HypoActive

The Ride to Cure Diabetes 2006 started well enough, although we arrived in Adelaide to find that the air-conditioning in Adelaide airport wasn't working.  It was to be an omen for the entire weekend, although we were only slowly becoming aware of this at the time!

We got to Jacobs Creek, and to the Jacobs Creek Novotel, to find that Bernie's Cycles were already set up and assembling bikes at what appeared to us - wilting in the heat as we were, having just got off a rather comfortable bus on which the air-conditioning was working - to be a furious pace.  They got everything sorted before they fried, though, and the vast majority of tomorrow's riders were ensconced in their rooms learning how to make the hotel's air-conditioners work, or else watering themselves for revival in the pool, by the time they finished.

The ride briefing at dinner that night, "dinner" being an understatement for a pasta carbohydrate feast the likes (and size) of which few diabetics ever treat themselves to, was a an unusual affair, with repeated warnings about hydration and relief stops being widely apprehended with scepticism by a crowd that still couldn't really believe that the heat was going to be that much of a problem the next day.   The start time for the 80km ride - which most riders were opting to do - had been brought forward, and there was some grumbling about the need to rise that much earlier!

The ride day dawned clear and bright, and the dire predictions of impending heat collapse seemed a little more plausible, given that it was hot, and still only about 6:00 when most of us got to the dining room for breakfast. For the most part, though, we were still gung-ho about it, and all still thought that the heat would be bearable for the majority of the ride. Breakfast was a rather jovial affair, and again the temptation to eat to much was easily rationalised away.  We all rode to the start of the ride, down the (rather large) hill on which the Novotel sits above the Jacobs Creek vineyards to the Jacobs Creek Visitors Centre, already noticing the heat, in spite of the early start - and one "lucky" rider scored a flat tyre between the hotel and the Visitors Centre.  When we got to the Centre, we were already sweating, and even once we started moving, at 7:30 for the 160km crowd, it was still warm.

The route was familiar to a lot of us, but that didn't stop a fair number (about 20) taking a wrong turn at the first roundabout, just before Angaston.  The resulting 20 minute handicap to our ride time, however, was later to be celebrated by all, as it meant that we missed the main group, who set out for the second lap of the 80km circular route just before we got back to the Visitors Centre.  Breaks at drink stops became longer and longer, and by Williamstown (the last major stop on the clockwise first lap of the course) most who I had been travelling in much the same sorts of time as had decided that they would not set out on the second lap, unless encouraged to do so by the organisers!  The decision was, thankfully, taken out of our hands by the time we got there, though, as JDRF had declared the course closed to anyone who set out for a second lap after 12:00.

The ride was generally good, apart from the heat, although the majority of cyclists spent a long time becoming slower and slower as their bodies compelled them to take it easy.  The hills, although not large to start with, became steadily larger and larger to a lot of tired riders!  The road surface was generally smooth and well-worn, although every bump was still being felt in the prevailing conditions.  St. Johns ambulance were busy for a lot of the day - especially after about 11:30, when the heat seemed to go up by about five degrees on top of what it already was - with heat exhaustion cases.  One notable case was "sprung" by the ambos as he rested under a tree - just short of the first 80km lap - and was deposited in the Visitors Centre feeling rather silly, if somewhat relieved!  When I arrived back at the Visitors Centre, a large group of the super-keen roadies had set out in pursuit of the 80km riders, being marshalled along the way by Steve Hodge, who was trying to ensure that most were actually able to finish.  The last of the riders from both the 80km and the 160km groups finished in the heat of the day at about 16:00, and a large number of these were treated for heat exposure by St. Johns.  When they finally made it back up the hill to the hotel, it was to find the pool very crowded with a whole lot of really tired people.

At dinner that night after the day's fun and games were over, we learned that it had been reported as being around 44 degrees temperature on the radio, and that some cyclists had measured 50 degree temperatures out on the road.  It stayed hot for the rest of the day and all that night - the air-conditioning in the dinner venue completely unable to cope.  Although the tiled floor of the Jacobs Creek Visitors Centre had been turned into a de facto triage unit for heat exhaustion cases during the day, and 300kg of ice had been gone through for treating them, nobody had had to be hospitalised - which was a huge tribute to the planning of JDRF and the execution of St. Johns.  All were still glad that we had done the ride, even if we had not finished all of what we set out to do.  As the organisers noted, it was a great relief that nobody had been obsessive about it, and had hurt themselves in a misguidedly competitive attempt to achieve something particular. Nearly 170 riders had participated, and over $600000 had been raised.

It was widely regarded as an unusual year.  Even in spite of all the problems, nobody wants not to do it again!

Andrew Elston

Photos

HypoActive rider Gavin Wright prepares himself for the task of riding the 80km JDRF Ride for the Cure challenge in extreme heat conditions

John relaxing outside the Visitors Centre in the cool blast from the opening doors into the air-conditioning!

The start/finish tent: the JDRF Ride staff being very effective water-carriers, on top of their demonstrated abilities as organisers and good sports!