Thursday, February 27, 2020

Wednesday Night Huntsvern WitchCastleTors Pause OldSkool

New Drive Train!!!  Another 30t oval, and new cassette and chain.  New gear cable, and pivots lubed and tightened (awaiting a rebuild kit).

Me on my lonesome last night. Parked after work on the river, bottom of Bowenvale, and headed up Major Aitken at a pretty steady clip.  Pushed hard never stopping, up on to the gravel, chuff chuff chuff, nice refreshing breeze up here, tho quite pushy, onto the singletrack climbing still then up the grovel to the road.  Across, into Vernon, letting one or two coming up past, then bombing down, short cut to end.

Rapaki-top, not too many around, straight into Witch Hill, too low a gear and dabbed, but cleaned up the rest of it.  Stopped for my first real rest at the high point, feeling hungry, so snack and water.  Rolling again, drop drop to road, across onto the walking-singletrack, enjoying the crisp gear shifting and buttery smooth suspension.  Up the road, short stretch, then dropping into Castle for a fang. 

Lovely blast, mostly totally on top of the game, ripping through and down.  One or two lapses, but mostly all good.  Climbing, bunch of joggers near the end, then up the road, nice steady pace, observing a dude riding below on the trail.  Up and around, and at the top there's a massive group of riders approaching.  I walked up entrance to the Tors track, riding near the top, and was clear before they arrived.  Descending time.  Lovely blast, tail wind down the Tors track.  Popped and cleaned everything that used to get me, but had one dab where I've never dabbed before. 

Onto the road, and bypassed the singletrack because a couple of walkers had just entered it.  Coasted along the road for a while, nice and restful, then carried my bike up onto the singletrack about where you climb through the fence for pirate track.  Rode the rest through, down, across the road and climbed well up the Witch.  Didn't even pause at the top, just adjusted suspension and bombed it, waft waft float over rocks, and good slam through to the end.  Straight across onto the Vernon climb, clambering away ahead of another guy leaving him behind. 

Massive posse accumulated at start of Traverse.  Tailender stopped to let the dust settle before heading off, then guy from behind blitzed through, so I rested slightly longer and hit it across.  Opened up the suspension, dropped the seat and dropped into FourPause...  Wind was pushy on the jumps, but cleaned them all ripped into the landing strip zone, bombing down, tail wind over the edge dropping fast down to the stile.  Then feeling super good, bombed down the rest of it, usual dab on the one rock lower down, then bombing down into the off cambers and onto Old Skool proper.  Brief pause at the high start point, then dropping in, trying to run my left leg forward, to give the muscles some new memory.  Tried this several times on the way down but man it makes the riding weird.  Amazing tail wind across the first long traverse, head wind through the second, and tail again for the next.  Smooth, quiet, tire noise only...  Sweeeet!  Blasted through the lower reaches and bombed out to the road. 

Long coast and easy pedal back to the car... A mondo 19.3 kms, with 850m climbed!  Not bad for an afterwork week night.

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