Peaks Challenge Falls Creek Ride Review, Impression, How to Complete – Beginner’s Guide

Posted in: Blog, Cycling | Mar 20, 2016 at 3:04 PM

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INTRODUCTION

I’ve been able to finish the Peaks Challenge Cradle Mountain on the 1st of Nov 2015. See the ride report here. I pretty much just passed. So I was still intrigued to improve my performance. Luckily, Bicycle Network – the organiser – has multiple instances of these Peaks Challenges so I would have another opportunity to test myself. The next one up was the Peaks Challenge Falls Creek 2016. The ride profile was pretty much similar: 235km with 4000m+ elevation gain and 13-hour time limit. What’s different obviously was the terrain. Cradle Mountain consisted of steeper but shorter climbs; while Falls Creek consisted of a lot longer but less steep climbs.

Long story short, I managed to pass Falls Creek at 12h 53m. Who cares…as long as I passed. And not just that, I managed to slash 10 minutes from my time at Cradle Mountain. So in this opportunity I would like to share with you my ride impression.

My setup for the bike was a bit different, too. Still using the same bike with 34/50 but this time I used 11-36 cassette. At Cradle Mountain I was on 34/50 and 11-32 cassette.

Strava ride URL is: https://www.strava.com/activities/515709203

TRAINING

This time I think I trained better. I also purchased power meter which helped my training a lot. So my first suggestion, should you decide to do one of these rides, is to get a power meter. It allows you to pace your ride a lot better so you wouldn’t waste energy at a place where you should reserve and vice versa. Also, I still haven’t followed any training plan this time due to my life and work circumstance.

This time I did about 250km a week while for Cradle Mountain I did about 300km. And this time I did more indoor training than outside. I bought a Tacx Ironman Virtual Reality trainer which allowed me to connect it to TV and ran various mountain maps to keep me occupied. The brake resistance would adjust according to the gradient of the map. With indoor trainer it allowed me to simply train correctly at the right intensity. So I could just replicate a 4 or 5 hour climb by using the settings.

The result? It worked really well on the day. I could sustain that tempo/threshold intensity longer than when I was at Cradle Mountain. The only problem with indoor trainer was air flow. After 4 hours I often “ran out of oxygen” so-to-speak. While outside I could have ridden 6-7 hours. Another reason why I chose indoor training was because I live in Perth, Australia which is flat. Therefore, the best I could do would have been hill repeats. Although, I must admit now – based on my experience at Cradle Mountain – that hill repeats is no way close to climbing a mountain. The maximum length of a hill here around Perth was probably 5-6km with 4-5% average gradient. A mountain like Mt Hotham or Falls Creek/WTF would sustain a 25-30km at 7-10%.

Therefore, moving forward, should I do any of these mountainous events again, I would keep my indoor training. Training outdoor is great to obtain saddle time and to test your nutrition. But to train intensity indoor training is still better in my opinion.

I started my training 12 weeks before the event ie. starting from around early December. I still commuted to work at recovery-endurance intensity. And I would normally do FTP/threshold commute on Wednesday. Then on Saturday I did my indoor training at around 4-5 hours using a mountain map. So I would literally ride at my tempo/threshold for 4-5 hours. Sunday has always been my recovery day.

Follow me at https://www.strava.com/athletes/381651.

For this ride my 20-min FTP was 250w.

NUTRITION

My nutrition strategy remained the same as Cradle Mountain: 3 gels per hour. This seemed to work very well for me on the day.

I also carried 3 water bottle with one containing electrolytes/energy drink as provided by Bicycle Network. My goal was to limit my stops. This tactic seemed to work like a charm on the day.

Also, I have managed to lose 4kg of my weight compared to Cradle Mountain. I followed a high-carb-low-fat diet and worked very well for me. On this particular occasion my weight was down to 69kg from 73kg.

RIDE PLAN

– I planned to only stop 3 times: 75km in (Harrietville – pee, water refill), 110km (Dinner Plain – lunch, pee, refill, clothe change) and 188km (Angler’s Rest – pee, water refill).
– This time I planned to ride with the last wave to test myself and see if I would make it within 13 hour time limit. You could have gone with the earlier wave and saved up to 15 minutes. I kind of regretted my decision but I’ll talk about this later.
– Ride to my wattage. I’ve done my power zone calculation using the online calculator; and based on my 250w FTP I shouldn’t ride for more than 220w at any given time if I want to have enough energy all day long. So my plan was to ride at around 160-180w for flat and not more than 220w when climbing.
– Using brand new tires. Just from my Cradle Mountain experience, new tyres would be the safest option. It’s guaranteed that you wouldn’t get any puncture whatsoever. My tire of choice was the same as Cradle Mountain, Schwalbe One 23mm and pumped to 95PSI front-100PSI rear.
– I wore my ASSOS bib short that cost me bloody $300. I never wear this bib short other than events like this.
– I would also put on ASSOS butt cream.

THE DAY

So the day came. I left with the last wave at about 7:10am. The first wave – the 8 hour – went at 6:45am. It started with a 30-km descend to Mt Beauty. It took almost an hour to arrive at the bottom. Everything was running well. I also rode to my wattage at 160-180w. Then I arrived at the first climb: Tawonga Gap. This was a 5-8% climb for about 7km. It was OK. My indoor training seemed to work very well. So kept riding on and stopped at Harrietville just for refill and wee. I stopped about 4 mins in total.

Then we arrived at the second climb: Mt Hotham. Now this was a killer climb. Initially it was all good at 5-7% with few steep pinches at 10-14%. The problem with this climb was the length! I was about 1.5 hours into it and I thought I was already at the top. It had few descends before we hit the CRB hill. Little did I know that it would go up even more! Near the top more steep pinches were present 10-14%. By the time I arrived at the top I could feel it in my legs that I may potentially get some kind of cramps if I kept going with the same intensity. During any climb I tried to ride under 220w as planned; but still, lactic acid built eventually.

Then it’s all downhill to Dinner Plain. I arrived at Dinner Plain at around 1:15pm. The next cut-off time was Omeo at 3:15pm. The only problem was, Omeo was about 45-50km away from Dinner Plain. So I had to ride for more than 25km/h if I wanted to arrive within the cut-off. So I hurried, refilled my drink, took a wee and changed clothes. I stopped for a total of 14mins and I left Dinner Plain at 1:24pm. I only took one bite of the vegetarian wrap because my stomach just simply couldn’t take it due to the prior effort at Mt Hotham. I knew this would happen because at Cradle Mountain, as the day went by, eventually, my stomach would feel bloated.

So I left Dinner Plain and was on my way to Omeo. Along the way to Omeo there was a huge train passed by. So I quickly joined to save some energy. The Lantern Rouge riders were in this group too =O Long story short I arrived at Omeo 3:10pm – just 5 minutes shy of the cut-off time. I know there would be a lot of riders missing the cut-off time at Omeo especially those who left Dinner Plain after 1:30pm. The Omeo cut-off time was too tight in my opinion.

By this time there was only 1 climb remaining: Back to Falls Creek (which included the infamous WTF Corner). Somehow everyone kept talking about it. It’s started with WTF Corner – a 9km 10-14% climb which then eased off to 5-8% for the remaining of the 14km. To this time I have not walked my bike just yet so I was doing a lot better than Cradle Mountain. I checked my Garmin and my average speed was 20.4km/h including stops so I thought I would join the 12 hour finisher! HA! Little did I know that WTF Corner was indeed as notorious as – if not more notorious than – the rumor.

200km in and I arrived at WTF Corner. BAM…just out of nowhere, I looked up and it was soooo steeep! This was equivalent to Tasmania’s Spellsman Rd. Spellsman Rd however was steeper and about 4-5km shorter in length. Anyway, for the first 2km I was able to ride my bike. Gradient would go from 10-14%. But after that my legs just couldn’t take it anymore! I had to walk it. And even walking it was tough! At this time I was still 2 hours ahead of the next cut-off time. With 7km to go I thought I could make it. But then I looked at Garmin and my walking speed was only 3.5kmh. This was when I started feeling nervous. I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to the next cut-off time if I kept walking. The only problem was, I could no longer ride anyway. It was so steep.

Also, what I didn’t realise was,  Falls Creek must have been located at a higher elevation than Tasmania. The air was thinner and it caused difficulty for me to breath. I certainly never had any difficulty breathing when I was at Tasmania. Even walking my bike I eventually ran out of breath! So I decided to stop at the side of the road. I rested my bike on the road and I just sat down. At this time I was full of emotion. I almost gave up. I knew that I didn’t have the strength to keep riding; and if I insisted walking, I would have missed the cut-off time anyway. Oh man…I wish I could express how I felt. I stopped for about 5 minutes then I woke up again. One of the marshals stopped and offered me free water. I took it. Then I kept walking for another 1km.

At this time the gradient has reduced a bit from 11-14% to 8-11% so I thought of just giving a ride an another go. And I also decided to start zig-zagging. This was when a new hope sparked in my heart! I thought, “Wow…how come zig-zagging felt a lot easier…I could do this!”. I had to say, by zig-zagging it felt as if the the hill was 40-50% less steeper! So I kept zig-zagging, passing riders who have long passed me earlier. They were, too walking! Long story short I arrived at the next cut-off time at Angler’s Rest 15 minutes early. The notorious WTF Corner was finally finished but I still had another 14km to climb to arrive at the top of Falls Creek. But luckily the gradient was reduced! For the next 14km the gradient went down to 5-8%. Every time it hit 8% I would zig-zag. Man…this strategy truly saved my day!

Long story short it was all downhill from top of Falls Creek to the finish line. I arrived at top of Falls Creek at 730pm. The cut-off time was 815pm at the finish line. I had about 45 minutes and 12km left. I knew I was in a good hand given that it was all downhill.

So I made it to the finish line at ~8:07pm. I was sooo happy and full of emotion (again). Obviously the only person who knew what I went through was ME!

CONCLUSION

I think I did a lot better this time and I was a lot more efficient as a rider. The power meter truly helped. I trained a bit less in terms of saddle hours but in the end my performance was better than Cradle Mountain. The weight loss helped a lot too! So if I can give my advice, it would be the following:

1. Use power meter and ride to wattage
2. Join a train whenever possible to save time
3. Limit your stops…I stopped for a total of 27 minutes (including the 5 minute stop on the side of the road at WTF Corner)
4. Use correct gearing, minimum of 11-32 but I was on 11-36. Grinding would never work for this kind of ride. It would give you cramp very soon.
5. Lose weight….you’ll be faster during the climbs no doubt!
6. Train for descending on the drop. Descending is when you made up a lot of time.
7. Use new tires so you won’t get any puncture. I saw a lot of people losing time due to punctures!
8. Get your bike serviced few days or 1 week before so it’s all top notch and groupset works flawlessly.
9. If possible, go with the earlier wave and you could save yourself 15mins! The problem is this, you may have had the legs by the end of the ride, but because you miss the cut-off time at a particular rest stop, you could no longer ride! If you are a weaker ride like me, I suggest you go with the 9-10 hour wave so at least you pocket yourself 15-20 mins. That way you have a bit more time to rest and still making it to the next rest stop/cut-off time.
10. Finally, try to leave Dinner Plain by 130pm! Otherwise, you could have missed the cut-off at Omeo.

Same conclusion as Cradle Mountain, you can’t afford having a bad day at all. For me personally, I need to improve my strength by at least 30-50w if I want to finish 10-12 hours.

So that’s all from me. There is an upcoming Peaks Challenge at Gold Coast. Still don’t know at this stage whether I want to do it or not. Enjoy some photos below:

Have a great day,

Tommy

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