Thurs Night, dyers vic marley x 2 worsley

Fun spin last night. the boys were gonna park up hill from kiwi and do laps of marleys, so nelson and me rode up dyers and hackthorne (for a change), into vic, up to top (not Harry Ell this time!), took thomsons down to kiwi, then up road. (a bunch of skyline-wankers were at the kiwi carpark, and all roared up past us later. (i hate skyline drivers)) Thought we'd missed the others, then saw lights at the carpark, and there they all were. Steve and Tony were done after two laps, but Hubby, Andrew, (hel)Mark and Pete were up for another lap.

So, off we tootled up the road, Hubby having left as Nelson and me arrived and Mark grabbing a lift up in his truck with Marie. met them at the top. bit of snow up there, was crunchy and nice. top section of marleys had a bit of frost/snow, and softened up a bit below that. was good. mildly sketchy, but eminently rideable. not sloppy. bombed down taking it reasonably easy. first run, Mark, Nelson, Pete, me and then Andrew and Hubb following. i kept on Pete's tail pretty much all the way.

back to cars, Andrew bailed and Hub's car was at kiwi so he bailed down rest of singletrack for that. Mark was in for another lap as was pete, so three of us rode and Mark shuttled again. another run down, all good, this time Mark followed by me followed by Nelson and Pete, all with good gaps between. i managed to catch up to mark, he'd had a wee botch up i think, by the rocky lowers, Nelson was steady on my tail but not chasing too hard. this time round was better, i felt smoother and trusted the surfaces better. back to car. Pete bailed, and Mark decided to join us on our descent, so we chucked our bikes on the back of his truck and Marie drove us (lazy, i know) to top of Worsley.

hat on, and hit it. Body bag was sweet. it looked greasy as hell but actually had good traction. below the gate we peeled right on a highish line. i was thinking it would get us past the worst of the chewed out bit, but it spat us out at the top of that. it proved pretty not all that bad. was an interesting trip down, a balance of keeping out of the ruts without crossing up too much. most of the surface was dryish, only greasy in spots. around the area we did some digging last week i managed to get into a big rut, riding along, hmm, that puddle could be deep, front wheel in, and i'm stepping off the bike over the handlebars onto my feet. one smooth motion. some part of the bike bit the back of my leg, dunno which bit tho. picked up bike and continued. very messy (4wd's) below the pylons, and then quite a good run down the last of the rutsville. across a permafrost slope, and i hear Mark hurtling up behind me, he actually crashed into my back tire, twice even, unable to slow down. then he crashes spectacularly behind me... his rear (v) brake wasnt working and his front was locking up.

on down, meet up with Nelson and blat out the last to the road. then, put on warmer gloves under bike gloves, and off we go. down road, flat tack. and down into the freeeezing cold valley. along river singletrack out onto cashmere road and Mark heads up hackthorne and nelson and me continue, round Ernle reserve and then back to his through Studholme, the park, Woodard McCombs Roker and Bradford Park.