Not much in the way of rides after Totaranui. Was in Nelson-town for a few days over New Year's but the rain kicked in before I got a chance to get out. Then a week at Little Ak with just the singlist which has a dodgy rear brake meaning no mileage completed.
So, finally, tonight, Nelson picked me up from home about 5.30 and we headed up Mt Pleasant, parking on the Upper Major (-Tom, your circuit's dead, there's something wrong, can you hear me Major Tom?... (R.I.P.)). I's tired as heck from catching up with old friend Matt last night and therefore sleepdeprived, and not having ridden 'proper' like for weeks my mojo was all skewhiff. Up Britten, got a bit of a headstart on Nelson so he took a wee ways to catch me then respectfully stayed behind the rest of the way up and around. Seemed, all evening, I was weaving all over the trails and catching rocks I really shouldn'a been catching, especially across the top of Britten. Crossed the road at the cattlestop and onto the new(ish) climbing trail and then on up the rest to the top, both of us overtaking a bunch of riders, first three slower dudes, then a few true (bright) blue #enduro dudes. At the top they all suited up, while we picked our way off and down. Muppetry was the order of the day. I pinged left and I pinged right, braked at the wrong times, wallowed in my suspension and generally musta looked like a complete rube. Slowly progressively I kinda got the hang of things, and by the final tussocks I was flying, sort of.
Into Greenwood, Nelson rarking up the dust ahead, and we were chewing our way down it. He bombed it, and I plodded my muppet-like way down behind. We passed a guy (who crashed right in front of me), and then the trail was our own. Well, it was Nelson's. I took my time and started getting a sore back. Did I mention I was tired? Gloomy Gulch and Nelson was disappearing over the exit of it, and I took my time through here, expunging a little air from the front tire at my usual rest spot. This definitely helped. Grip improved, and the rock section after the gulch was far better. I made a futile push to chase him down a little. To no avail. By the time I was rounding the corner over the cattle stop before the clay section he was already dealing with the rocky ups further down. My usual speedy bit just before them was not very speedy, and I borked on the first rocky bit, having to dab at the top (altho, Nelson's experience on it was a total backwards bounce from both wheels hitting the rock simultaneously). Back ache really dealing to me for the last swoopy sections around, and foot escaped pedal right before that last left hander under the macracarpa.
Where too next? Hmmm... Decided on a little bit of Godley. Across Evans and into it. Nelson failed the first rocky climb, so came back down for another go. I failed it, and did the same. He failed it again, I had a go and made it but then failed on the top exit rocks, and continued anyway. Then I think he got it. On upwards, cleaning the next techy bit and onwards along. Bony as hell, rocks trying to stop me at every opportunity. Nelson gapped out by miles and eventually I caught him at the end high point landing strippy kinda bit where he'd stopped. Here we turned around and he filmed from behind so I led the way and had one or two muppetty moments, but lots more grace and flow than any time tonight. Finally back to Evans and on up the Summit Rd, good pace but hard work for a tired bod.
Britten descent, Nelson filming again, and a good run down here with the top speed of the night, a whopping 35kph, and fun.
Ride mapped, 16kms, 530m climbed.
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