2ewsdaie Night Flaying None (but Matt and me...)

For once, a group ride posse...  Nelson and me arrived at the Kiwi at 6.10 or so, followed by Wayne in van with Wazza, then Pete flew past up the road, txtd him "Kiwi", and he came back, then Matt flew off up the road, also txtd him "Kiwi", and he turned up.  We got riding, up the road, Wazza, Wayne, Nelson and me for a start, then Nelson realised he needed his flashy red, so turned back, and followed with the other two.  Nelson passed us on the way up Worsleys Road, and we all assembled eventually at the top of the Nun.  I followed Nelson in, and kept him in sight, but I certainly didn't have his rapidity.  He slowly left me behind, tho, the gap didn't seem to get too big.  I felt like Pete was right on my tail the whole time, until not long before the carpark exit, and from there on down I felt like I was just chasing Nelson.  Until the last of the jumps in that lower section.  Popped it, landed, and immediately my front wheel slid left, slamming me down onto the trail, arm out in front, sliding along.  So hard, that the impact pushed the sleeve of my right arm right up past the elbow.  I picked myself up, groaned a lot, unwound the handlebars (the wrong way at first, couldn't tell which direction it was meant to go), and got right back on the horse that threw me.  Alas, I could only coast because my chain was off.  Groaning some more as Pete arrived on the scene, I reassembled my drivetrain and pedalled on up to groan some more.  Went down to the car with Nelson and dropped off my bag, pulled my sleeve down, and generally decided I would soldier on.

Off back up the road.  At the carpark half way up, we headed up onto the walking track above the road.  Much more interesting, albeit slower, than the road, and rode and climbed the various steps and features of this under-utilised trail.  Back onto Worsley Rd, and my shoulder was getting sore, but onwards and upwards.  About here, it started to rain quite a lot.  Up over the top, and none of the boys to be seen, into the trail and fuck it was greasy and wet and nasty.  Nelson had a good turn of speed, but I muppetted my way down, taking it so easy and getting more and more sore as I rolled.  The smooth rock assemblages on the corners were like slick ice, and the wet dirt was greasy as a greasy thing, making my progress very cautious, but having to rely on instinct more than sense, rolling it down without too much of a bother.  Apparently Matt had crashed soemwhere on the way down too, and sported an awesome spot of leakage on his knee.

Riding too slick for all of us, and still early, so we headed our various ways to the Twisted Hop for to drink some Funkenstein (amongst others), and Nelson and me had some kai.

Bugger all altitude (225m), and bugger all mileage (8.2km)...