Sunday Pleasant Tarmac Posse

Left home on the Troll (cos knew we'd not be much off road today - tracks closed'n all) and then remembered mymapmyride on Vogel, got it started and headed for the 9 o'clock meet at Steve's.  Got there to find Tony and Steve, and then up rolled Pete.  Headed the usual Garlands, Radley, Marshall, Radley Park, along The Cut, over the bridge then along the tow path all the way round the back of Ferrymead to the bridge.  Sketchy in spots around there, where my lack of tires made for slickness galore.  Also, a couple of the wee bridges in there were just lightly glazed in frost, one of which caught Pete out pretty good, giving him quite a wee fright.

Layers off on Ferrymead Bridge, then off up St Andrews Hill.  Low gear on the Troll is pretty good for this, and I didn't struggle at all.  Steve was feeling it hard when we got to Marama, so he tried a little experiment of spraying some of his nitro on his finger and tasting it (instead of getting the full dose of spray on the tongue), and he was marvelling later how well it'd worked.  Nice one!  On up Major Hornbrook all the way, Clearview and Upper, then on up Mt Pleasant Rd to the top.

Down the Summit Rd here, just rolling, the Troll, with it's smooth tires, proving quite quick.  Freezing cold in the shade of the Richmond Hill pines, and we popped over the fence here to continue on down the gravel farm track, then below this onto the newly upgraded dirt track, Troll surprisingly stable, to the top of Richmond Hill Rd, and bombing down this.  I was being a bit cautious down the steep straight, and Pete overtook me then we both overtook a car.  My brakes worked hard to reel me in from around 60kph for the corner, and then it was a nice blast down the rest of it, with an ice-cream headache forming by the time I made the bottom.  Brrrrrr... My pfmtbc doo-rag saturated with sweat was collldddd.  Around to Dot Com and coffee and snackages partaken of.

Onto the road and around through Redcliffs and the Causeway, all slipstreaming, first behind Steve then Pete.  Pete and me split from the other two at the Bridge and continued our merry way round Humphrey's and Spinwood homewards, home well before 12.

Over 30kms and 567m climbed in all.