Sunday, hot hill work

Out on my lonesome leaving home about 9.20, drove and parked at bottom of Bowenvale on Eastern Tce - and caught up with an old friend, Ben, who I'll definitely ride with sometime soon.  Headed up Major Aitken Drive, figuring there might be a bit shade on the way up.  There was, tho it was still pretty warm getting up there.  Ground away and got to the gravel and grabbed some shade up the first section on a nice singletrack next to the gravel.  Then out in the open thankfully a bit of breeze around.  Under the pylons and then up to the high part hung a right and climbed up onto the singletrack, heading for the landing strip then up the last gravel, feeling a bit weak from the heat and the downhilling yesterday.

Brief break at the start of the Traverse, breeze cooling a bit, then I was off.  Good ride around here, tho the wind was a headwind for a start.  Met a couple of uni-cyclists (one of which was a young girl (9 or so?)), and was sort of chasing a guy on a carbon XC steed.  Good blast down to Vic Park-top and then through Thomson and Thompson and across an insanely busy Kiwi, cars clusterfucked everywhere...  Up the road slowly gaining on XC dude, catching him juuuust at the top of Worsley.  Cooled right off here in the breeze under that big pine and chatted to a few other bikers.

Off down the Body Bag, hugging the left hand lane (on account of a guy riding up the middle), which only gave me a little bit of gorse sting on the way down.  Into the park, climbing up the steep trail, and touching base with Paul and family who were celebrating Luka's birthday down at base.  Into Yeah Yeah Gnar and then a little way down decided Tommy2's, why not (just over a year since last down here).  Into here, it was cool, following pretty much exactly where it used to.  Bloody dusty as hell, but fun, and familiar and I rocked my way down it, cleaning everything.  Out the bottom and into DOHC, blasting.  By the bottom my arm pump was mental, and quite sore.  Popped into the base and said happy birthday and caught up with peeps and had a beer (nothing else on the menu or in the fridge appealed!).  Then off again, down the road, freshly watered, so not dusty, and then around the foot of the hills back to the car.

A smidge under 20kms, 660m climbed, 1.5 hours.  Hot.


Later Edit:  the next day the fires started, burning for a week, over 2000 hectares, including most of the park, and the Thompsons, top of Harry Ell and Marleys, and all the way across the top of Worsleys Rd to Kennedy's and into Gov's Bay.