Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Sunday Ride Report - The Epic

Sundays Ride was the Epic 100 km ride out to Meadows,

I started early expecting that most of the BG riders from the City and the Toll Gate would pass me on the way up to the bollards. It didn't work out that way as I met Graham at the bottom and Michael and Dan passed me on the way up. We gathered at the top and were joined by Neil and his pilot Derrick on the tandem, along with Daniel who has ridden with us a few times before.

More BG joined at the Bollards.  By 8:30 Twelve BG gathered at the bollards and after the standard 10 minute wait we set off. At that point none of the fast guys were there, hence we decided to regroup at Mylor and decide the route from there. In Brian's absence I was elected road captain, which might I say is not a role for the fat slow dude at the back.

The descent from Stirling and the Aldgate Valley road was fantastic, We couldn't have picked a better day for a ride in the hills. The new tandem has a serious set of disk brakes which makes them even quicker on the descents,  We hit Mylor and the consensus was to push on to Echunga. We stopped at Echunga mainly because I was about 5 minutes behind and we had to wait for me the to get there in order to make a decision and set a direction. Did I mention I am the fat slow dude at the back? This turned out to be good decision as while the group was regathering  David H, Andy T and Hugh arrived. They had only missed us by a few minutes. We pushed on to Meadows as it would have been the same distance back to Hahndorf.

There were lots of groups out and we arrived at Meadows just as a group of about 30 riders, mostly from "Snowy's", were leaving the Bakery. I recall from the shadowy mists of time when we were one of the few groups to venture that far out. We were a bit startled to see that there has been  a housing boom in Meadows since our last visit.

At this point the consensus was to do an out and back rather than the loop. The day was good so staying in the hills appealed and no one was keen on tackling the traffic on the southern loop. Return trip done at a good pace but after regrouping at Mylor, I relinquished my road captaincy and told the guys to ride ahead as it would take me a while to complete the climb. I took off up the Aldgate Rd expecting not to sight the group again. Instead, half way up Dan had a puncture and almost at the top of the climb the Tandem had a mechanical, so to my surprise I met the group again at the top of Aldgate Valley. Turns out that they might as well have waited for me.

PS: For the record I did do Ayers Hill rd without unclipping.