Sunday Pleasant Green Gods

Nelson showed up to mine, and instead of wasting our tires on Linwood Ave, we drove to Ferrymead to meet the others.  I was tired after a rough night's sleep.  Passed Wayne on Humphrey's Drive, and then the three of us waited for the rest of the crew, composed of Pete, Steve, Tony, Andrew and Dallas.  Off up St Andrew's Hill we proceeded at a nice rate of knots, then Up Major through to Upper Major and onto the Britten Singletrack climb, around the top singletrack where we met a guy who borrowed a tool to tighten his cleats before we headed off down the road to Cavendish Saddle and into the grindy wee climb, which wasnt so bad.  Caught a group of old guys before the gate, regrouped, then hit the downhill, chasing Nelson, Pete on my tail down through.  Always easier to not be in 1st position on this descent, saves second guessing the whole time.  Great wee descent and pretty much straight into Greenwood, sitting on Nelson's tail the whole way down, Pete never too far behind.  Wrist was good on the descent, no pain, and obviously no need for a brace, which i'd tried 'in the parking lot' before the boys turned up and it was just too uncomfy.

At the start of the switchbacks Nelson thought his front end was washing around, and thought he'd let too much air out earlier, so stopped to pump it up.  When he'd finished, his back end started hissing and proceded to go flat-as.  So.  Tube change, and then Pete led off, me chasing, finding it hard to start with, but then he buttoned off a little and i gained on him around into the final straightaways down to the rocky pinches.  Pete mucked the first one up, allowing me past, and Nelson tight on my tail down the last blasts, was a fantastic run for me all the way down, felt like I nearly had everything in place.  Others were all complaining that they were off their games.

Onto Godley.  Nelson cleaned up the first lot, i screwed the pooch, as did all the followers.  Andy was probably the closest to getting it.  Good on the rest of it up, and a good fast roll round to the rocky knoll where we blatted down the slope towards the road, over the gate, down the hill to over the fence and stile and then down the walk track to Taylor's Rd, which was fun and smooth and entirely cleaned now that we take the hairpin properly. 

Clambered out of Taylors over and down Scarbro for coffee at .com and i needed to get home so Nelson and me rode before the others, pushing a momentous pace in top gear all the way, through redcliffs and out the causeway, only possible for me by slipstreaming behind him.  Saw Marie and then Mark around the Mt Pleasant Yacht Club heading out.

Home by 12.40