Quick catch up with Steve at the Travis Planting, Jeht in the car, headed from there over to Mt Pleasant for a nice little solo spin. Parked up just next to Kaikoura View. Toodled up the road, up into the old bathtub entrance and across Britten, climbing climbing. Around the front and up to the cattlestop, over the fence and as I climbed here a reasonable sized grey bird was running through the grass ahead of me. A duck? No, has to be a pheasant! When I hit the main track she flew from cover down across the road. Nice! Climby climb climb to the top of Pleasant where I had a brief gasping rest with some rams, then off down into the gnarr... Weird riding down through here, felt like every rock was pinged off and stalling me. Down in the tussocks I caught and passed a couple of walkers and then down the long straight bit got caught in a rut and the ground angled up to hit me... owch. Right knee and shit took most of it but the saddle somehow pinched my left inner thigh, and the handlebars got slightly off skew with a bunch of grass caught in the brake lever. Straight back on and down to the farmtrack where I stopped, readjusted, tightened and cleared, and got rolling again, around a family with two small kids and a poodle.
Into Greenwood, rocky blast this, slightly put off by my fall, adrenalin still lagging out, was not riding on form. Lower down I suddenly noticed a rider on a switchback above me. I put on a burst of speed and kept him at bay but I had to stop from exhaustion just after Gloomy like I usually do. He wasn't that far behind. Older dude, the type that's probably done every single Coast to Coast since it started. Fit but old. I said gudday as he passed and gave him a good gap before I took off again. Turns out I was slowly winding him in but before the final switchbacks to Evans he turned around and headed back up. Fit bastard. I thought about it, but didnt do the same, hit the road and started the climb. It was a grind. Though, in the gloomy corner, I spotted another female pheasant flying...
At the pines the family with poodle were loading into their car, I headed up Sheep Shit Alley, onto the road again, around to Britten and the blast down this, across and down the usual. Good roll, tho very wary of ruts-villainry. I'd parked lower down thinking I might ride Kenton, but by the time I got there I was too stuffed, so just took the path and road back to the car.
A malpracticed 13.6 kms with nearly 600 climbed (given I'd started the mmr late).
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