Last weekend Tanya and I decided (well I decided) we would ride from Tom Groggin to Dead Horse Gap in the Snowies. It’s a Hors Category climb of 1050m from the Victorian border up to the Main Range at an average gradient of 6% but the average is deceptive. Well it deceived me. It includes 3.4km at 12% and a 1.4km, 213 metre climb at gradient of 16% – Geeesus.

We had almost made the whole climb when at the appropriately named Siberia two kilometres from the top it started raining. This was cute as the road started steaming (despite our best efforts, the pace we were doing would not alone cause the tarmac to start steaming). Then it started hailing which was not so cute. Pea-sized hail managed to find the holes in my helmet, yes I know how much hair I have, and left red marks on our arms and legs for the rest of the day. At this point, when I kept saying, it was ‘just half a Stromlo to the top’ Tanya decided enough was enough and we were going back. I invoked rule no.5 by raising my outstretched hand and saying the words, ‘Rule number 5’.  Unsurprisingly, that didn’t work either. Turns out Tanya’s call was pretty good. An hour and a half later when we drove through Dead Horse Gap going home, big mounds of hail were still lying around. While we were pelted at Siberia, it must have really come down at Dead Horse Gap.

Here is Tanya sitting bedside the road where she decided she would get hit by less hail than riding her bike – don’t ask me how that works.