So I'm currently in Melbourne for Christmas and today we're going to be doing the Christmas Eve Hellride. Well, I'm going to be like, Ellie express. Look at this. Welcome everybody to the Christmas Eve Hellride. Today is double UCI points for the winner. Tommy Owen is one of fifteen of them. Skippy's here, Skippy's right here. He lost the red flag and made his f**k escape He's got the Ukraine ribbons on, he solved the war Oh, showered! Jules Israeli Australian champion The biggest thai in Melbourne in here For the bank bank classic Welcome to the Hellride The fastest hellride I've personally ever been involved in since I started doing it way back in 2012 and this is arguably one of the fastest biggest bunch rides in the world I reckon if you know one bigger you can let me know below And here on the screen from left to right you can see the course which according to Strava is a 62.5 kilometer up and back with a decent lump in the middle which we'll get to Cadence speed power as average 3 second power And average 30 second power next to it with the gradient And many thanks to Lee Holly would turn it for the intro We'll get back to that Ali Express kit story surely because it's a bloody good one So this is Melbourne Australia some would say infamous fast bunch ride Although I personally would say it's the most fun slash best bunch ride that I've ever had experience with in my 13 plus years of road cycling In other words if I was on my deathbed and I was granted one last ride before bye-bye This would be it It's even worth traveling to Melbourne for all the way from the other side of the world Such as the UK as the cycling tattooist recently did I'll link up his video in the below description area To add further excitement for me given COVID lockdowns in Melbourne over the past Few years I actually haven't done the hell ride for years So being here for the Christmas Eve edition My excitement levels were very high And if we go back towards the start line here where I'm right at the back of the pack Progressing towards the front you can see quite a lot of riders In fact with a handful behind me as I slowly went through this footage while in editing mode I counted roughly 85 riders So she's a big group the hell ride and you'll often see 100 plus riders here at the start line And as a result of that sheer volume of riders When it comes to the hell ride the naysayers will tell you it's dangerous and out of control And that might be true for those that jump on the back for a few minutes As the bunch goes flying past but as you can see here the train is smooth Predictable and safe in fact some argue the top third of the hell ride is one of the safest group riding environments you can be in And as you can see with many national level riders here ripping turns at around 55 kilometers per hour I wouldn't argue with that point personally So let's get forward here a bit as we head towards The big dropping section of the hell ride up Oliver's hill in Frankston then in a mountain Liza but before we do that the alley express kit at the start of the ride And this little anecdote tip of fire is one of the big aspects I personally missed the most about the Melbourne cycling scene being the culture So the stitch and dart amateur cycling team have been around in Melbourne for roughly 8 years And one of their riders is the very well known Melbourne cycling personality slash Instagrammer Lee Turner and I assume because of the Instagram exposure Some random has decided to copy the stitch and dart kit Grab some picks of Lee and sell it on alley express According to Lee he was recently notified from one of his followers that there was a fake kit going around You shared it with his mates and then Matt purchased it as a bit of a joke And this was the pinnacle moment caught on video rocking up to the hell ride In the kit we're spelling mistakes and oh that's right it's giant ormond not or my And according to Matt who was wearing the kit This is what he said to me via text message miserable quality I made many little micro tears as I placed the nixon very thin quality as you can see from a bit of bum crack shadow And it doesn't leave anything to the imagination in the front So I'll provide a link below if anyone wants to join Matt and let me be clear I'm making no affiliate commission from the sale of this fake kit So we're now headed up arguably the most challenging part of the hell ride Moments earlier we passed a BP petrol station on the right hand side of the road And for those without the fitness to get up the hill they often stop and catch the hell ride coming back After it's looped through the mountain liser hills Personally these punchy anaerobic climbs I'm no good at so I like to get close to the front And I'll slowly fall back into the pack But you don't want to fall back too much Otherwise this punchy part of the climb which is about three to four hundred meters In length with a gradient roughly between eight to eleven percent You'll get dropped so I see Pat's lane will go past Put it in a bit of extra effort and it's a good will to be on pat was on the podium at the Australian Road national championships back in 2016 Almost went pro and has recently been the director sportive for one of Australia's premier cycling teams The in form team an example of the type of regular rider you will see at the hell ride and in true Do you a style you can see him giving Lee a little push to get back on track So After that initial pinch this climb here now Ungelates a little with a couple of rises that seem to just go on long enough to cause some hurt for many to pray that the traffic lights up ahead Turn red at the right time Oh Now it's a loop through the manalize village and a descent down Oliver's hill Oh You And we're now headed back on a very flat section of the road before we finish the hell ride So the final part of the hell ride is back into these little rollers and it's a sprint back into black rock where we started Unfortunately, I'm never going to get up the front for a sprint finish So the best you were ever going to see was the back of the sprint But you're not even going to see that as shortly my memory card feels on the GoPro with only a few hundred meters before the finish line I haven't run a GoPro for this long in years So it was a bit of an oversight It wouldn't make the distance or the I'm sure there will be many of you saying bullshit mate You got dropped but at least you'll see some early attacks go and just know that after this rise It's a downhill into the sprint not sure who won the sprint if you know drop a comment below and I'll pin it And if you want to see this full ride well most of it anyway check out the link below And if I've done But I want to sing it back I've got feeling in this one Yeah But I want to sing it back to you Where you know where you're done Where you've been Yeah But where you know But where you're done Where you've been Yeah Where you know