Moredax Copper Coast 400 thingy

The first part of the day was a wind assisted smashfest watching Andrew just casually power along at 38km/h ish for the first 90kms, sometimes from a very long way back.

From Balaklava, chocolate donut and an iced coffee I saved for later, teamed back up with Andrew after being dropped before; and IT WAS ON. TTT for 24km, smashed through the leaderboard, adopted Paul, and I eased up to drink my iced coffee before Pt Wakefield (spraying myself with sugary caffeine in the process). Still nabbed a 3rd, Andrew a much deserved KOM.

A ridiculous paceline. I wanted to have a go at the KOM, but happily handed it over to Andrew.

 Pressed on solo, thinking there was a climb; but the turn towards Ardrossan turned out to just have crappy rollers and headwind.

Paul would occasionally appear in the distance behind me, then within 50m (hurray, company!), then disappear again (Oh, I'm lonely again).

Stopped at the roadhouse, got chips and chocolates, found a bathroom and caught Paul/Kym just as they rolled in. The run to Maitland then Moonta was amazing - tailwind, aero tuck, and long extended rollers that trended down. Realised I had spent 11 minutes stopped so far, and had a chance of a 200km under 7h, so my world just turned into staring at my gloved hands ahead of me, or my front wheel and not much else. Ended up ticking over the 200km mark with 6h:52? Moving time, so missed out by not much.

200km in just over 7 hours (11 minutes at controls) - really happy with that!

That turned into cruise recovery rolls for the last 15 to Wallaroo.

The controls were a bit silly on this ride, stops at Pt Wakefield, Kadina, Pt Wakefield again were still in the course notes, but not actual stops, or had no food (wallaroo pub!)

I took 25m at the pub and had no idea if Paul/Kym were ahead or behind. Riding past both a Hungry Jacks and a McDonald's because they were 100m off course was torture. By this time, it was just headwind, headwind, headwind.

I struggled into Bute, sometimes dipping down to 17kmh into the wind; hoping for a schnitzel and chips - and lo and behold, there's Paul parked up. I grabbed coke, chocolate, asked very nicely if Paul would wait 2-3 minutes; and in rolls Elbert, James and Kym.

Darkness has fallen by this time and oh fuck, it's more rollers. We're both shivering for the first 5km, and we start trying to work together; but every time we get up to speed there's a momentum sapping lump. Any rest we were getting gets destroyed on the up portion.

There is nothing more horrifying than watching Paul's cadence on a gentle slope downwards from his back wheel. The man never needs rest, never to coast, his legs Just. Keep. SPINNING.

So you've just put yourself in the hurt, hoping for rollcovery; haha nope. Spin! Spin or be dropped!

I remember the elevation chart and keep expecting the climb we missed earlier. Turns out the 20-30 of rollers were the climb! The descent into Pt. W was fantastic and seemingly endless.

My body imploded a bit on the flats, and I was starting to get dropped; luckily we got to food.
We could have kept on, but I suggested 5 might be faster than 2; that James/Elbert/Kym wouldn't be far behind - so we holed up an extra 10 minutes, ate and waited.

More food please

Eventually, we were rolling, a nice cruisy 20kmh, waiting for the pain train to catch up. The last 85km were hell, but the 24kmh back to Balaklava was vile - 27kmh, turns, 2% hidden gradient - you didn't know why you hurt, just that you did. People would get on the front, surge for 15 seconds, implode, surge (oh god why is this so hard, go legs go!), then fall off after 2kmish.

After, it turned a lot easier, flat roads - but I sort of fell into a headspace where I wasn't working hard enough to stay out of 'recovery', so that was a signal it was time to prep for sleep.
Neck issues cropped up, and I couldn't get on the front and just smash to wake back up, without risk of dropping the group then being spat off the back.

Mallala, I found a bench and got to lay down for 5 minutes, the relief to my neck was palatable.
The last leg from two wells was more of the same, the road cruelly shows you Gawler slightly lower than you are, and veers left - the twinkle of civilization and ride end being snatched away.

My lights were on their last legs, and Paul got on the front to lead us out, average creeping up. The last 3km turned into an all out get it done flog on my part, bunny hopping random road dips and sprinting through the main streets of Gawler. Thankfully I made it before it all went dark on me; everyone in at the same time: 11:55pm.

The drive home was serious sleep dep territory; my brain had a 2 second lag to all events going from my eyes to understanding what was happening. Should have slept for 15.

I couldn't have done this ride without the help of others; and oh god; Kym still has 200km today!

Done before midnight with a sprint finish. That was dumb.