Creek after 200km can push that suffering into what is known as type 3 fun.
WTF Corner, the start of the Back Of Falls Climb
As anyone who has done the event knows, it takes a lot of personal and family commitment and sacrifice. Raising a young child hasn’t allowed me the time or energy for another crack at Peaks Challenge until now.
For the 2024 event I would love to ride sub 9 hours. Physically I believe I have it in me, but everything needs to go right in the lead up and on the day.
I enjoy planning how to achieve my aims for such a big event, there are many moving parts that need to synch over a long time period. The major factors to optimise are fitness and strategy on the day of the event.
Fitness
Peaks is an endurance bike race/ride of 235km and 4500m climbing over 3 major climbs. Most people take between 9-13hrs on the ride of which 4-4.5hrs is climbing the major 3 climbs.
It’s a long day of consistently turning the pedals. You need to be fit to handle the exertion and achieving adequate fitness does not happen quickly. The body and mind need to adapt to riding nearly continuously for 10 hrs.
My plan for achieving fitness involves two phase over 12 months. Consistent 6hrs per week in the first 8 months followed by 4 months of increasing hours per week and long rides up to around 8-10 hrs. I will be targeting; endurance/aerobic fitness, leg strength, FTP and psychological fortitude. Up to 20 hours of riding per week needs to be balanced with family, work commitments, getting enough sleep and not getting sick of fitness riding.
Event Day
Strategy can be divided into, rationing energy, nutrition, stops and clothing.
Rationing energy consists of moderating power while maximising average speed. I hope to achieve a steady effort across the day with my last match still in hand at the finish line. Pushing too hard at the start can lead to the last climb being slow and very painful.
Nutrition consists of carrying enough energy, electrolytes and fluid to stay fueled while minimising stoppage time. It is important to avoid the negative performance effects of too little energy (bonking), electrolytes (cramp) or the wrong energy (GIT upset etc.)
Stopping time is kept to a minimum and should also allow one to get onto a bunch to minimise energy expenditure on flatter parts of the course.
45 mins descending Falls Creek can be cold, there is a clothing donation drop point at Mt Beauty
Strategy
As I found in 2020 conditions can cause strategy to go out the window and suck up a lot of time. In the wet, cold and fog time was lost in: descending, clothing changes and numb fumbling hands.
Hence strategy should be relatively flexible and become more focused close to the event as the likely conditions are better known.
A sketch of my current strategy is:
Descend Falls Creek rapidly and climb Tawonga gap with more power than would be advisable at the start of a 10 hr ride (85% FTP)
Be on the 9 hour bunch for the 20km false flat between German Town and Harrietville to maximise speed at minimal effort.
Try and stay ahead of or within the bunch by only stopping twice half way up Hotham and at Omeo. The Bunch will stop for 5-10 minutes at Harrietville and Dinner Plain.
Keep enough energy in reserve to average similar power up Falls as up Hotham (70-80% FTP).
Nutrition
Because of my minimal stop strategy I need to be able to carry enough fuel to get to Omeo 6hrs into the ride. From this point on I will supplement with food supplied by the organisers, Bicycle Network. I don’t really like lots of stuff in my pockets so I carry food in a small frame bag which also makes access very easy.
I aim to consume around 1g/kg/hr of carbohydrate over the ride. So 72kg*10 = 720g.
Most of this will be in the form of sweet food, and I will counteract that with savoury. I also find I need some real solid food to feel satiated.
I will carry: One 500ml flexible bottle of sugar water containing 400g of table sugar (1:1 glucose:fructose), A 900ml bottle of double strength electrolye mix and 900ml of water. The other approximately 250g will be made up of home made muesli bars, snakes and whatever I can get at Buckland Gate and Omeo (baked goods and gels).
Electrolytes will be in the form of electrolyte mix, which I will top up at stops and a few electrolyte tablets. I will also carry some paracetamol to take at Omeo and caffeine gels for the last climb.
This plan is flexible depending on weather conditions.