Blowy evening's ride tonight. Nelson and me met at Parkridge and headed around and up, over the fence where the bath used to be and across. I was really gasping, struggling with the climbing and breathing, mainly due to sleep and maybe hayfever issues. Bloody annoying tho, considering how I'd been feeling like I was doing alright when riding on my own... Maybe it's just cos Nelson's that much quicker, I was pushing to keep up. Anyway, up Britten, then across into the gale and over up Broadleaf where he took a call to organise his weekend, and on up the gravel to the radio towers. Still plenty of light til this point, I think I took my sunnies off up here.
Dropped over into the descent, a good blast, but man she's getting bony, and the wind was pushy at times, good on the tail, but from the side - nearly off course a couple times in the tussocks. Down to the start of Greenwood, we hung a left out the original entry across, pushing hard into the wind around and then dropped into Sheep Shit Alley, tail wind dropping down nicely nicely and around into some shelter from the wind beyond the pines. Sat and took in the view of the ships and sunset lightings with a snack.
Into the traverse across towards the ruins, up the bastard climby cornerers up to Greenwood again. Lights on medium to start, and dropping in. Wind, Rocks, Visibility, I was struggling. One point I clipped a rock and it nearly stopped me dead, the impact resonating right up through my bones and jarring me something wicked. Was almost like I'd blacked out for a moment, and nearly threw me off. Helluva shock. Picked up the pace a bit after that around, catching Nelson as he squirrelled on an angled rock, then he dropped me across towards Gloomy and obviously had a great run through there, ditching me. I didnt, rocks fatiguing me, but got my groove back on the steeper descent, popped the drop at the bottom and Nelson was waiting for me here. Into the lowers, Dave'sZone, blasty blasty, good pace down and out. Gale winds massive at the bottom just before Evans in those last corners.
Up the road, lonnnnnnggg grind, then into Britten where I led for a change and we had a good blast all the way down, wind died down a bit now, but still pretty strong on the final face. Super bony down to and under the pylon, and finishing at the cars.
Windy windy ziggy zaggy, 14 kms with 611 m gained.
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