Thursday evening McPleasantGreenwoodleyConda Rapido

Nelson picked me up from the usual spot and we traffic jammed through the rushing hour to McCormacks Bay, seeing a blackback gull get squashed dead by a truck ahead of us on Ferrymead bridge, which was weird.  At McCormacks we changed and pedalled upward.  First little bit of steepness got me wheezing, but after the first wee crest, at the water pipes, we stopped and gorged on blackberries, YUM!  Good dose of anti-oxidants to prep our muscles for the rest of the huffy grunt of a climb.  Cleaned, at a good pace, all the climbing bar that second hairpin, then onwards up through to the ziggy zaggy whereupon i totally blew out on the top three corners.  Straight into the road and up and around to Upper Major and up onto the singletrack where we climbed steadily on up at a good pace to the top.  Just before the top my gears started doing something very weird, and lo, there was a wee rock wedged between my two front chainrings, lifting the chain on each revolution making it (and me) think briefly it was shifting to a higher gear, then not...  Took a tweak to get it out, and onwards around the singletrack we treadled to the gate, over, checked out a dumped car just about tipping off the road, trashed tires, before heading for Broadleaf and up up up to the top for a bit of a breather and a munch.

Into the descent, 7pm, southerly clouds just above our heads, and sunshine everywhere below us, kinda bizarre.  The wind was pushing all the tussock over the trail, making route finding almost as hard as it used to be.  Nelson was kept on his toes finding where we were going, and i was kept on mine holding onto his tail.  Blitzed on down and through to the end, and down to the Greenwood entry and swooping through this, tail wind pushing us fast down through the ruins and into the tightness, the whole way me staying close behind.  I got a little baulked up on some of the upper rocks but quickly closed the gap on Nelson again and we skidded and drifted and leapt and weaved and rocketed down the trail, back and forth across the hill til finally through the rock gap and on down, pumping through the uppy downy section and around into Gloopy Gulch and pulling up, at my request, for a quick break.  Stretching my sore back here.   Fresh, we continued on, down the rocky steep section and into the swoopy rolly section, in which I had one of the closest near misses I've ever had.  My pedal hit a rock, catapulting my back wheel off the ground and pushing me forward over the bars.  My front wheel was heading off the trail and I envisaged the bike dropping from under me and me flying through the air down the hill onto rocks and tussocks.  That didnt happen.  Somehow, I managed to reel it in and carried on, adrenalin slowly building as I rapidly caught up to Nelson and followed him onwards down, getting faster and faster and faster.  Fantastic.  Around the corner and the fast section before the rocky ups has been cleaned up a bit and is really fast now, tho i did hit a hard square rock that jarred my front end.  Up the first up, I'd actually changed down too low, so blew it, but scooted onward and chased Nelson down, tailwind pushing through the swoopy back and forth flowy section then around the outside and a biiiig drift around the macracarpa and down to the gate.

Down to Godley, into the climb, both of us fucking up the first rocks.  Both hitting up the usual line and both falling left into the guts then blowing the climbing out.  Oh well.  got the rest.  but my climb from here was struggly for a while.  Once we were up on the flat it was all good.  Around the top, over the boardwalks and around and all the time getting faster and faster.  Blasting from the last wee bridge down, I spotted a rider ahead and in no time she was moving off letting us past and we blazed on down to Livingston and through to the wee fence bridge to a short rest.  Back stretch again.  On up, good climbing now up over the rocks and into the blasting flowy pumpy descent through and back over the PFMTBC rock and flying down to the last cattlestop and onto the road, 7.45 pm.

Into Anaconda and our speed got more and more intense.  SO fast, screaming down the trail.  The whole time me tight on Nelson's tail, thinking "Man a GoPro mounted on my chest right now would be awesome footage!!!"  Through the lower swoops back and forth and on one of the last ones, the one just before the horrible off camber corner, i got all crossed up, front wheel off the left of the trail, back wheel off the right, totally across the trail, still flying, my body weight continuing down the trail and i'm thinking, not unlike before, "here goes" but no, once again, somehow, I managed to escape inevitability and momentum's grasp and squirrelled back into line and "FAARRK that was close, AGAIN" onwards we flew.  Into the tail, swoop swoop and through the sheepstop into 'Briden's Bush', back getting sorer again, on down and finishing off flying down to a waiting rider (and dog - which Nelson was a bit concerned about) at the final jumpy sheepstop, across the paddock and into the carpark.

Grovelly, but pretty fast, for a while, climb out of Taylors then as we approached Nicholson Park i spotted a van coming so i hauled ass to get ahead of it, and streamlined myself down the hill.  Nelson got stuck behind the van, but didnt mind too much.  Finally, around the bays slipstreaming Nelson through Redcliffs increasing speed the whole way and back to the car, 8.30ish .

Good, fast ride.