Day 2 @ TDU

This morning I dragged my body out of bed early. I felt ordinary. What an arse ache to get a cold on my holidays.

I buggered around in my room for a while and then jumped on the bike. I wasn’t going to let a snotty nose and fuzzy head stop me.

Of I headed to Norton Summit. My aim for the trip was to crack 20 minutes up that climb. I have dropped a fair bit of weight since the last attempt, and have a new lighter bike, so everything suggests a faster time.

Winding through North Adelaide, I realised the wind was misbehaving. It would mean on some parts of the ride I would be blasting into it. When will the fun stop?

It is a constant push up hill to get to the base of the climb. I did that ride at Hay the other day and had 8m of climbing for 30kms. I had over 100m before I hit the climb. Take that legs.

Norton is a bugger of a climb that, for a guy my size, starts out tough. And stays uncomfortable for a long while. It averages about 5% for 5.5kms. Not a massive col, I know, but for a 47 year old hack like me, a challenge.

I huffed, wheezed, gasped and struggled all the way to the top. It wasn’t pretty with my nose running like a tap. I got confused about where I was on the climb and put in an effort thinking I was close to the top. Nope.

I finally got there.

I took that photo. Had a drink. Blew the junk out of my nose and rolled back down the hill, convinced I was no where near 20 minutes.

I did a lap through and around the city. Stopped in to see who I could spot at the Hilton.

Porte, Kittle, de Kort to name but a few. I headed home.

When I uploaded the ride to Strava, I got a hell of a shock.

I have to say, I was pretty happy. That was until a local pointed made a comment.

Arse! There are so many bloody segments on Norton, I never know which one to count. Despite the bad news, it was still a personal best, so there is that.

I intend to have another crack at it later this week.

The rest of the day was spent wandering the Adelaide Markets. I ate the best plums I have ever eaten today. The produce there truly is superb.

An afternoon nap then off to the pub for a feed.

Looking forward to day one of the race tomorrow. Not having a media pass means I probably wont be at the start of the stages, so I will stake out some spots along the route to try and get some photos.