Thursday Night loopy loopy convolutey

Nelson picked me up from mine and we headed east not really knowing where we might go - considering Lyttelton or Mt Pleasant localities.  Low easterly cloud (that had drizzled earlier in the day) was scudding across the hills, and for some reason we headed up into it, parking up on Parkridge Place.  Some sun to the west but also fast moving dampness ploughing in from the east, we headed up the new track I'd come down when riding with the boys (that they'd missed) back in November.  Quite a crunty wee climb, with even Nelson having to get off and walk a little, then across the face of the park and onto the old well trodden path up.  We held a good pace up here, ensconced in the fast moving fog, grass and tussocks rather damp, and Nelson only dropped me a couple hundy metres from the top.  Around the 'long' way across the top of Britten with the tail wind pushing Nelson off the trail as we rounded the top of the ridge, I took the lead from here through to where the climbers park their cars.

Across the road and up the Mt Pleasant access climb, but turning right and bombing down the steep single to the stile and over and down and into the ziggy zaggy climb to the Gondola building.  Sunglasses had to come off as they were steaming up big time.  Grunt grunt and clamber, up we went, the fog chasing us, and spectacularly swirling out over the bridle path.  At the gondola building we headed down the Crater Rim steppy section towards the Bridle Path top, with the fog starting to burn off and the sun shining through.  Good bomb down here, seemed bonier than usual, and we struggled to find a good way onto our sidling-around-the-munty-bits track (that hugs the fenceline just above the road).

At the Bridle-top we headed up the Crater Rim / 360 degree track that we've come down a couple times now, and found it quite good most of the way.  Further up than we remembered coming down, but got up through the overgrowing broom and steps.  We took a break on the way up and watched some loony riders climbing the Bridle Path, doing well.  Around the ridge top and downhill began back towards the Tors and CastleRock, nice flow down here with fun rocks to jump off.  Then across a light saddle and climbing again, up around to above the Castle Rock, final fun little descent down to there.  Sat and snacked and watched the loony climbers climbing up Castle Rock track, all three of them cleaning it to the top.  Chatted with them a bit, they'd come around from Gov's Bay, and were the builders of the steep singletrack over there, the reknowned "Governors Bay crew"...  They took off and a guy that'd chuffed up the road dropped into the trail ahead of us so we gave him some space and then Nelson led the way in.  I mumbled my way through the first descent and rocks, but once around the bend I started to flow, and quickly reeled Nelson in gaining on his tail before the first hairpin.  Around this and chasing again til the climb when I started to drop back again - just not enough oomph up the hills.  Easy roll out to the road and he was really huffing as we started our way along the Summit Rd under the gondola.

Around the bend just after the gondola the winds funneling through here nearly had us stopped.  SO strong.  Battled our way up around and into the singletrack at Cavendish Saddle, climbing up the steep mother and onwards up to Mt Pleasant, fog now but a memory, just damp tussocks and a little bit of dirt to show for it.  Straight into the descent from the top of Pleasant, fanging down through the rocks and over the stile.  From here, looking down on the Greenwood entrance, I spotted a new ribbon of singletrack coming up the hill to that entrance, filing it for later...  then onwards down, awesome blast down the singletrack, weaving through the tussocks and out to the 4wd track.  Into the Greenwood, but only to the first jump, where we peeled off to the left and onto the new trail I'd discovered last time up (the other week).  Great wee weavy trail, ducking and diving across the slope towards the big Richmond Hill pines, we had a very hurried and urgent time.  Out to the gate and 4wd, and found the entrance to the new climbing track (back up to original Greenwood entrance) that I'd spotted from above.  This was a great wee climber, zigging when it needed to, and looking quite established and like it's been there a while.  How we'd ever missed in the past I don't know.  It's even got gravel in places that would have been wheelbarrowed in.  Made our way up (and would be a fun down too) to the original Greenwood entrance and onto the road, climbing back up this short stretch to Britten.

Bombed into Britten, me tight on Nelson's tail the whole way, til the sun came piercing into our left eyes as we rounded down to the corner...  This sun made most of the rest of the trail quite tricky, but we found the left hander easily enough onto the new stretch of trail and absolutely flew across the slope and down the new techy bits back to the car.

A hard won 16kms with over 600m climbed, nearly all minty singletrack.

Family Adventure Parking

Borrowed a spanky SC Bullitt from Josh for Tra'y and we loaded up and trekked off to the Park.  First time up the lifts for all of us, bought myself a 10 ride pass and the family all had the 3 ride samplers we'd got for Xmas.  So, off up the lift, (the top of which I turned on the MMR).  Off down Duncan's Donuts to start with, O and me soon putting some distance between T and H.  Regrouped and I rode with H and T jetted on ahead with O.  Nice cruisy descent, a little on the slow side, and H was really getting bumped around.  It looked like his forks weren't doing anything ( - they weren't, I discovered a little lower down).  Bit of whinging ensued, from the start of Active Rest and for the rest of the way down.  O and me jetted off ahead again and got regrouped a couple times eventually getting to the bottom tho and waiting and waiting for them.  H was not happy, and I really was wondering if we'd get him up again.  But, sorted out his fork a bit, and got his brake lever closer to the bar, and put a bandaid on the blister forming on his hand, and off up the lift we went again.  Caught up with Mark down here too.

This time, O and me hooked up with Mark at the top and we headed into Yeah Yeah Gnar.  Nice, the old top bit of T2, so was good.  O did amazingly well, handing the 'tech' really well.  We blazed on down this, him only walking one steep section just below the volcanic rock wall (on Alice's), and cleaning out the rest nicely.  Then we headed into Double Overhead Cam, and it was a hoot.  Both of us really enjoying it and blazing down, overtaking a slower couple on hardtails, and I'd blast ahead for a bit, then stop and wait for him, the blast ahead again.  Was good.  At the bottom again we watched and waited for H and T, and chatted to Mark again.  H and T turned up, we jollied H along again and he was much happier after that descent and another bandaid and a juice and he perked up well.  Whilst waiting down here I managed to witness a guy crash pretty bad on the last Airtearoa jump, landing on his side and smacking down just out of view.  He didn't get up again.  We watched while the medics all arrived and actually while I was getting bandaid for H there was a guy in the First Aid bay with a broken collarbone too...  2 crashes within 10 minutes of each other. 

Off up the lift again, and this time O and me did Lord of the Possums and regrouped with H and T at the mid point.  Stupidly I sent T off with O down DOHC...  oh dear, what a mistake.  H and me had a nice time down Active Rest and spotted T and O below and T was cursing me.  Then much much lower down I saw O finishing off DOHC and we stopped right where they nearly touch and waited for T.  Eventually I saw her walking down with the bike.  As soon as she saw me she yelled she was leaving it there, and did and walked off.  I had to send H on his way and clamber my way through gorse and up to get her bike, ride it down to mine, then ride mine and wheel hers down the rest of the Green trail.  Not a happy girl...  I'd totally misjudged her ability, and just thought no worries, it's easy (for me and O, obvs)...

End of day, with unhappiness in the car.  Made up now, but she'll never trust my trail judgement again.  "yeah, it's easy", when it's not.

three rounds...

Wednesday night Eastern noose

Home with the boys for school holidays cos T was back at work today, so Nelson came to mine and we ate a little then headed out to Scumner.  Parked again in Slumnervale and headed up the Captain, not quite slow pace we'd had last week with Craig, but probably not much faster, as I was gasping down the air as usual.  I nearly offed on the wee descent before the rocky challenges, having dropped my front wheel into a dip or behind a rock badly, and only just got it under control, with visions of myself toppling head first down the steep hill onto more rocks.  Adrenalin pumped big time...  Walked the usual bits and rode everything else, including cleaning one bit I haven't cleaned in years...  Eventually the Summit Rd was reached and across Evans Pass we trundled.

Into Godley, cleaning the easy climb and then the beginnings of me-not-doing-very-well began.  I proceeded to dab a bunch of times on the various rocky outcrops that ensued, balance all off, and struggling with power.  Made it in the end and found I wasn't that far behind Nelson towards the end.  Brief regroup and then off down towards Livingston Col with a bunch of parasailers floating about above the last (fast) section of track.  Man we hooned down there.  The track's seen some work so is really fast again, swooping through to the cool swoopy bits.  Then Nelson flatted.  At least, got a hole in his tire the the goop didn't fix. Waited for ages, perched on the hillside, watching the parasailing people catching updrafts of the persistent easterly.  But no, it wasn't going to heal itself, so he pulled it off and whipped in a tube.  Off again and down through Livingston, then climbing again.  Good wee climb this.  I remember in the past I used to hate it but it's really pretty short now.  Over the top and around, gravel a little sketchy around here then onto sweet trail flying tailwind to the last bend and around to PFMTBC Rock, Nelson launching it and not even touching the rocks on the down side of it, me picking the line and kinda floating down them on my back wheel.

Next into Anaconda.  Fuck.  What a fucking debacle that is.  Who the fuck did that.  Stupid fucking highway of gravel, not so bad for a start, but in the corners it's just like riding on ballbearings, skittery as all shit.  Glad to be off it, and onto dirt again and the speed increased again.  Nelson jetted on ahead, but I somehow managed to keep him at least in sight until the 'Tail, where he vanished and I didn't see him til much further down it, disappearing around the last corner...  Nice run down this, especially the floaty bit in the grass above the walking track, tail wind and smooth runnings.  Not so bad through the rock sections and then was flying down to the paddock and out to the carpark. 

Climby climb climb, delayered at the first corner, then climb climb, into the zig-zag singletrack that took us back up to the Godley Head Rd.  Fricking steep, I walked a section along the fenceline near the top, but rode everything else, huffing and chuffing.  Around the road and up the track back to the Godley Track, where we pointed our noses into the sun and rode like the wind.  I was doing okay but then I started to muppet my way along, and had good and bad moments down to Evans. 

Across the pass again and into the Captain.  Nice blast down this, both of us rolling really well, cleaning everything (except the climb) and then Nelson flatted down in the lower zig zags, just before the turn-off to the Cabbage Tree diversion.  I rode on, having a sweet blast down round the cabbage tree, and he nursed it down til he walked out.  I waited at the stile, then we cruised slowly down back to the car.

Ride time 1 and half hours, 17.6 kms, 712m climbed...

Friday afternoon 'Tour'

Youngest deSpa's 21st birthday party being held out at Little River Campground in the Okuti Valley, and my family headed out earlier in the day, so I figured I'd bike it.  Headed from work at 3.30pm, straight down Lincoln Rd, brief stop at the Halswell Supermarket for a couple of beers and some Powerade, and then headed out round the Old Tai Tapu Rd.  Wind nicely low around here, nice countryside views of all the fancy houses along there.  Golf Links Rd to the main Highway briefly into Tai Tapu, then towards Lincoln for a km or so.  Turned left into Davis, then River Rd meandering around to the start of the Rail Trail.  The head-wind started here and never let up, getting stronger and stronger as I approached Birdlings Flat - reflected in my ever lowering average speed.  Met two touring cyclists racing towards me along here, then further along I caught up to a guy with a pack on his back (and totally crossed gears), headphones on so he couldn't hear me til I went past.  Park Rd past Motukarara then onto the original bit of the Rail Trail.  Onwards for multiple kilometers, into the fricking wind, through Kaituna and then around past Birdlings and towards Forsythe, the wind turning around into my face again.  Ugh.  Getting pretty sore by this stage.  Halfway along Lake Forsythe spotted a few ripe blackberries, so I stopped and gorged myself on them, giving me the energy to continue.  On round past  the pub, then the final stretch to the road where I hung a right and headed up the Okuti Valley.  Final hill climbs really tapping out my sapped legs.  Rolling in 3 hours after I'd left work...  Beer, water, dinner and a good evening had...

58kms, bugger all altitudes. 

Tuesday night Captain GreenHeat Pleasant and back

Nelson picked me up from work in his big blue van and we went to Craig's place to pick him up.  He had a very flash new Commencal that he'd only built up the night before.  Nelson had forgotten his shoes (in his car) so grabbed some regular pedals off Craig.

Hot nor-west day, blustery winds and sunshine, we parked up in Sumnervale and headed up the Captain Thomas.  Craig took the lead and set a really pleasant pace that even I could keep up with, which meant the three of us stuck together all the way up.  He made various adjustments to the new bike as we proceeded.  Cleaned everything we'd normally clean and not those we don't.

At Evans we headed into Greenwood, the first 'new' 50m or so fricking steep, the rest a nice cruise.  This is a great climb, and with Craig setting the pace again I got ahead of Nelson cos he was struggling on rocks so much with not being clipped in.  We stopped for a break at the top of the steepest rocky section (just before Gloomy Gulch) and then got going again, cleaning most until some of the rocky bits up in the corners section.  As we approached the ruins I spotted a new trail over to the right.  I'd heard something of this but had looked for it in the past and not seen it, but there it was, so we headed on up to take it in.  Craig decided here that he was tired and wanted to go home so he headed onwards and Nelson and me headed down into the new trail  Sweet rolling flowing wee trail takes you across above that bush reserve below there and then across to the big trees on the Richmond Hill corner.  From here we headed back up the 4wd track, chatting to a bloke on a big Yeti most of the way.  We peeled right and he headed off down Greenwood.  Around to the road and met another guy here (on an interesting Banshee Paradox (29r Hardtail)) we chatted to for ages - watching roadies struggling on the newly sealed and chipped road, up which eventually we headed into Britten.

Around Britten the overgrowth making it perilous and once on the west side the wind and overgrown tussocks making for some even more bloody tricky riding.  Across the road and into the climb, tail wind helping here and all the way I was in the lead and feeling pretty good.  Clambered up to the top of Pleasant and sat down for a snack.  Up rolls another rider, older guy, but fit (on some crabon 29r HT), just climbed up from Greenwood and proceeds to chat away with us for a good while, laughing about how someone's been feeding the rocks something to make them grow bigger.  Talk about a friendly night out...

Into the descent.  Lee of the hill or tail winds, made for fantastic riding, quiet, just the sound of freewheel, tires scuffing dirt and rocks, and flowy.  Had a really awesome blast down, grip in corners was magic and blazed down through the tussocks to the 4wd.  Then down into Greenwood, again, fast, and in pretty good form.  Some stumbling in some rocky sections, Nelson would catch me up, then I'd drop him, only to have him catch up again, then drop him again.  Was a game of cat'n'mouse with him never quite getting me, being pinball pinged rock to rock and losing his footing.  Took a break where we'd breaked before and (stupidly) I let a little air out of my tires.  Off again, blazing down, Nelson dropped the drop (and finding it bigger than he remembered), and then down through Dave's corners, I was thinking my rear tire felt a little washy, but figured it was just grippy...  til through the fence, fssh fssh fssh...  damn!  Quick turn-around replacing the tube and putting plenty of air in, then checked my front axle and found it loose - another thing contributing to the washiness of earlier...  On down, steaming down to the first rocky up, wrong-geared, and then out the rest at speed.

Across the road and I gave Nelson the lead, and we blasted down the Captain.  There was a couple further ahead I'd spotted, but they were miles ahead.  Cleaned everything beautifully and at speed and then both wrong geared on the climby bit, then blasted out the rest, catching the woman of the couple as we entered the cabbage tree detour, (the guy was a little further down, but behind us when we got out of the detour), then fanged it down to the bottom, amped at 9pm.

1 hour 36 riding time, 600m climbed in 18.7kms

Saturday Parapara round 2 Explorations

Allowed out on the last day of Collingwood headed back round to Parapara Valley Rd and rode up the highway much I did the other day. This time I detoured exploring anywhere I could. Up the 4wd DOC road, checking out a singletrack up the first knoll, with seemingly several options, none of which bore fruit.  Back down to the road and onwards up, past the access points to the zig-zag trail, up the straight and into the sort of hidden entrance to one I'd checked out the other day.  This, I thought was going to go down to the pond, but nope, it just curved back around to the 4wd lower down.  So, on up the 4wd track to the seat and onwards beyond eventually arriving at a funky gate (albeit with crosses on it) of a private Christian hideaway, next gate had lots of "Keep Out Private Property Electronic Surveillance" signs. Turned around, and climbed and rolled and back to the seat for a snack and this picture

(note the tide in, vs the tide mostly out on the previous pic from up here)...
Then zoomed down to the steep trail.  

Faster this time, fun down the steep tightness, bombing between manuka trunks and ferns.  Some flow, but also a bit of brakeage to make it around the tight bits.  Down into the valley...checked out another trail I'd spotted on Tuesday, back uphill for a bit, around a slip and then met tightness and a few steps.  Left the bike and followed it up and up for a while before giving up as it wasn't rideable.  Rode out and on down the trail, checking out another bit of track leading into this one briefly, riding through to a creek and back out and onwards down.  Fun wee blast, again faster than last time but with the stally bits included.  Across the creek and some climbing but not much out to the quad-track.  Now, another explore up a singletrack, which ended at a dam for the pond, back down this and up the zig-zag trail, not a bad climb at all, upwards chuffing to the 4wd track.  

Climbed back up this to the 'steep track' and at the top of this spotted a track heading off towards the Tukurua catchment...  hmmmmmm...  Walked down this 50m or so and could see it continuing down, wondering, wondering.  Walked back up and sat on the bike thinking, "should I? Should I? I kinda wanna. Nah, who knows where I'll end up, Onekaka? then have to bike all the way back around the road or back up...  Should I?"  Decided not to.  Headed down the steep trail, faster even than the previous time, getting into the flow of it more so and relishing it.  Around the first hairpin smoothly and on down, next hairpin, next corner, down through over the bridge and on down.  This time noticing for the first time lower down some evidence of goldworkings (piles and walls of rocks).  Across the creek and up to the quad track, and down, speeeeeeed down here and peeling off to the quarry this time.  Other bike tracks from when it was wet had turned back here but I followed onwards and found a trail off up to the left which I rode through, getting ever slower and less rideable til I was walking the bike. Then I walked a bit, more exploring, finding more gold workings, gullys, trenches, and some really deep holes.  Wandered back to the bike and back along the track to the quarry, and back onto the fast descending trail.  More speeeeed.  Wooohoooooo.

Another trail entering from the left in one of the last corners, I stopped and rode a wee way up it, finding a wee bridge over trench of a creek, then steps.  Walked a bit up this, deciding it must be coming from the walking track I'd found earlier, and also finding an old goldworking tunnel.  Deep, couldn't see much up it.  Scary.  Back to the bike, rode back to the main track, rode out to the road, and back along the gravel to the car.

More than the other day, with the extra climbing... 467m climbed and 14.4 kms covered

Aorere Gold, Wednesday 11th

Today, family headed round to the Devil's Boots and parked at the gate at the end of the road. O and me riding, the rest walking. The two of us headed up the 4wd track (the others, the walktrack that we'd ride down later). Steep heat, hot sun pounding down, hardly any shade, resting in it when we could. Got to the turn off left and headed into some trail I'd never done, but some of the boys had come thru on the Golden Bay trip of a few years back.  More up and down than I'd expected, but eventually we got to where the ill-fated Bedstead Gully track came out (having been cleared apparently a couple weeks after O and me rode it last year). Last couple of climbs and we descended to Druggans Dam. Snacked here and got going again dropping the tech down to the water race, O crashing hard on the steep - front wheel dropping into a hole and OTB onto a prostrate tree, scuffing his four corners.  He lay there a while before getting up, but soldiered on brilliantly, keeping up with me on most of the waterrace from there on around.

Around the water race to the caves, popped down to both, nice and cool in the Ballroom cave, total respite from the muggy heat outside, but the others weren't at either, so we kept going down the trail. Woot!!! Caught them up, giving them a hell of a fright, then bombed onwards the car, meeting some other riders on their way up.  Loaded up our bikes on the car and then drove cloading it up and driving through the gate and further up to the beginning of the tracks to wait, only a few minutes, forty the family.

Roughly 10kms and a hot steep 270m climbed

Mill Rd, Parapara trails, Tuesday 10th

Staying at Collingwood, rode along the beach 4kms to Milnethorpe for a bit of a leg stretch.  Whilst there, I bumped into one of the Ground Effectors, who has a bach at Milnethorpe, brief chat and then I rode a couple of slightly dodgy (but sweet) tracks back to the beach, and then back the 4kms along the sand to the house.  Later in the day him and family popped in and visited for a bit.  He knows his way around these parts, and so told me about the local riding: built and maintained mostly by Martin who runs the Takaka bike shop.

So, on his advice, later on, I drove round and parked at corner of Parapara Valley Rd, then headed up the highway a km or so then up a DOC access track. Climbed to the seat at pretty near the top,

somewhere around 300m.  Had spotted about 3 different options off the climbing track on way up, so hooned back to the last one, chasing a falcon spectacularly on the way, and dropped in (bars unable to fit one of the entrance options). Tight rough single track meandering quite steeply down thru the regenerating scrub, manuka trunks trying their darnedest to snag my bars. Eventually down into valley bottoms and flats across, a couple creek crossings, then opening up and out to a quad bike sized trail.

Headed upwards and found my way onto what turned out to be one of the earlier tracks off the climb; zigged and zagged my up it back to the DOC track, up this a little way then back down to and down that which I'd just climbed.  Fun descent back to where I'd come out earlier.  (Spotted an exit here right next to where I'd come out earlier - filed for future reference). On from here down fast descending on quite open trail, regen bush, flying, one other option to explore next time, then more valley bottom rolling, out to a groovy gate and a driveway down to the road and then back along a km or so of gravel road to the car.

11kms, 340m climbed

 

Totes and the Rameka Projection Fatstas, Wednesday 4th

Fat bike on holiday...

One ride from Totaranui, up the road and over towards Awaroa, down to the car we'd left at the top of the Waiharakeke Track. 200m up in 4kms, down a hundred if I's lucky, in about 1.5kms...

Wednesday 4th, O and me headed out of the bay, brief detour thru Takaka, then up the Rameka Valley. Parked at the bottom of the Klicks and rode up the road to the top of Great Expectations. The last km I pushed both bikes as he just couldn't keep up the climbing.

I let him lead down. Awesome ride, such a great trail and he really enjoyed it, as did I. Across the creek at the bottom and into the Klicks, taking in all of them, no broken ribs this time, fat bike handling nicely thank you.

9.4 kms, only 270 m climbed

Wednesday Mt Oxford Epic

Rather large ride today, and likely the last of the year for me. 

Paul and Luka arrived at mine at 7.15 and we Brava'd out to Nelson's. Weeded my garlic in short time then we hit the road for Coopers Creek, Nelson following in his own car.  Parked at the end of Mountain Road and got riding about 8.50... When I say ride, all was well for a start, but eventually ducked down over a bridge and there was a bit of a walk, then rideable climbing, but it got steeper and steeper with less opportunities for riding and more opportunities for walking. Eventually we were all walking, pushing at first, then carrying. One or two small taunts of riding and then above the treeline we were all carrying (tho Luka held out and managed to push (rather than carry) most of the way).  All of us found a method of carrying that worked for us - Nelson, kinda seattube across his soulders, back wheel behind his head, rest of bike hanging down behind; Paul - either arm through the triangle, top tube on shoulder, pedal in elbow, hand on front wheel; me - sort of top tube across my shoulders, wheels out either side, but for a long haul I somehow managed to have it similar to Nelson, with maybe my pedal hooked on my pack and I was hands free walking, trudging, up the incline. We probably carried for an hour, at least. It was very long and quite arduous, taking around 2 hours 40 mins to reach the top.  A couple of women and 3 kids up there when we arrived, tho they'd gone by the time Nelson got there.

Bit of a break and feed, then off down the ridge to the west. Passing the family on the way.  Some steep stuff, and a little bit of climb. Then down the side into the bush and wicked steepness. A few nasty climbs thrown in for good measure just to keep the rinsing, and rooty gnarl and steep steep steep. Stopped at one stage and Nelson took out his brake pads to see if the spares he had were any good, they weren't, and the ones he'd taken out weren't as worn as he'd thought, so got going again.  More steep rooty goodness, with a few really flowy sections chucked in.  Then finally(!), Wharfdale hove-to and we hung a left and clambered up this to the Link Track. 

This held a HELL of a lot more climbing than I'd ever recalled, and lots of getting off and walking/carrying over rooty boggy bits. Met a few walkers on on their way up while we were on the way down too.  We were all getting pretty rinsed by the time we got out, just over 5 hours after we'd departed

We climbed 1075m in total, over a 19.25 km loop.

Boxing Day Picnic, Park, Home

Eight Hundred and Fiftieth Post!!!!!

Big extended family picnic in Vic Park, so I took the bike and rode from there, - up the hill thru skidder site, up the steep bastard, past Brake Free, and up into the Thomsons.Across the Kiwi, txting-base with Nelson who was doing laps in the Park,  planning to meet at the top.  Up the road to top of Worsley and fanged it down the Body Bag.

Through the gate and chatted with some guys here before heading up the uphill track to the Chair, 3pm. Sat there expecting Nelson to show any second, to no avail. So rang him as I needed to get going, they still hadn't hit the lift, so off I went on my own. Considered doing the old favourite Throw the Goat, but figured I should explore a new one, so headed down Lord of the Possums... Berms berms and more berms. Through familiar country including an area from Wayne's World to Fight Club (R.I.P.). Caught up to some guys near the bottom, so mustn't have been going too slow.

Big open area with only 2 choices today due to some Muppet having crashed on the one I wanted to do, DOHC and requiring helicoptering out, so, it was either the easy riding green track, Active Rest, or the black option, Airtearoa. I chose the latter. Boost after boost after jump after jump, taking it pretty easy and never giving momentum too much free reign against gravity. Eventually made it down in one piece and headed down the access road (a surprisingly long way out!), then hoofed it into the wind home by about 3.45pm.

This here being the start of my ride...  it seems to stop around where I stopped to turn ON the clutch on my new derailleur, part way down Possum.  263m gained, and wouldn't have gained much more than that as it was all downhill from here.

Sunday Morning Fat Posse

9am meeting at Steve's, and I was on the Commando because I'd only gotten the parts (SLX 11spd cluster, shifter, chain, and derailleur + Blackspire Snaggletooth) to repair the Turner's drivetrain on Saturday afternoon and hadn't had a chance to put them on it yet.  So, angry bees buzzed across town to find Steve, Tony, Andy and Wayne waiting on the corner for Pete (who didn't show) and finding me instead.  Then I got a text from Paul saying he was 5 minutes away.  The boys took off at a leisurely pace and Paul arrived and we chased, catching them just after Grange.

Around Aynsley Tce and then on up Crapaki - busy as always.  Reasonable pace up here but Steve was complaining of his guts when we headed into the Taramea Loop.  I stopped to adjust my suspension - ie, let a little air out of the tires.  Nice climb up and around with me at the back, then fun bits, with only me taking the 'harder' option, getting in behind Andy and Steve for the next section rolling across the face of the hill.  Fat tires gripping so so well on the off camber corners; very sure footed.  We stopped and peered down at Glenelg spur (just now realised Glenelg is a palindrome) looking for potential ways up here.  Steve, here, decided that he'd be bailing when we got back to the main track.  We cruised the climb through to the end, Steve bailed and I led the way up the singletrack above the main drag.  Good roll up here, the fat bike feeling pretty good.  All the smooth trails were sweet on it, but the rough stuff is hard work.  Only Paul and me stayed on the singletrack, the others choosing the easier climb, and I blew up at exactly the same place as last time, just before a rocky steep.  Walked that and then rode the rest just fine, peaking before the others, then a regroup at the top.

Up around Vernon, easy riding, and then into Traverse, speaking with a clusterfuck of riders all seemingly taking turns at attempting to fix some guy's tire...  Left them to it and had an awesome run around the Traverse.. Regroup at the usual spot, and let some riders through, then on around to Vic Park for another regroup before the trees.  Into the trees and down past the see-saw then down through the rockgarden and my favourite gummies trail.  Even this was fun on the fatty, tho the roughest stuff was hard, and the seat doesn't drop easily, so it was oldskool stylez.  Rolled out to the skidder site and there's a guy under a space-blanket being tended to, blood on his head, not looking too flash.  Usual over cooking of the jump, landing nose first and being polevaulted head first into the ground.  Ambulance on it's way.

Off down Spazza's, the lower rooty bits bloody difficult, battling the bike with who's steering it.  Then straight down between Pono's and Brents and out the ridge straight ahead, and into a new wee one I'd done a wee while back on my own.  Sweet steep entry, then a couple of techy features, then more steep and then zigs and zags in an oak forest, then onto Flow (or bridges?).  Down this main trail into the lower swoopy zigs and zags and down the bottom of the valley.

Into Hidden Valley Track, I cleaned the creek nicely and was just making my way up the steep bit after it when I couldn't hold onto my balance and started tipping.  Left foot wouldn't eject and over I went, landing upside down, bike pretty much still on the trail, with me attached, lying in a big old pile of blackberry.  Elbow blooded, and knee must have smacked the bike somewhere, and arm a little shredded by the blackberry, but managed to climb out and get riding, cleaning the first and last two switchbacks but not the second.

Into Old Skool.  Mostly a good run, some of the rocks proving a bit pushy, but I reckon I'm getting the jist of this fatbike thing, and quite enjoyed it til the last few corners.

Down Bowenvale, and Paul and I went our separate ways (and it looks like Andy, Tones and Wayno went for coffee).

So, what with all the riding across town and all, totalled 31 kms, and climbed 585.

Replaced the drivetrain on the Turner when I got home, and then we headed out to Bottle Lake for a family ride with Lisa and Tane, and Ollie...  Alas, Hugo had a big smash on one of the jumps on the pump track before we left for the ride, smacking his head and scraping up his whole right side.  I took him home and the others went for their ride.  However, the chain on the fatbike snapped when they were most of the way out and T had to walk back.  (my bad I think, I should have checked the click -- click -- click -- I'd noticed on the way back across town in the morning... ooops).

Also.  On Saturday, Mark had his first session in the Chch Adventure Park, and Nelson had his first day on Monday...

Wednesday Evening Lungs Sprung around up and back

Usual pick up, traffic navigations, up Hackthorn, Dyers and over the hill - parking at the Governor's Bay jetty. Rode round the waterfront trail, quite enjoying high tide and pleasant odours, -ish. Thru Allandale, spotting kingfishers galore, and then some kereru swooping around as we headed up the road and into the bottom of Living Springs. Climbed in the valley, cross the stream a couple times and around onto the nice new Totara Valley climb into the Pines then on up up up - noticing a lot of onga-onga around the place, looking lush and vigorous.  Clamber clamber, through Rhymes with Orange and then up the grass and through a couple of gates.

Above the Outdoor Centre, climbing through the gums, through a dodgy gate, then into the forest, sidling and climbing, up more, in the bush on the awesome twisty turny climbing trail.  Stopped to pull some weeds (foxgloves), and then I brushed my arm through some onga-onga and no dock was to be found.  Yowch a bit.  Thru the difficult fence and then a bit more bush before coming out onto the open lands.  Across to the cabbage tree, and back up the other direction, getting steeperer and steeperer til I walked a bit.  Re-mounted and rode on for a while, through the gate and the trail was nice and cleared, having been weedsprayed at some stage recently.  On a particularly steep grunt I completely exploded my drive train. Got to work fixing, and half an hour it took, using rocks and breaking Nelson's mini pliers in the process, we managed to remove a couple of bent-arse links, cobble together the chain with a couple of 9spd quicklinks, and bash my granny ring out of the way sufficiently for me to continue upwards using the 36t (2nd gear).

Nelson rode most of it, but I walked a bunch of the steepest bits, and eventually we made the top, walking over the fence and up the hill a bit; observing dickhead boyracers taking blind corners on the wrong side of the road at speed.

The view from the top:

brief snackage, and then it was time to head down. Fun blast. So so good. Back down into the bush and it was exhausting, twisting and turning, avoiding bar-strike, sketchy, slightly greasy bush soils, but just so good. Puffing a lot by the time we got to the dodgy gate.  Then down past the Outdoor Ed Centre, gates, and into Mississippi, me nearly getting taken out by a couple of big lambs, but catching up Nelson, and swooping down and through the kanuka forest.  Then around to Zane's, the climb not so bad, and then down, what a blast.  An off camber root and my own muppetry made me stop briefly (without crashing) about half way down, and Nelson got a good lead on me which I never gained back.  Finishing off with an awesome floaty jump at the bottom.  

And nearly done, back around into the new Totara Gully for a super fun downhill and then around the hill and down again, funtimes, finally cruising down between the fences to the road again.  Thru the Freedom Campers at Allandale and we blazed back around the waterfront to the car.  All good.

16kms travelled, 638m climbed and descended

Sunday Bottle Ache with the kids

Another round of Bottle Lake.  T away for weekend, so sole charge parenting in action.  Picked up H's new (tardme purchase) Xmas present bike from Rangoon, then home and load the other bikes, O, H, O's friend Ollie, and Jet, out to the pond.  Did the main loop, me on the fatty.  H found the new (26 inch) bike much faster than his old 24 incher. And had the hang of the gears by the end too, which was cool.  Jet, as usual, had a glorious time.  And O and O were pretty quick.

13.4 kms, and a massive 85m climbed... Family fun.

Wednesday night family ride

I was gagging for a ride, and asked my boys if they wanted to come then T said why don't we all go...  The Turner was at Josh's getting new suspension bushes and lower linkage so we were short one bike, meaning T needed to ride the Fatty, and I had to settle for the townie...  So, chucked all the weight bikes on the back of the Fiat (cos T had a work car home), and we wallowed out to the forest.  Hit the trail, me with my be-slicked tires, cruiser bars and basket(ish thing) on front, T on the fatbike and the two boys on theirs, Jet racing off ahead.  Headed in, hung a left and headed through to the pond, then on through and out to the beach.  Stopped and checked out the beach, Jet had a swim, I was tempted to skinny dip, but no one else was keen.  On southwards.  An encounter for Jet with a slightly dodgy dog, then in the quickest way back and through the forest back to the car by 9pm, a late night for the boys...

Slow, no altitude, and short, but fun.

Sunday Morning HuntsTraversiVicOldSkool

Needed to be home by 11, so left home before 8am, drove to Paul(deSp)'s and we parked over in Bowenvale Ave.  Headed around the road and up Major Aitken Drive, then up Kenmure.  Paul's just gotten a new (to him) bike, but it only had slicks on it, which we let some air out of once we were up on the gravel.  But they sure were noticeably fast on the seal...  Up the gravel of Huntsbury and then short detour up onto the singletrack for the final bit of climb through to the landing strip and then on up to the top.

Onto the Traverse.  Nice roll across here, Paul really enjoying it, with his skills-of-old coming back to him.  Been more than 10 years since he's had an off-road bike.  Under Sugarloaf and then into Vic Park, down past the see-saw and down the rabbit paddock into the rock garden and into the gums.  My usual favourite lines down through here and out to the skidder.  Then into Spazza's, winding our way down and Brent's, taking the right-hand direct route, which slips into the bottom 50m or so of Rad^Sick.  Then into Bridges and Flow or whatever and down the valley.

Into Hidden Valley Link track, I cleaned the creek crossing and bit after, then the first hairpin.  Second hairpin, however, caught me out.  Onwards and upwards, relishing the climb and the top couple corners, which Paul didn't do so well on.  Out to Old Skool and down this, lots of fun, pumping and weaving the way down here and out, back to the car. 

1 hour 9 minutes riding, 14 kms, and just shy of 500m climbed.  Back to his place for a coffee just after 10, and I was home well before 11.

Wednesday Slickery El Capitano Livingstoned

Usual pick up from work, with more diabolicalness than ever before on the traffic front.  But, eventually we made our way to Scumner and up to Slumnervale, whereuponst we parked and changed and got riding.  Up past the horse paddock and around up the steps and onto the Captain.  Clamber clamber, me not dying as hard as usual.  However, just after the cabbage tree diversion exit I snot-rocketted my nose and proceeded to bleed from said nose...  annoying.  Staunched it a bit then got riding again, sniffing the blood for a good while up through the hairpins, finally settling it down along the flatter bits.  Through the first rocky wee descent and up the first of the techy challenges, and the drizzle set in, finally wetting the place up a bunch.  We debated what to do and continued onwards up, the rocks getting doused slightly more than was desirable.  Dirt was still okay, although it was starting to sort of cake a little on the tires, still dry underneath.  We took a break under a tree up at the old stile (to the road) and watched roadies negotiating their climb in the wet.  The drizzle kinda eased, but was still there in a very light manner, so we continued up, desperate to have some altitude.

Across Evans and up onto the Godley track, cleaning entirely all the first climbing bits, and onwards still.  Nelson I think managed everything, but much further on I dabbed once or twice, but never stopped.  Eventually to the high point and overlooking Scarborough and south-east towards all the headlands and View Hill (above Little Ak), we were out of the drizzle, but up the harbour and Mt Herbert was engulfed.  While we stood there it seemed to be looming so we thought to Livingston and back would be okay. Off down and a great speedy descent, traction all good and trail our friend.  Lower down they've lowest-common-demoninated the fuck out of it, somewhat pointlessly.  The swoopy cornery stuff near the bottom was still raw like it should be tho.  At the col we could see the drizzle approaching again so we headed on back up, straight up the face and then veering slightly to the right.  Nelson cleaned it all, but it was too steep for me a couple of times so I walked.  Rode out and spotted that they're building a zig and a zag, which will be good for the climb in the future.  On up and around and the drizzle increased a bit, and we peaked and then skedaddled for the Pass.  Rocks were slick as slipperiness, and pinged our wheels leftwards, rightwards, and centrewards.  I baulked twice, dabbing to a stop, but also flowed and grooved some of the hairiest rocky sections, pinballing down the track.  Nelson blazed ahead, seemingly not worried about the wetness at all.

Across the pass again and into the Captain, slick rocks and nice friendly dirt, all the way down.  Cleaned 2 of the techs, but saw Nelson blow out the bottom one, so walked that then watched him do it again (nearly getting pinged off again).  The rest of the descent was pretty decent, and we rolled through the bottom and back to the car in due course.

12 and a half kms, and 485 m climbed there and back again

Saturday Worsley Jet Loner

Finally got out for a ride... A week in Fiordland, then family time all week.  Couldn't join Steve and others on their meander today, so got out a little later after dropping H off at a friend's.  Parked just above the hairpin on Worsleys Rd and headed up the singletrack next to the road.  Hung a right and having a look found that there is no longer an entrance to my old favourite, Utopia.  So, jumped into Farside for a quick blast down.  This is still fun, and less open ground so less overgrown than OneShotLucy (which I rode down later on).  Fun to the bottom and then back up the grinding climb, this time continuing on up on the grass beside the road and up the next bit of overgrown-by-long-grass singletrack and then up the road proper, Jet loping along side me all the way.

Headed through the gate from the carpark and up the singletrack-doubletrack up into the relief of some shade in the trees.  Ground up the steeps and clambered onwards and upwards, noting all the exits from above as I climbed.  Up round and through Braille and up to the top to find a whole bunch of bikers resting, including a dog (and it's accompanying rider) Nelson and me saw another time right here.  I headed off down the newby that travels below the Worsley main-drag, bombing down and ticking off the entrances to the alternative routes down, choosing number 3 (or 4, depending), and blasting down it.  It's one of the shorter ones, spitting you out onto the 4wd climber in no time.

Back up the 4wd climbing track, and back up through Braille and there're all the riders again...  Jet talked to the other dog this time, and tried to have his way with her - dirty boy.  Back into the singletrack again and a sweet blast, all the way on the high line all the way to the end this time, finding some of the riders at the bottom again (weird).  I walked up the steep walking bit to the jumpy trail entrance and the blitzed down this, popping some of the jumps but not the big ones and not the fence gap, again.  Down through the lower section, more popping and weaving and out the bottom then up to Epitaph and riding down this to the carpark.

Jet got a nice drink (belonging to the other dog, methinks), from an icecream container that I kept refilling, and he had a wee rest here too.  Then I made him follow me down the road, not rocketship fast like usual, as I didn't wanna get too far ahead of him, then down the overgrown-by-long-grass singletrack and down the roadside into the Farside zone, this time blitzing down OneShotLucy, all the way.  Man, it's overgrown now, moreso than the other week with Nelson.  Finally the last climby bits and back down to the car.  Hot and bothered, jetty panting happily but me a little worried about his heat.

Only 12.35 kms, and only 468 m climbed...  but they wuz steeeeep(ish)

Sunday Morning Hilltop Meander

T was out doing the stupidmarket shopping and so I couldn't leave home til 9am, the same time as Steve and Wayno were leaving his.  I cruised at a good pace across town and followed them up Crapaki Track, getting a text about half way up but not reading it til I got up to the flat bit, less than 10 minutes later.  Sat on a seat and read the text which was saying they were doing the new 'Full Monty' ride out round Montgomery Spur.  I didn't want to chase them around that, so I sat and watched the punters ride- and jog- and walk-by below me for about 15 minutes til the two boys turned up.  We got rolling again on the singletrack above the main drag, and then continued up the newest section (just finished the day before as per link above), above the top section.  Got a little steep in here and Wayne bailed while Steve ran out of oomph exactly where I had.  We walked maybe 20 m and then got steep riding again, then across to the gate.  Quite good up there...  Suggested improvement is a zig and zag or two out for the steepest bit...

Onto Witch Hill, cleaning all the technicals and cruising around, along the road, into Castle Rock, me chasing down a woman on a Santa Cruz.  I had insane bursts of speed at times, weaving and gnarling down the trail, catching her just around the first hairpin, her pulling over to let me by, climbing nicely out and over and then awaiting the two boyz.  Dampness of previous days rain keeping the dust nice and low.

Around the road, and figured why not head over Mt Pleasant and get the top section down to Greenwood, so that's what we did.  Slightly damper riding up here than further back (cos its higher, I guess), but nice down the rocks, boogying through to the end.  Then my ride around the original Greenwood entrance was smooth and sweet.

Finally, up the road and into Britten.  Quite long grass down here, so trail narrowing a little.  Good fang down and around, then where the old stile and fence/gate were I noticed a new trail to the left, so followed.  I wove right across the Britten Reserve, one nice rock section, in the middle, then all the way over the far side, and around under some rocks and cool descending down to the top of Longridge Pl.  The boys had missed the turn and arrived above me down one of the original trails in there... 

Zoooom down the road to Craigieburn, and into the zigs and zags, nice roll down through McCormacks, enjoying it except for the carefulness on the spikey boardwalk bridges, then the final blast down the bottom reaching rocketship speeds.  Finally, around the bay, onto the main road and I split at the bridge and cruised the length of Linwood Ave home.

Good number of kms (30+), 750 m climbed.

Wednesday Evening Worsle None Guv

Usual pick-up from work with the usual traffic issues getting to where we were going.  Parked by the poplars next to the Adventure Park entrance, and we headed up the hill. Next to the road for the first steep, and up the singletrack beside the road higher up too.  Finally to the carpark and then on up the main drag, meandering out left of the trees overlooking the park again (like last time) climbing the singletrack to the watertank then on up, this all way more overgrown than last time.  Then over the fence and up the main rutted usual Worsley old skool track.  Nelson pulled ahead, chasing some other rider, and passing a walker, who I took ages to catch, dabbing out in lots of the technical stuff, til finally I passed her and kept on rolling.  Brief stop at the bottom of the Body Bag, deciding where to go, and choosing the same, heading on up, with me dying a slow death up here til eventually I had to walk. 

Over and up to the top of the nun, chatting to some folks up here before following them in. Not a bad run down here for me, with Nelson pulling over to add air to his rather soft rear-end, and so I flowed and popped and wound my way down.  Pulling out at the half way(ish) stop and watching as Nelson came down the hill.  

We crossed the road here and headed into the Governors Bay trail, down this, with a close call for me (nearly launching myself off the trail) and then around the hill and up the grunty climb, most of which Nelson cleaned (seemingly effortlessly), while I cleaned heaps, but just blew up towards the end, dying on the final steep bit that I'm sure wasn't there last time.  

From here we headed up onto the Crater Rim walkeway above the road, walking the first few rocks then riding the rest nicely, back to the start of the Gov's Bay track, then across the road again, and onto the next section of Crater Rim walkway, walking all the bigger steps and steeps.  Up to Worsley Rd and over the top and down the fang-worthy Body Bag, keeping on top of the rut-ridge at speed is tricky, and I couldn't see a thing as I approached the big launchy jump at the bottom due to Nelson-raised dust.  

Down a little and off to the left, into the 'new' trail in the forest before the Braille entrance.  Into here and, 'huh!', a new track peeling off to the left not too far in. Explored this and it flowed quite nicely, with one or two wee pops but eventually it petered out (in an area we'd explored before), and so we rolled on down through the sort of trail to the 4wd track, and climbed this back up the 4wd thru Braille, nearly getting taken out by a speeding youngster who was ripping down Braille (obviously fast enough to clear all the gap jumps).  Finally reached the top and headed back into the 'new' trail.  Nelson took the wrong turn towards the jump (that's too big), and I blindly followed him, then got back on track and led the way down, keeping the gap a reasonabl size.  Great flow down here with nice wee jumps over roots and some rocketship speed zones and skiddy loose rear endage.  Kept on the highline all the way down, and dropped out onto the 4wd just above the wee creek.  

Peeled right here, and walked and walked up the hill (under the powerlines) to the jumpy trail.  Nelson did the first really big double, and I followed him through most of the other jumps pretty well, but baulked, as usual, on the fence gap.  Good speed through the rest, tho I pulled over for a grom who was bombing through, and then over the last few jumps and down onto the 4wd again.  Peeled right again, climbing up to do the final Epitaph and out through the gate.  

Down the road tucked into speed mode, grabbed One Trick Lucy - which was a little on the overgrown side.  I got loose in the lower gummy/wattle area, and Nelson got past me, then this vine got all tangled in his rear wheel, so we stopped and cleared that, then lower down everything was really overgrown, hard to see the trail ahead.  Final wee climb out and bombed down the last dirt trail and onto the road at the corner, rolling fast back to car.

17 kms and 700m gained...  all good
What wasn't good was listening to the US Election coverage on the way home.  What a bunch of fucking morons.

Saturday morning Hanmerlicious

Hanmer for the weekend.  Got out and did a short loop with my boys, about half an hour, then dropped them back at the house and took off for my own ride.  Together we did Swamp and Swoop, H doing well on the climb, and pretty cool on the descent, and O just flying the lot of it, both really enjoying the downhill.

Dropped them back at the house, and headed up Chalet Cres, finding my way firstly down a long drive to a house, turning around and then cutting through onto a walking track down to the end of Swoop.  From here I went up Timberlands, huffing and chuffing like crazy, then up Jolliffe Saddle Track, gasping and grovelling the top few tens of metres.  Had a rest at the top here, and then headed off down Upper Dogstream to the first bridge.  Awesome descent, with some really tight trees for the wide bars.

Across the bridge and up to Bigfoot, climbing away zigging and zagging like crazy up through the forest, then ducking out into the open on every second corner whilst gaining more and more height.  Descending, this trail with it's aspect and views reminded me a lot of K2 in Rotorua, except there were none of the log-droppy challenges that K2 had.  Heaps of fun, and had me wondering when it was gonna stop it went on for so long.

Out to the road and down a little to the entrance of Detox.  As usual, seemingly long climb up and around then I had a nice rest and ate the only food I had in the shade of a tree.  Off again, and a nice blast down, nearly having a mishap or two, but not quite, and blitzing it down, and across the road straight into Mach 1.  Nice ups and downs along here, kept my speed up and pedaled hard on the climbs.

Across the road onto Camp Track, and finding a brand new trail off here.  Headed into it, freshly gravelled, and under-bermed corners meant keeping speed was hard, but it was quite fun, albeit very easy.  It seemed to go for ages, looping out then back, with a couple of nice descents, very short, and short climbs back up to the level.  Eventually it spat me back out onto Camp Track, and so headed along here and then up the Dog Stream Track to half way or so, and up the road to Jolliffe Saddle again.

From here, headed into Red Rocks, climb climb, false descent, final climb, then bombing...  rocks and fun.  Grabbed Eeny Meeny, then chose Meeny this time (had taken Eeny the last two times (and just now realised these last two options should be called Miney and Mo)).

Back out to the road and decided randomly to head back up Swamp, then stupidly all the way up Pawson's Rd, which was a nightmare due to the logging that's gone on - think: extremely churned up mud by big machinery and logs, turned hard by drying out...  nasty.  From here it was Tank Track down, swooping and weaving and launching, lots of fun, and then straight onto Flax Gully Trail down.  Don't remember ever riding it this way, (but may have back with Al years ago), short climbs, but mostly nice, and back out to Jacks Pass Rd, and bombed down (nearly 60kph on the gravel) back to town, straight to the bakery to fill my starving belly.

24.5 kms and 600 m gained.  Felt like more, I guess cos the climbs are mostly pretty steep, even tho never that long or high in themselves.  Highlights are Bigfoot, Tank, and Red Rocks...  all three by far my favourites up there.  I considered doing two laps of Bigfoot, but alas...  Was feeling really good the whole way, even tho I was a bit seedy to start, but climbing Pawsons really killed me, made me starving and tired.

Wedkneesday Night, XC beat up

Pick up on Moorhouse by Nelson and as per usual we trafficjammed it, tonight to the top of Huntsbury.  I headed off up the jumpsy track, gasping away on the clunk that's still in the bottom of my lungs.  Part way up I looked back expecting to see him catching me up but he wasn't there.  Hmmm, that's strange.  Figured I'd keep going and check further up.  Again, not there.  Over the brow of the hill now and up to the gate, wondering what was keeping him.  So, from the gate I rang him, and then saw him right down at the bottom, so killed the call and settled in to wait.  Eventually he turned up across the fenceline, having come up the main track - it being faster.  Then we set off up the singletrack, me in the lead and pushing hard, getting the air into the lungs and burning up the legs...  Over the fence and up the landingstrip onto the gravel, where another, older, rider was powering off ahead of us.  Nelson overtook him up past the cattlestop, and I didn't catch him til the top.

Off over Vernon, for a start, blasting down the older line and then peeling off down across the road into the top of Farm Track.  Been a while, that's for sure (all the last few times have been upwards).  We avoided the main track, choosing the tussocks and sheep trails instead, meandering down finding a really good line, albeit slightly rutted in places, to the pond above the gate.  Dropped to the gate, over this, and on down the main track for a while, until I chose a sheeptrail off to the right, around through tussocks to the pylon track.  Ignored the (obviously out of date) No Bikes sign on the gate, and headed up and over, into the steeper and steeperer descent into the Rapaki Valley, stopping to admire the view of all the wee bods cruising up and down Rapaki, then dropping in, down down down to the bottom, some fun techy steep shit near the end.

Over the gate and up the valley, reminiscing on the old singletrack up here, cleaning lots of the fun tech, before eventually cutting across onto Rapaki at the bottom of the last climb.  Headed back down Crapaki, on the singletrack above, down to the new sheep/cattlestops and into the new Montgomery Spur (Taramea) Loop the boys explored the day before.  Good zig zaggy climb then swoopy, some off camber weaving down.  I took the 'Harder' line and Nelson took the 'Easier' line and I ended up miles ahead of him.  Enjoyed the vista across here, and the carved in bits were quite cool.  Thought the trail was a lot further than it looked too.  Finally, lots of climb back up to the start, and off down back to the singletrack above Crapaki until the drudging climb continued.  My right calf feeling knotted and sore all the way up, puffing and chuffing, to the top where the views were spectacular and the breeze nice and cool.

Into Witch, both cleaning everything, and powering through it all pretty good.  Onto the road and Nelson chose the walking track above, while I took the easy option of riding along the road below.  I ended up at the top of CastleRock track first, Nelson having cruised up on the verge-side of the road to save his tires.  Whilst here the sun finally disappeared behind the clouds in the west and it suddenly got really cold.  I layered on, and we decided light was gonna be pushing it to loop Castle Rock, so up above the road and up onto the Tors track.  I found this more technical than usual, but cleaned nearly all of it, then rolled down across the road and onto the walking track Nelson had climbed.  Nice blast down this and through onto Witch for to climb hard, cleaning it all to where Nelson was waiting at the high point.  Then off down, popping and grooving all the knobbly rocky bits, making for a much smoother roll than usual stalling on the rocks.

Across Crapaki Top, no one around now, and into Vernon, me starting to get pretty tired, climbing climbing up and around and over.  Then across the road, where there was an Enduro-as-fuck group of guys, who took off down Huntsbury and then into Old Skool.  We took the traverse across then dropped down through the tussocks and blasted down the gravel (on account of slowly losing light) and across the landing strip, over the fence and onto the singletrack, sweet blast down this, Nelson messing up the big jump.  Then over the gate and down, jumping all the jumps (except the wooden one for me), and flying down to the car.  Awesome.

20.4 kms, and over 700 climbed.  All good.  I was really feeling it, the beat up by the rocky sections, and the overall size of the ride, having not done much lately.

Kaikoura Peninsula Fatso

Shoulder injection Friday after Rotorua, so have been off the bike since then.  Took the fatty to Kaikoura thinking I might get up Fyffe or up the coast to Okiwi for a ride.  Weather wasn't so good, so I took what opportunity I could and got out Saturday morning for an hour or so...  From Dave and Jana's headed onto the beach trail down to town, then along the Esplanade and around the back road back up to Tom's Track.  Lots of steps, but some rideable bits up onto the top of the peninsula, then across and over to South Bay via Forest Trail, which had some interesting looking jumps built by the local kids.  Moseyed to the start of the Peninsula Walkway and turned around at the no bikes sign, heading back around the waterfront and then back up the Forest Trail.  At the top I hung a right along Torquay along the top of the Peninsula to Dempsey's Track which also had steps but less steep than Tom's, so was a good blast down the hill.  Back out to the Esplanade, through the back of downtown, and back along the beach track up to Dave and Jana's, finding Tra'y and the two kids on the beach having a play. 

15.7kms, 200m climbed, all in just under an hour.

Weather really packed it in that afternoon, and Sunday morning snow was quite low down on Fyffe.  I was totally keen to get up there, but did a walk around the seals and gulls and rock platforms and back over the top instead.

Vegas 4: Back into the Forest Tuesday 18th

Not such a terrible night's sleep, thanks to cough mixture and Otrivin nose clearer made me slightly healthier in the morning, but still potentially not the best for riding.

We chose a different path into the forest, this time riding up Tarawera Rd, and up a little singletrack on the side of the road around to the big water tank.  I collapsed into a coughing-nearly-puking mess at the top of this, managing to extricate a couple of small lung cookies from myself and feeling a little better afterwards.  We moseyed up Tokoaarangi Pa Rd, or something.  Anyway, climbed horribly for a bit, making me walk, and eventually leveled out on the ridge, undulating up and down a couple of times - much nicer.  We made our way surprisingly quickly across til we could see the top of K2.  Explored briefly an apparent trail (unmarked) up top here, but to no avail.  (Tho, I spotted one diving off into the bush up here and thought that would be interesting some time.  I'd love to explore a bit more...).

Around to and parked up top of K2, ready for this grade 5 descent.  Headed off down, Pete and Nelson first.  The very first filter, a rooty drop caught me out and I dabbed through it, but from here on down I managed nicely, cleaning everything else.  Mostly all very fun and rideable, but there were one or two good challenges, with big drops below holding roots.  Nothing a little commitment and roll-through couldn't handle tho.  We sorta regrouped once or twice, and various members of the party struggled on some of the tech, but we all got down safely and regrouped at the bottom, rapt with our performances.  A climb out up to Red Tank Rd (or Pipeline/Windy Rd according to Trailforks (which I think is wrong)), and around to the BRudeNot2 intersection.

From here we dropped into Bunny Juggs 1, which was a ripper of a wee trail, rooty and tight, swerving down through tight forest (immediately next to the end of Sweet'n'Sour).  Back up onto the Direct Rd for a bit then short climb into Bunny Juggs 2.  This climbed in native then was out into cleared chaff, open, new trail.  Fun little thing, some loose edges and jumpies to pump.  Around and back to the road, for the roll up to the shuttle stop.

It was about 12.40 or so here, so we decided to hang out, considering several of us were under the weather by now.  Chatted to the other shuttle driver (who'd visited our house the day before) for a bit here while he waited for his private shuttlers to return.  1pm rolled around and at about 1.15 the Shuttle rolled up, pretty much full.  We gave the few remaining seats to the few singles that had turned up, and we awaited it's return.  20 odd minutes later, we got our uplift. Corners first, or Upper Corners, wafted and bombed this down, all very nicely groomed, tho rutted and soft in places from all the weather and riding of previous weeks, with rideable tabletop type jumps, rolling or launching, all the way down.  Got to a road, and crossed back into the singletrack, taking us around to Corners proper.  This, again, back and forth, jumpy pumpy down, everybody enjoying it profusely, through the forest and out to a big clearing.  Crossed over Little Red Riding Huck a couple times in here too, I think.  Not sure where to go for a start, I pointed Nelson into a (secred unmarked) trail which was called Eddie the Crow, which he said started with a massively rooty gnarly looking drop.  We didn't pursue this.  Back into the clearing and there's our trail in that corner, so, back on it, a couple of quite steep wee corners and then Riding Huck went left and we went straight ahead, and this section, tho it looked on the map like it was quite close to the bottom, went on for ages.  I was wondering when it was gonna finish it took so long.  Poor old Wazza pulled out here, and headed back to base.

Out to the shuttle stop and another wee wait.  Uplift, and this time into Huckleberry Hound.  Nice trail, better groomed than Upper Corners, and had once big drop feature that all but Nelson baulked on.  I rode up to it thinking oh yeah, no worries, saw Nelson drop straight over it, and then I stopped dead at the top when I saw the under cut vertical top...  Bugger.  Not sick, I might have considered it.  Not needing to to nurse my shoulder, likely so too.  Around it and onwards, a few gap jumps appearing on the side of the trail, was still fun to cruise beside these and not hurt ourselves.  Across the road again, and Corners continued directly from here, so down the road a few metres and into Little Red Riding Huck, for more jumpy goodness.  Excellent descending with a mite more challenge than Corners.  Near the bottom of this section before the big clearing there was a roll over jump that nearly had me over the bars.  I think I spoke out loud, "someone's gonna crash on that", thankfully no one did, but I bet they were close.  Out the edge of the clearing and into another steep rutted soft section of trail, with a couple of rooty sections thrown in, that I think caught one or two out, and we regrouped where Corners went ahead and we peeled left, for the final blast to the shuttle.  This section had some cool features in it too, near the bottom a couple of really big swoopy corners, one of which with a nasty soft edged rut which I rolled through and said out loud "somebody's gonna lose it in here..."  And so I rolled out, arms fully pumped, to meet Nelson, and no sign of Pete behind.  Then Steve turned up, and eventually one or two others then Pete, his knee all bloodied up good, from that sweepy corner.  Jinxed.

Uplift number 3.  This time from the top, we decided we were finishing off.  There were 5 uplifts left on the ticket, and Nelson was gonna ride more, so he took these.  Off down Eagle vs Shark we blazed.  Me with the camera on, chasing (read, attempting to keep up with) Nelson.  Both of us on the ragged edge.  Was fantastic.  What a trail.  Extremely well made, predictable, good features, jumpies, corners, roots, fun.  He slowed now and then to let me reel him in, but mostly I stayed on him.  Was probably the best riding I'd done up there this year.  I took my shades off at some point, then we blasted out into the sunshine where it was open for a few corners.  In here a bug flew straight into my mouth.  Rolled it with my tongue out and spat, then spat a few more times for good measure (it felt like a blow-fly, bleugh) - hopefully that'll be on camera.  Kept chasing, the corners kept coming and the speed and flow kept doing it.  It flattened off and there was an exit out to a trail down to the road.  We regrouped here and in ones and twos the rest of the crew rolled in.  Set off again, along the flat section of this trail to an eventual log collection point and forestry roads to follow around for a while.  Red Tank Rd, I believe, tho, called Pipeline/Windy on the 'Forks App.

Where Lynmore Link peeled off, Nelson parted his way from us, and we headed down across a bridge and down into a valley, then up a gnarly rooty pipelined track climb, all off and pushing, up to eventually the watertank.  From here, instead of heading down the road the way we'd come in, we rode and pushed up for some more lung burning efforts to connect onto the Tank To Town trail.  Shared, walk and bike trail, I led off down the downhill bits with gusto and speed, all the while keeping my eyes peeled for any pedestrians - thankfully, we met none on the descents.  Fun we trail this too, easy, but flowy and quick, eventually out to near the road and through open grassland forest, then back into the forest's edge where As You Do dives in.  A couple of false exits later and we found our street, across, and back to base for a well earned rest, and then bike breakdown, box up and packing ready for the morning, while we waited for Nelson to come back.

His adventures became quite epic, and he ended up doing twice as much altitude and distance than any of our efforts.  He rode round from where he left us, the short distance to where K2 came out, Juggs, uplifted to Te Rua, rode around again, uplifted and did the Taniwha DH track, then uplifted with the 'elite' of Rotorua's post work crowd, hooked up with a few of them, and did Billy T, Split Enz, and by the sound of it, No Brains, and Taura, or something new over there, and out to Waipa, then finally back to us (who were all getting fucking hungry by this time...), just on dark.

So, all up, 32 kms ridden (a few of which on the bus) and nearly 1400 descended, with 960 or so of that climbed by bus...

Vegas 3: Rainbows Monday 17th

Terrible night's sleep, with a cough that was killing me, the blocked nose from hell, and fevers and chills all night, leaving me feeling bloody horrible when morning came round.  I really didn't think I'd be able to ride.  Wazza was in a similar boat, also waking from a horrendous night's non-sleep.  Plan was Rainbow Mountain and after saying definitely "no" I then figured I'd totally regret not doing it, so I pushed myself into doing it.  Wazza stayed behind and we headed the 25kms down there and parked up down at Kerosene Creek.   

I started out ahead of the others, very slowly, because when I breathed in deeply it was like someone was pushing a gorse-bush branch down my windpipe and into my lungs.  They caught me eventually, and we checked out a look out and I rode on ahead and then got to the intersection and we started climbing.  As soon as the trail got slightly steep I'd get off and walk, and just plod away.  In due time I think Nelson and Pete overtook.  There was a muddy section, and then a lookout at some fumeroles.  From here on up it was even steeper.  All rode or walked as necessary, me walking it all, very slowly.  Eventually the top was gained and I lay down and died.  I'm still up there now, my corpse anyway, dead.  This is my ghost writing this - didn't realise I'd died and kept riding...  Another biker and his very nice doggy and some walkers arrived at the top while we were there. The views were spectacular (hopefully some pics will show up some time).

Then we got going.  The top section was quite technical, rough and rocky.  It was great.  There were a couple of features my sensitive sick-bones were averse to, but I managed most stuff with little more than a dab.  There was one 2-optioned corner that we stopped at, Nelson taking the harder line.  Then a big droppy rooty bit that I walked - Nelson and Pete rode it, not sure about the others, cos I saw the trail went up after that so I went ahead to get the climbs over with.  Not far after that couple corners of climb tho it descended again for a bit and then finished at a corner in the road.  End of technical section.

Into the singletrack again, this time in bigger bush, and darker and beautiful swoopy curvy fantastic descent.  This section is the type of track that is the reason I ride.  It was mint.  Enough challenges in the way of tight corners, roots and the odd rut, some grease around making both tires lose traction at the same time, squirrelly, fantastic.  All too soon, tho, a reasonable distance, we rolled out through an open scrubland, lush grass either side of the skinny dirt trail, weaving back and forth down the lower flanks back to the start.  Nice.

Hot soak in the river down stream and then home.

A surprisingly short 7.2kms with only 325 m climbed (45minutes riding time)...  but steeep.

Vegas 2: Whakarewarewa Sunday 16th

Got going in the morning and headed across Tarawera Rd and straight into the forest, finding As You Do upon which to climb.  It shortly dove into the forest away from the road and started climbing.  It was pretty mucky from the previous day's Endurogeeks so was soft and messy making for quite difficult climbing.  Nelson cleaned a heap of it, whereas I spun out and most did too, so lots of walking was done.  Eventually we reached the top.  Checked out K2 for future reference, and then reassembled and headed down to Gunna Gotta.  Oh, and Bernie was with us, on a rental, visiting from Cambridge.  He was struggling with what we thought of as fun.  Thought we were a bunch of mad bastards.  Gunna Gotta was good, regrowing pines on the top (was all cleared last time I was in there), with the lower native section still in place, and still just as fun.  Everyone enjoyed this, muckfest withstanding.  Bernie still thought we were insane.

Regrouped, then up to A-Trail, now called Paddy's Run (Formerly A-Trail), and descending, smooth curvy fun through nice forest around and down to another road.  Bernie, I think, liked this better.  Along a bit and into Tickler, me baulking at the big droppy bit on at the bottom of the first descent, most of the crew opting for the right hand line.  Meander and then climbing and meandering around about the place, catching some other riders, and eventually out to the intersection so many trails start from.  We thought we'd be able get a shuttle from Waipa base at 1pm, so we were aiming for this, heading down BRude from here.  Nice blast, tho personally I liked it better before it was logged all those years ago.  Into the forest section and more interesting again, onwards down and out to take Pig Track across, somehow turning left and ending up at a road, catching a little Grinder, down and out, into the tail end of Creek, then we're back at the end of BRude again...  Huh.  Oh, kay.  Into Mad If You Dont and headed down towards the road where we rode down to the base.  No sign of any shuttles, we asked someone and they told us they only leave there once in the morning then loop up top.  Oh well.  Bernie bailed from here.

Lunch was had and we headed off up the road again, Ball and Chain, then up the road to the pick-up point.  Cant remember waiting long and the big bus arrived and off up we went.  Some faffing at the top and then up the steep to Billy's entrance.  This trail was a blast.  I ended up on my own.  I held onto the sight of Nelson and Pete for a while, but then they went and no-one was close behind me, so I just kept my own company and pace, a reasonably fast one, nothing too scary.  Got to where Tihi o Tawa comes in and a girl was waiting for me to ride past, she followed me down to the big drop.  Nelson just disappearing over the lip.  I though, oh yeah, no worries, then looked closer and talked myself out of it.  As did Pete, and the girl (who's boy dropped it too).  Hung out here, all the rest turned up and we all assembled at the bottom where there's a big double gap jump, which Nelson bombed the drop and gapped the gap nicely on.  Then off again, and out to the bottom.

Into G Rock.  Great blast down through this, typical Whakarewarewa style trail.  Hauled some ass, chasing Pete and Nelson, down to Chesnut Link, then into Rollercoaster with it being a bit soft therefore making the climbs annoying.  Next up was the chinese takeaways and they got worse and worse and worse, the climbs ever more painful, til finally we were just below the BRude start intersection again.  Jumped into Dragon's Tail, which was a blast, and then across to finish off BRude again, this time turning right to head for the Lion's Trail climber which took us back up to the bottom of Gunna Gotta and from here we went down Katore Rd and into Exit Track, a final ballsy blast down this, Nelson cutting me up near the bottom in order to slay the final jumps.  Rode along Nursery past the Redwoods and back up to the house.

42 kms, with a 913 gain (of which 300 or so was in the bus - so still not much climbed, really - compared to our usual style of riding)

Vegas 1: Cratered Moons Saturday 15th

The crew: Phatboy, 'Jaws, Tinks, Nelsie, Buggs, Dozer, Foxy, Cookie and me; flew to Auckland first thing Friday morning and got a van with 3 spare seats and a big furniture trailer, drove through to Rotovegas, all the while watching the rain clouds approaching from the west.  Arrived in the afternoon and grocery shopped etc and weather pretty much packed in as predicted, raining all night.  Just over 10 years since the last time a smaller crew had played up there and watched the world cup.

2W Enduro event was being held in the Whakarewarewa forest on Saturday, and a few rainshowers still around we decided to head down to Taupo and explore the Craters of the Moon mtb park.  Rolled into town and eventually found a bikeshop that'd sell us a pass (everyone had run out), a map, and off we headed.  Parked up, people faffed, and we got riding.

Cant even begin to name all the trails, but they included Hammer it?  Ground Effect Grinder, Deb's Track, Mr and Missus, Young Pines, OutBack, Retro, Luge, and Coaster.  There were a couple others in there too.  Was fun; sort of Bottle Lake on the hill.  Our only criticisms were that perfectly good climbs were ruined by short brief down hills, and perfectly good downhills were ruined by annoying little climbs.  You never quite new what to expect and so the flow got wrecked.  The 'Outback' bit was way shorter than I'd expected it to be, considering the first series of trails we'd ridden hardly covered any ground, and on the map the Outback area looked like twice the size, but suddenly we were heading back and I wondered what'd happened.  We left the whole area between the carpark and the river alone, pretty much, with most of us just hopping over there to play on a jumpy bit.  Rating out of 10, a generous 6 maybe?  Good effort, and would be great place to exercise if you lived there, but as a destination, it just wasnt quite enough for us.

22kms ridden, and we only gained 468m.

Last Chance Wednesday Fatty & Skinny Bottle Ache

Last chance to expand the lungumes and stretch the legumes before the Grand Annual Voyage upon which we're departing on Friday morning...  Nelson picked me up and we got out round the forest tonight.  Him on his singlespeed and me on the Commando.  He spun hard, and I chased hard and got puffed and needed to delayer on the top of the gazebo rise.  Then we bombed our way around out to the beach and along the front and then in and up to SpencerTown for a short rest, then onwards back through the usual low-ways and by-ways back to the carpark.  That last reasonably new-ish section has got shitty bumps on it for a good couple of kms...

16.75kms, and a whole 96m gained within all those little ups and downs

Sunday Hog's Muck

Semi-organised by workmate Paul, I picked him up and we careened out of town at about 11am, in pouring rain, to Sheffield where we met Nelson, who followed us to Springfield where we met up with Derek and Babs in the Yello Shack Cafe (very nice service, and good coffee and according to Paul, better pie than Sheffield).  Rain was sort of easing out here, but was still in evidence as we ploughed our ways over Porter's, where the sun shone on Lake Lyndon and most of the valley.  Wasn't looking so good up towards Helicopter Hill tho, so we pulled into Castle Hill Village as planned and discussed our options.  Figured best option would be to head into the Hogs Back from here to see what we would see.  Gave us the option to turn around at any time, and it sure looked wet further up the valley.

So, off up the road then into the trail, carefully ignoring the 'Closed for winter' sign, "It's spring now, anyway, so the sign's out of date" remarked Nelson...  Rather greasy and roots slippery, but not that bad, we rode up, all of us feeling the pinches.  Babs did incredibly well considering her slick rear tire, and Paul struggled having never ridden mtnbikes up hills.  Some adjustments and tips by Nelson and he was better further up, but still walked a fair bit of that climb near the top of the trees.  Once out on the top the view up valley suggested we'd made the right decision, with our planned route in view and out of the weather, vs Helicopter Hill and Lyndon Saddle being completely obscured by what looked like snow falling.  On up the ridge, the strugglers finding this easier, then into the first downhill, where they were exposed to Nelson and my concept of not actually using brakes... Awesome wee blast down this track then across the big flattish valley crossing the stream beds, and back climbing to the forest edge.  Regroup and off down across the stream crossing, and climbing again, small scrapple / graupel falling (wanna-be hail, but too light, falling more like snow) bouncing off our jackets (not wetting).  Clamber clamber clamber then across and some mucky bits and climbing up to the bridge.  Here, Paul was concerned about his knee, took this photo and then turned back while the rest of us continued the climb with the rain starting to get through a bit, and less of the haily-snow. 

You can see the rain in this pic...

Finally into the last forest section and climbing around and out to the bottom of the moonscape section, Nelson hit the first of the corners and here we decided it was too mucky to continue.

Turned around and the fun began.  Bloody glad I was wearing my jacket and GE leggings...  Roots were slick, but manageable, and was lots of fun.  Met Derek and Babs in the forest here, where they turned around to follow us.  Nelson and me bombed it away and down and through and back over the bridge and then down the open section and into another rooty forest where we pulled up and waited a while for the other two.  They were almost clean, vs Nelson and me head to toe splatter - difference a bit of speed makes.  Rolled on around and through and then stream crossing and grindy climb out and up.  Could see Paul now, across the valley on the final climb so we chased.  Eventually finding him at the big dead tree where we regrouped again and awaited the others.  They came into sight and we watched as they crossed the landscape.

Here's us sitting there, me hanging my head in shame at the state of my clothing...

Final little climb from the tree, and off down the ridge, floaty flow and a final regroup before entering the forest.  Then off.  Careful speed into the woods, sketchy mud and slippery roots, both of us kept our speed down from the usual rocketship ride, but was still pretty good.  Seemed like no time and we were at the bottom, cruising down that paddock singletrack and into the houses, a lap of the pump track and to the cars.

Only 12 kms, and a meagre 361 gained and lost... but muck and the altitude and the lack of recent riding made it seem a bit bigger.

Monday School Hols Fog Pearcing Views

At the bach for some of the school holidays, with the fatbike, so headed out this morning, low cloud cover filling the valley.  Headed up the road, making (aptly named) Misty Hills gate in just over 15 minutes, and the top of the road 40 minutes later...  Headed through the gate, and through the fog up the gravel track towards the top of Mt Pearce.  Rather steeper in bits than I remembered, for it has been a long while, but I grovelled onwards up and after a couple of gates made it to the top, 720-something metres climbed.  View up here was spectacular, overlooking the cloud below, and the tops of all the peninsula peaks.  Brief rest and then off I headed down, heaps of speed from gate to gate, then through the last one back onto the road.

Around here along the Summit Rd, bits and pieces of fog wafting across, no view below, fog as far as the eye could see, just the tops poking out.  Got to my turn off, and headed down to the gate, over this and onwards up the ridge towards the paper road and View Hill.  Bit of riding, bit of walking and eventually over the last fence, around a knoll and then around the side of the hill on what was once a track, til I veered right and headed up and over onto the farmtrack that zigged and zagged me to the top of View Hill.  Long climb here to the very top, 769m, nice rest, beautiful sunny day up here, while all around me was fog below.

Snack, then down again.  Speeeeeeeed.  Top gate, then bombed down View Hill Road into the fog at around 500m, lowering visibility to stuff all, massive speed down here even tho I could hardly see anything, having to lower my glasses and look through the gap between them and my visor.  Passed a dog tied to a fence, and then lower down, below the concreted section, met the first few sheep and lambs coming up the road.  I hauled up and pulled over to the fenceline and waited as they passed, and eventually the farmer with his two grand kids turned up moving the sheep along.  Quick chat with them, and bombed on down again, gathering even more speed down the final bits of gravel, through Chorlton rounding onto the seal and fanging down the road into the bay.

Peeled off onto Lukes Track and over down to the tennis courts, then up the road and up the drive...

983m climbed, 24.8kms...