My Audax Journey and Flèche Opperman

The road is a fascinating piece of infrastructure. It connects townships and facilitates exchange of sorts, but the true beauty of the road lies in its seemingly endless reach. How far can I go… what lies beyond the horizon? It brings nothing but wonder to a traveller.

Since I brought home the Bacchetta high racer, I’ve been noticing a gradually growing self-interest towards distance riding. My first distance breakthrough was a 200km ride with the Audax Australia Cycling Club. The Wonders of Glorious Mee, it was called, which took the riders up Mt Glorious and Mt Mee. It wasn’t easy, I was told it was one of the toughest Audax hilly ride in Queensland, which further escalate my sense of achievement thereafter.

Top of Mt Mee overlooking the Glass House Mountains

And then summer comes and my brother and I had this crazy idea of riding up to O’Reilly at Lamington National Park, from Brisbane. We were joined by two other friends, MJ and Terrence, another 200km in the book. A bit later on, a solo ride up to the Sunshine Coast to see how far north I could ride in a day. Arrived at Caloundra and then rode back home, a total of 200km. Next was again The Wonders of Glorious Mee, a year has passed since I rode my first 200km. Although it was no less difficult than the previous year, I really enjoyed this ride. The view was absolutely gorgeous I had to stop several times for photos opportunity.

Celebrating the climb up O'Reilly. From left: Terrence, me, brother, MJ

The next long distance ride was a big step. The City Super Series 300km. It was a real test of mental strength. Riding hours past sunset was something new to me. Uncomfortable at first but I was kept company by two other long time Audax riders, Martin P and Dino M. They went on and pedalled a further 100km to complete a City Super Series 400km. I recorded a total of 322km that day (including the ride to the start point), effectively my first double century ride. Very tired, but proud of what I had achieved.

Crossing Lake Somerset at Neurum Rd

A few more 200km rides (urBAYne Assault 200km, Bribie Island with friends, City Super Series 200km) and I arrived at my next major milestone, a 400km ride in a day. The Fleche Opperman or Oppy is an annually held Audax ride that require a team of 3-5 riders to ride a distance of at least 360km in a 24 hour period. I joined a team of 5 and we called ourselves Team Gym-Wich Flat Trackers, as our ride take us from Gympie to Ipswich and supposedly flat terrain (completely untrue). The team riders were Andrew K, Nick B, Rodney C, John G, and myself. Simon F volunteered to be our team support which we are truly grateful for with his many years of riders support experience.

The team gathered at Simon’s place before the long drive up north to Gympie where we start riding the following day. The day went past quickly as everyone head to bed early at 10ish. It took a while for me to doze off as I try to contain the growing excitement and nervousness. It’s the classic mental state of someone about to embark something huge. A goodnight sleep is essential and I’m glad I had it.

Simon's DIY trailer did an excellent job transporting 4 road bikes and 1 high racer recumbent

It’s 5:30am and everyone is up already! The ride is only starting at 8:00am but we were all fed and geared up by 7:15am! Some checks on the bikes, some chats, and more checks. At 10 minutes to 8:00am, Simon gathered us at the entrance of the caravan park and took some photos, before saying goodbye and wishing us luck. This is it. The 24-hour 400km ride starts now.

All checked and ready to hit the road! Also, check out Simon's home built missile launcher

The ride kicks off with the typical Audax style of riding – sensible speed. First portion of the ride went past quickly, but not without some interesting roller coaster roads. I thought to myself, “Hmmm, this isn’t what I signed up for”, too late now! We have planned each of the rest stop to be at 50km intervals, or appoximately 2 hours of riding. At each checkpoint, Simon would be there feeding us and briefing us about what to expect in the roads ahead. Speaking of feeding, the first checkpoint was quite a memorable one. In a playground next to the community hall of Woolooga, some of us myself included had the first taste of Simon’s Famous Pineapple Slice! It was only made better with my growling tummy, breakfast was 4 hours ago. I looked at my Garmin and it showed exactly 2 hours since we started, 49km in, we made a good time so far. For those wondering how my Garmin Edge 500 would last the 24 hours of recording, I used a special charger made by Gomadic. It’s special because unlike other power banks, the device doesn’t restart when plugged into the charger, thus preventing the risk of having the data reset. John uses the same Garmin so we took turns to have our GPS charged at each check point. By the end of the 24 hour ride,  we each have at least 30% of battery life left. Beats the total runtime of 18 hours without recharging mid recording.

With only 20mins of rest time, we hopped back onto our saddle (seat for me) and spun our pedals to the next checkpoint. John, the racer, was mostly out at the front. This can be problematic at times as he tend to wander off out of sight from the rest so I tried to bridge the gap by being no.2. Bridging the gap didn’t quite work out as I found myself following closely to John and advancing further away from the rest of the pack. John presumably thought everyone was right behind him as he could hear my bike. I looked into my mirror and can no longer see the rest, brought my speed down a bit, still no sight, so I stopped. John was far ahead but I knew he would stop eventually. A couple of minutes passed, I was getting worried. Just when I was about to turn back, John came and we back tracked about 1km before finding the rest. Andrew had a broken spoke on the rear wheel. Not good. But Andrew reassured us that he had brought a spare rear wheel and it’s in Simon’s 4WD. We just need to make it to the next check point and all will be good. With the missing spoke, the wheel wobbled so much that the brake pad had to be removed. Once regrouped, we carried on riding. John again, unintentionally pulled away from us, so I moved forward and tried slowing him down while navigating as he didn’t have the cue sheet at hand. I had my cue sheet on a lanyard around my neck, which proves handy when I later inadvertently became the team’s navigator. I did however made a wrong turn but thankfully the rest wasn’t just following blindly. Nick wasn’t far behind so gave us a yell before we went off too far.

Team Gym-Wich Flat Trackers. From left: Rodney C, Andrew K, Nick B, John G, and Melvyn's right foot

Just before the turn into the second checkpoint, we came to an old bridge. It was the Dickabram Bridge, built in 1886. Some restoration work was done on the bridge but it retains most of the original material and even left a segment of railway track on it. A very beautiful historic bridge indeed. It sits across Mary River which was equally stunning. Our checkpoint was a nice picnic area but there were already some campers there. One of which had a couple of noisy barking dogs but that didn’t stop us from having a good time resting and soaking in the beautiful view. It was lunchtime so Simon served us some delicious fried rice, which I had 3 servings and flushed it down with a can of Coke. In my very first Audax ride, an experienced rider said to me to gobble up as much food as I can at every checkpoint even though I don’t feel hungry. I’ve been following this helpful piece of advice in every Audax ride and have so far kept my body happy. Another rule I had for myself is to eat anything that I like, because if eating for the body is important, feeding the mind is equally important if not more as mental strength plays a big role in long distance riding.

Dickabram Bridge. During the construction of the bridge, a worker was lost and never found. Legend has it that he fell into one of the pylons where he was filling it up with cement. Knockings on the pylon can sometimes be heard till this day...
Our epic teeth jarring journey across the Dickabram Bridge

With a happy stomach and 100km done and dusted, we return to the tarmac. Crossing the bridge for the second time, Rodney had this ingenious idea of riding on the railway portion of the track with parallel to our wheels plank arrangement. I watched in great delight as his front wheel popped into the gaps every few seconds but he gave up too soon before anything more silly happens. Few minutes past the bridge, we found ourselves riding alongside a group of horse riders. Simon had earlier warned us to ride slowly when we pass any horses as they tend to get stunned easily. I made sure I kept my speed to 15kph or less but despite this, one of the horses was shocked, nearly throwing the rider off its back. This somehow caused a chain reaction as other horses follow suit. Damn, I felt terrible. Nothing I can do except apologising as I rode pass them.

Horses get stunned easily by bicycles. Be very very gentle as you passed them.

We soon entered Bruce Highway. Earlier, I had some fear of riding on this highway as I’ve read from other touring cyclists to avoid this highway at all cost due to the heavy traffic with narrow shoulder. But it really wasn’t that bad at all, shoulder space was alright and traffic was tolerable, perhaps it’s more to do with being a weekend and the time of the day. We did however rode in a single profile and stayed together throughout. We were soon joined by a British touring cyclist. He was lugging some 20kg of gears on his touring rig and amazingly was able to match our speed. I refuse to think that we are weak riders, so I concluded that he’s just one helluva strong rider.

A British touring cyclist on his journey to Tasmania... from London!

The curse of Andrew’s bike was passed onto the British rider as later on one of his rear spokes decided to set itself free. Thankfully for him, we were only 3km to the next check point. It was a good stop for him as we kept him company for a bit and share some cold drinks and snacks while he mend his broken spoke. At this point we have already completed the 130km loop around Gympie and back to where we started from the caravan park. A bit of mixed feeling for myself as even though we’ve covered some distance, it’s already 3:30pm and we’re still deep in the Gympie region. It will get dark soon and Simon reminded us at the next check point we have to put on our night riding gears – lights and reflective vests.

Our journey down south towards Brisbane truly begins now as we ride along the rather pleasant but undulating (when is it going to be flat?) Mary Valley Rd. The next checkpoint comes quickly as it was only 30km away. We arrived at this quiet little town called Cooran, on the northern fringe of Sunshine Coast. Some munchies were taken, some bladders emptied, and back on the road catching the last light of the day.

The road was dark and quiet, only white LEDs and blinkies illuminate the road, and only the sound of running chain and gear shifting to be heard. I took the front to navigate and set the group pace, constantly checking my mirror to make sure no one drops. It could be mentally challenging riding in the dark, so it helps to keep the pack tight. The 50m drop to Eumundi was welcoming. We had a brief stop at Eumundi to celebrate the completion of half distance, 200km done! Rodney had earlier made known to us that he wasn’t feeling well. At this stage though, it was visually obvious that he wasn’t feeling 100%. Good news is we were only 10km to the next checkpoint, where we’ll be having our dinner. The not so good news is, well, we’re only halfway to the finish. But hey, glass half full yea.

Somewhere in a park at Yandina was our dinner checkpoint. Simon served us some very scrumptious pasta, complete with fresh basil leaves topped with parmesan cheese. Some discussions and confusions were had about the remaining route to Caboolture. My (mediocre) navigational skills appears to be in demand in this group, as conversations about route often ends up with “Don’t worry, we’ve got Melvyn taking care of it”. Good thing I brought my night helmet. Yes I do in fact have a different helmet for night riding. It’s white in colour to improve visibility and has an in-built head light attachment, which I switched on only when needed, like reading cue sheet and road signs. Riding in the dark turns out to be a lot more enjoyable, perhaps it’s the combination of the lack of traffic, wind, and the minimal distraction with the focus point being restricted to the area within the light beam. I wasn’t the only one feeling that way. Andrew said he felt better and rode stronger than ever before.

Dinner checkpoint at Yandina
Pasta makes an excellent fuel for the audacious rider

The journey to the next checkpoint is, erm, interesting. Simon drove ahead of us and stopped a couple of times to check that we were on the right track. At one time, he signalled us to turn back as he thought we made the wrong turning, so we turned back and made the supposedly correct turn, turns out to be a no through road. Sleep deprivation effect is starting to bite our minds. And then comes the 17% crisis. Somewhere along Palmwoods-Mooloolah Rd, a huge red warning sign indicated the hazard ahead that is a very steep climb of 17% over a distance of 400m!! I double-checked my cue sheet and confirmed we are still on the right track, but puzzled why Simon didn’t warned us about this. After riding for 234km, facing this climb is like facing hell. Not an overstatement. The feeling just before the climb, knowing quite well this will require the granny gear of 22-32 (I have an MTB triple crank) and even that, no certainty I would make this climb, is a real mental struggle. At some point, I just had to stop thinking and tell myself “Just do it!”. I kept my helmet light switched on, checking the speedometer to make sure my speed is kept above 5.5kph. Anything below that would be a case of falling timber. Didn’t even bother looking at the mirror to check on others as my steering swerves all over in a struggle to maintain balance. John and Nick overtook and went ahead but not too far. Everyone is on their own as this becomes a case of survival of the fittest!

As anyone who rides a recumbent would tell you, climbing is the no.1 weakness, and I believe with every increase in gradient, the difficulty is exponentially greater for the recumbent rider. Huffing and puffing my lungs out throughout, I did eventually succeed in overcoming that 17% madness. Everyone succeeded and we all stopped to catch a much needed breath at the top. And then came Simon in the opposite direction. “Wrong way guys” or something along the line. Can’t quite remember as my brain was still suffering from oxygen deficiency. He was fully aware of this very steep climb and apparently we were suppose to take a different road parallel to this. I defended by saying I was just following the cue sheet but it didn’t matter now, a mistake in the cue sheet perhaps? Simon asked us to follow him as he drove ahead and we did. After some nice speedy descent we came to Mooloolah township and took a connecting road to Steve Irwin Way. From there we were again left on our own as Simon drove ahead to set up at the next checkpoint.

Steve Irwin Way was such a joy to ride. Mostly because it was flat (yes finally!) and smooth tarmac. We probably averaged 28-30kph on this stretch. At about 258km we arrived at our checkpoint at Beerwah. Rodney still wasn’t feeling great so we all agreed to keep our average speed down in the next section. Got to admire his strong spirit to keep going despite the body condition. The journey to Burpengary remained flat and smooth rolling. The duty of navigation was passed on to Andrew after Caboolture as he was more familiar with the route.

Flat and smooth, as how it should be

Burpengary was our last checkpoint before the supposedly sleep checkpoint at Simon’s place. But we were running behind schedule so had all agreed to forfeit our sleep to increase our chance of finishing at Ipswich by 8:00am. We load ourselves with some pasta again at this checkpoint while Rodney unload himself which got us a bit worried. This means his stomach is rejecting food but food is our source of fuel. Nevertheless, being a true Audax rider he is, he soldiered on. Just as we were exiting the checkpoint which was at a park, a police vehicle stopped by and the officers asked us what we’re up to. Andrew told the officers we were on a 400km ride from Gympie to Ipswich, not sure if they bought it but seeing no elements of harm amongst us, they left shortly after. Just doing their job, any officers would be suspicious seeing a bunch of blokes in a public park past midnight.

Only 54km before our next (major!) checkpoint. Andrew took the lead and navigate the group as this is his home ground, as shown from the flawless navigation without a peek at the cue sheet. At about 327km, I felt something came loose on my left foot. It was as if my SPD pedal is giving me some extra ‘float’. So I stopped the group and Nick suggested to tighten the clip-in mechanism which I did. Pedalled some distance and realised it didn’t solve the problem. I can still pedal fine so this wasn’t a big deal. We kept moving. But this bothers me so I was determine to find out what’s wrong with my bike. It didn’t take long before I notice the increased gap between my left crank and the bottom bracket. There was about 1cm of shiny non-greasy bit showing off on my square taper axle and I immediately called for a stop. Just as I unclipped and slowed for a stop, the left crank arm completely came off the bike! Nick and Andrew stopped but Rodney and John had to continue riding as Rodney was seriously unwell and needed to get to Simon’s place ASAP. The bottom bracket screw uses an 8mm hex key. Took out my Topeak Hexus II folding tool, but the 8mm hex key cap that sits on a 5mm hex key has fallen off and it’s no where to be found in my bag. Gah, this is frustrating! Called Simon for help and he suggested using a flathead screwdriver but it was hopeless. Nick didn’t have the hex tool. Andrew had a folding multi tool but no 8mm hex key. The fear of DNF is becoming real. In desperation, we look at everything we’ve got to see if we can come up with any makeshift tool. While looking at Andrew’s multitool, I spotted an embedded piece of what looks like an 8mm hex key. We dismantled the multi tool in a way Andrew didn’t even realise it was possible and voila! We’ve got an 8mm hex key! Tighten up my crank arm and we’re good to go again!

About 10km later, we came to the much dreaded Gateway Bridge climb! Somehow we manage to overcome it without any whining so maybe it wasn’t that bad or we were simply operating on auto-pilot. At 2:30am, we finally arrived at Simon’s. John and Simon were sitting on the outdoor table while Rodney was seen lying flat on the ground looking rather lifelessly. Simon had prepared some nice homemade banana smoothie which I gladly gulped down 3 glasses. With already 346km wheeled down, we discussed how we should tackle the remaining 60km to Ipswich. Rodney looked seriously ill and hardly spoke the entire time. At that time, it didn’t seem right to allow him to continue riding. However, ultimately he gets to makes his own judgment. We had plenty of time left since we forfeited our sleep, so we just took a longer 1.5 hours rest in the hope that Rodney would recover. It’s 4:00am, and we were ready to go. Rodney decided to pushed on to complete the ride in which I thought could either be the most courageous or stupidest act.

Rolled down Marwood St and off we pedalled Westward towards Ipswich, where we shall reunite with 4 other Oppy teams. At about 365km, somewhere along the Bicentennial Bikeway, my crank arm came loose again. So a quick stop to tighten it up. I started thinking of alternative plans, one of which is to go home and swap my high racer with my hardtail MTB, but home was 8km away and riding both ways would mean I may not make the time, considering I’ll be moving at a slower pace on the MTB. This option was a no then. About 3km later, it loosen up again and this time it fell off, ugh. Tighten it back and this time I minimised the pressure of my left foot on the pedal, at times effectively pedalling with only the right foot. We arrived at our unofficial checkpoint at Toowong where Simon helped to tighten up my crank again and I left shortly after while the rest stayed on a little longer. I didn’t want to slow the group down in case I need to stop to retighten my crank multiple times. Somewhat miraculously, my crank stayed on in the remaining of the journey to Jindalee, where we stopped briefly as that was the 6am checkpoint.

Sunrise over Brisbane River

We nearly sat down at Jindalee McDonald’s for a coffee until Simon reminded us we shouldn’t risk losing time. I was the only one familiar with this route so I took the front again. We continued riding on the bike path before merging onto the roads parallel to Ipswich Motorway. Worried that my crank may came loose again, I was almost exclusively pedalling with my right foot only, left foot just resting on the pedal. We had plenty of time so we took it easy on this section but given the smooth and flat condition, we still managed to average close to 25kph. At 385km, Simon was spotted on the road side standing on his trailer to take some high angle shot of us.

Great shot of the Team GWFT riders by Simon! From left: Melvyn Y, John G, Andrew K, Nick B, and our team captain Rodney C

Quite honestly, the remaining ride felt like a breeze. It didn’t felt like we had been riding for nearly 400km in the past 24 hours. I suspect this could be due to the nicely spaced checkpoints and adequate amount of rest at each checkpoint. Knowing for sure that we’re going to make it to the finish at Ipswich Brother’s League Club, there was much joy in all of us. The turn into South Station Rd, and then the roundabout turn into Robertson Rd, followed by Wildey St, we started congratulating each other on this amazing achievement. We entered the carpark of the Brother’s League Club and Sandy stood right there with a camera capturing the moments of glory for Team Gym-Wich Flat Trackers. We were the only team this year in Queensland to ride a distance greater than the minimum 360km and to our great surprise, the first team to arrive! Although, we were probably the only team that also didn’t manage to get any sleep in the entire 24 hours.

Well done and thank you for the epic ride to all my team members!

400km, checked!!
Click on image to open Strava ride profile

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