The peleton climbing nicely although they have dropped Team Hubbard and are being caught by the Canberra Cycle Club peleton just behind. In fact there were many cyclists and clubs training in the Snowy Mountains over Easter.  It was great to see

Rocky Fortuna signals victory.  This is Rocky and Frank's first day as they missed the leg softener to Charlottes (Day 1).  Rocky hasn't even seen a hill yet and he has his hand in the air ????????????  Another Member of Team Hubbard, big Chris Reynolds.  Minimum entry criteria for Team Hubbard is 85kgs.  Chris got in easily at 105kgs.

Frank enjoys the climb up the mountain

Rocky getting passed by cars, donkeys, old ladies with walking sticks, etc.

Sneaky Pete was very fit and tested the legs of some of the others up the climb

The lead group.  Pete, "The Machine", Spurge, Josh and young Tom  Patton pace themselves nicely saving some for what is to come !

Ritchie Jenkins, took off half an hour early and so beat many of the crew to the top

Here's the Slapper bunch climbing nicely.  John Hadley, Sneaky Pete and Pat Naughton.

Pete, Spurge and Josh near the top of Stage one.

You will never guess who was first up the climb

Mark Murdoch reaches the Jindy side of Dead Horse and complets Stage one of Day 2

Here's Rosanna Fortuna coming in to the Sydney side of Dead Horse Gap.

Young Tommy Patton cruises in to the Jindy side of Dead Horse to complete Stage 1

Ritchie is going straight from Stage 1 to Stage 4.  There's no way he's doing stages 2 & 3.

Rocky finally knows what a climb is all about.  Yes the hills are longer than the ones in Bellevue Hill.

Rocky gasps for air as he finishes Stage 1 of Day 2

Rocky kneels in prayer that there is not worse to come

Then he starts kissing the ground for having made it so far.

Talking about lots of other cyclists being around.  Who did we run into at the top of Dead Horse Gap?  None other than the President of Cycling New South Wales.  We caught Robbie Bates was out doing some "secret miles"

Well finally we were all at the top of Dead Horse Gap and those of us with no brains elected to descend the 22 kilometres (Stage 2) and then turn and take on Stage 3, "The toughest climb in Australia"

Stage 2 was not too hard at all.  Here Frank and Rocky descend to the bottom.

Here's John Hadley and Mark "The Slapper" Robertson enjoying Stage 2.

Above, young Tommy and Josh enjoy the Stage 2 descent

Here's me enjoying Stage 2.  Even in the 22 kilometres down, there were a couple of little climbs.

More of team Hubbard enjoying the Stage 2 descent.  Yeah Rocky, you're smiling now!

Finally we are all at the bottom and everyone starts stripping off for the climb and putting their gear in the car with Joanne. 

Where's Rocky.  About 10 mins later, here he comes complete with sob story.  "Sorry guys, I can't do the climb, I busted a spoke"

I have never seen a guy break so many wheels.  It's lucky that he has a wheel importing business.  In fact, I reckon Velomax uses him as their crash test dummy.

Don't worry Rock, I just happen to have a spare 36 spoke high profile Rigida rim with Dura-Ace hub.  Let's see you break this bastard, and it's got a fast red tyre on it too !

Come on you guys, I want to get going.  Yep, The Machine was ready for action.

Not soon after that Pete "The Machine"  Macdonald was off like a rocket.  Anthony, "The King Of Heffron" Spurgeon was right on his wheel.

Not long after however, Pete sort of snarled and dropped the hammer.  Check this picture out.  Team Hubbard is climbing in 39/25 and The Machine is in the BIG RING !

I spent a good deal of the climb sucking Frank's wheel which was a little bit of a mistake because on climbs like this you have to go at your own tempo

In the end I had to let Frank go.  Frank is the lightest member of Team Hubbard after all and has about 9 kilos on me

Towards the end of Stage 3, Frank is nearing the top but is looking anything but comfortable

Josh and Spongee climbed most of the way together.

Pat Naughton is super fit at the moment and seemed to do the climb fairly easily.

Young Tommy was not looking so hot at all and actually sugar flated.  You can tell these kids 100 times to eat on a ride but it is not till they experience the joys of bonking big time, does the message soak in.

After about 4 energy bars and a Gatorade, we threw him back out onto the mountain.  Although he doesn't look so hot, he assured us that he felt about 1000% better and finsihed the ride to the top (Stage 3)

Spurge was all smiles when within about 1 kilometre from the summit of Stage 3.

Poor Sneaky Pete, great time up the mountain but when he came in he was calling out to some guy named "RALPH".  After that he looked very second hand as he commandeered someone's vehicle as a head rest.

Eventually though Pete came good and we all rugged up for the group Dead Horse Gap shot.  Where's Rocky and Chris??

Joanne and I went down the mountain and about 5 kilometre down here they were.  On seeing us Rocky made a bee-line for the car then proceeded to devour everything in site.  After he had had his fill and was feeling much better he asked us how far was he from the top.  I said, "5 kilometres"  Rocky said, "Only 5 kilometres, come on Chris, let's go"  I then said to Rocky, "Yeah Rocky only 5 kilometre but you guys are only averaging 5kph"  Rocky thought about it for a while and then came back with " That will take us another hour !!!"  I said "yep!"  In approximately 1 nanosecond after that Rocky said, "Put the bikes on the car !!"  Rocky then pointed out some stains on his top tube.  I said, What's that Rock, sweat ??"  Rocky answered, "No TEARS !!" 

Rocky was all smiles after getting a lift up the last 5 kilometres of Stage 2.

It's obvious the great affection he has for his Club President evidenced by this photograph.

Well the boys were getting pretty cool waiting for Rocky and Chris at the top and some had run out of water so they took off early to fill up their biddons in Threadbo.  Team Hubbard also went to Threadbo but we went to the pie shop.  Here are Team Hubbard with invited guests Pat Naughton and Tommy Patton.  Rocky felt much more human after washing down 3 or 4 pies with a 600ml of coke. The heavy weight member of Team Hubbard is Chris Reynolds weighing in about 105 kgs.  I reckon about half of that must be in his thighs.  Check out those tree trunks !

Last updated: Tuesday, 05 December 2006

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