Just when we thought that we had left the cold weather behind us, Scone gave us one last burst. We woke to 3 degrees and fog everywhere! Again I put on all my warm riding gear (which by this stage was pretty salty/sweaty but at least I was warm).
The others left slightly earlier to get a head start and Lawrie, Ivor and I powered on thru the early morning sunlight. It was a mix of flat land and rolling hills which didn't help my sore knee. Just as it would warm up, we would fly downhill for a minute and everything would freeze again. We passed a few of the slower riders and caught the main group of 4 about 20km out. I let my two breakaway companions go and decided to stay with the medium pace group until my knee was feeling better. From the previous days, once the sun was up and we had done 50kms or so, the pain would subside and I could push hard once again.
I organised the group into a pace line mainly to help us maintain a good speed without tiring anyone out, but it also gave them something to concentrate on instead of the distance ahead.
I made sure that we didn't stop long at the first rest stop so that our muscles wouldn't get too cold. We kept up a good pace going past Muswellbrook and Lake Liddell. Morning tea was scheduled for Singleton about 45km from Scone. The group fell apart abit leading into Singleton due to some big hills but we all ended up at a nice cafe safe and sound. We sat in the sun warming up and enjoyed coffee and breads. It was peak hour in Singleton and we watched the locals going about their business.
Well rested and fed, we outlined the plan to get to Morisset. On paper, today was a pretty taxing 145km day so we needed to ensure no one was left behind.
From Singleton we would ride straight to the small town of Braxton for a drinks break. Here we would leave the New England Hwy and head into Cessnock along Wine Country Drive. We seperated into our groups again and set off.
With my knee feeling warmed up and better, I rejoined the fast team and sped towards Braxton. Quickly restocking on lollies and water, we headed into the Hunter Valley wine country. I had been in this area only a few months ago with Bianca (nearby in Lovedale and Polkobin) and knew the roads weren't that flash and traffic could be high. It also wasn't very flat.
The rolling hills were at least offset by beautiful views of vineyards and homesteads but we couldn't enjoy the views very much. As we neared Cessnock town, traffic was pretty heavy and (for the first time on the trip) we started getting aggressive abuse from some drivers. We were honked at, yelled at and swerved at in the last few kilometres. I bit my tongue and refrained from acknowledging any of it, mainly as we were representing Bridge2Bridge and the cause was more important to me than what these idiots thought of cyclists. We rolled into a small park in the heart of Cessnock for lunch. A journalist from the Cessnock paper was there to meet us and took some group photos. She was sympathetic to the aggressive vehicle behaviour and warned us to be careful on the last leg to Morisset.
To try and reduce our inconvenience on drivers we left seperately in small groups about 15mins apart. The fast group was the first to leave as we could let them know of any potential problems ahead.
We headed east on Lake Rd then onto Leggetts Drive towards Freeman's Waterhole. Freeman's Waterhole is situated on the otherside of a ridge so Leggetts Drive was a lumpy ride with taxing climbs. A fast and furious descent into Freeman's Waterhole led us under the Freeway and onto Freeman's Drive. This is where our problems began. The road shoulder on Freeman's Drive began pretty wide but soon reduced to 30cm then into a white line before disappearing altogether. This combined with heavy traffic was a dangerous situation. On one major hill we had no choice but to keep riding in harms way as cars did 90km/hr cms from my elbow. It was terrifying (and I am pretty used to traffic by now). There was no way the less experienced riders would make it thru safely. I let Lawrie and Ivor go while I rang the support van and told them to avoid Freeman's Dr and take the Freeway instead (a longer but safer option).
I regrouped with the other two further down the road (we also were chased by a dog somewhere in between) and pushed towards Morisset. Unknown to me, we had already ridden past 145km (my bike computer had malfunctioned on Day 5 and I didn't bother taking it from there on) - we had miscalculated the distances to Morisset.
We were on our last legs when I finally spotted the familiar Morisset roundabout and rolled up Dora Street. Then I felt my front tyre get soft and looked down to see it quickly going flat. No, not now! We were only a handful of KMs from the motel. I remembered that there was a bike shop on Dora Street and luckily they were still open. They helped me out with a pump which got the tyre inflated enough for me to blast the last 5km to the motel.
In the end, it was a 170km journey from Scone - about 35km longer than we expected. We were shattered.
The others rolled in an hour later completely spent and looking terrible. We knew that if we felt bad (given the training we had done) then these guys would be exhausted.
After a shower I phoned my Aunty and headed over their place for dinner. Nan came with us too and we chatted about the ride and my experiences so far. They could see how tired I was so they dropped me back at the motel by 8pm. I introduced them to the group and they relayed how much of an inspiration the riders were for sticking to the challenge. I waved farewell and went back to the room where I promptly passed out on the bed.
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