Sunday Classic

9am start at Steve's (who was doing his own flat heart recovery thing), and I was running late, then got stymied by the railway tracks on Wilson's Rd being worked on, so detoured through Charleston, thinking I might be able to get to the railway for a shortcut...  nope.  Met the boys by the church: Tony, Andy and Wayne, and we toodled around to Crapaki and headed on up. A lot of walkers today, older folk, and a few riders.  Delayered after the 2nd gate, and then I got my climb on and just tapped away at it, putting a bit of a gap between me and the boys, regrouping on the flat then pushing off ahead again.  Brief stop at the top and then off up Vernon.  Not a bad climb up here, and over to the Traverse - Andy flatting on the final drop to the road.

Chatted with a couple guys here then we headed off around, for Vic Park.  Nice flow around the Traverse, such a familiar puppy.  Noted some new brick work on what I never thought of as a particularly damage-prone section.  On the descent to the pond, bits of head wind, I was chasing some dude, who put the power on the climb to keep ahead of me.  Regrouped at the usual spot before Sugarloaf and then off again, chasing down the some dude again, some sections of no wind, some of tail.  Stopped before the trees and then we headed in, down 'coffee break', Andy hard on my tail down here.  Bypassed the see-saw and off down the paddock, looking back to see the rain on the plains heading our way (or so it looked).  Good tail wind down here too, over the cattlestop and into the rocks, ducking and weaving through them and into the trees, across then around and down, peeling left into my old favourite, all cleared of the trees of old storms, and heaps of fun again.

Out to the skidder site and we re-layered before heading into Shazza's.  Nice pop and weave down through here, tho rootier bits at the bottom were less so.  Across and down into Brent's, taking the hard left line, and blazing down through the forest to the bottom.  Regrouped again, and off into Bridges and Flow, across and into Nu Bridges, back and forth, back and forth, last couple of corners starting to get a bit weird.  Then down onto the 4wd track and blazing down to the Hidden Valley.

Bollocksed about a metre after the creek then rolled on round the first hairpin, down into granny for the sluggardly climb.  Dabbed around the second corner and waited until Andy swung into view, then off again, climby climbing like a climbing thing.  Nicely nicely up the last, wind really howling in the trees and powerlines overhead.  Regrouped at the stile, and off again, up and around then blasting.  I thought I was flowing really nicely; certainly felt good on the bike.  Floated over some rocks and blasted away, then pffft pffft pffft...  dang.  Stopped on one of the corners and had to swap out a tube.  A few riders passed through while we were stopped, and Tony and Wayno continued on ahead.  Once fixed, Andy and me continued our merry way.  BLAST of wind nearly took my bike from me climbing the stile, then off again, staying light on the tires, and prancing down the hill.  Slowly wound in the girl and her guy that'd passed us earlier, stopping briefly to give her a bit of gap.  Then caught her later and she pulled up, then I chased down her guy.  He stopped pretty much at the bottom for her, so I passed on by and proceeded to stuff up the last dodgy offpiste final section.  Rolled down the final track to Tony and Wayne at the bottom stile. 

Off down the road, tail wind pushing us all, and Wayne and me split from the others, over to Eastern and around, him continuing on when I peeled off for Wilsons.  Had forgotten about the roadworks, and had to go to the tunnel, then back streets til Stanmore for the last, tail wind assisted, blast home.  Home by 11.30 am.  Nice.


28.7 kms with just over 500 altitude.