By the time we unloaded the bikes a thin misty rain had settled in, pushed along by a biting southerly breeze. Passing thoughts of last years rain saturated fiasco stirred excitement levels. I could have got around no sweat last year if only there were 1500 less riders out there. I'm sure this years limit of 1000 riders would create less problems on the more difficult stretches.
Well almost. There was only one bottleneck all day but everyone must have been caught up in it on a steepish uphill track. Several of us dived into the bush for a challenging but only net gain of 150m. Everyone was turned back to follow the novice route out. From then on the ride was a doddle. Well nearly apart from the endless slippery ruts and tree roots which were clearly the beginnings of black holes as they sucked the front wheels into them at every opportunity.
The correct technique for dealing with these was to stand up and go fast finding lines that criss crossed the ruts where the back wheel snapped in both directions trapped in the ruts but kept forward momentum. Occasionally the front wheel got loose but the Michelin MS3 front tyre kept me safe.
But you can't stand up all day so the flailing leg technique was employed to maintain balance and forward momentum. Soon I was riding relaxed with only a semblance of control, stalling a couple of times but managing to stay aboard.
It was a relief to hit the whooped out sandy sections of track pogoing from hump to hump imagining how Chad or Ricky would be handling it. A bit better than me I daresay. But yahay no mud for a while - just a short while.
We arrived back 3 hours and 65km later for a bite to eat for lunch, hook up the helmet cam, refuel and back at it. More of the same but slipperier with deeper ruts and more tree roots but far less riders around. This lap took only 2 hours mostly non stop to maximise the Hel cam 93 min riding footage.
We stopped to watch the post ride activities but it was cold and my muscles were starting to ache so I sat in the van until ready to leave.
Back at the motel I rewound and fired up the helmet cam only to find I filmed the last 3 minutes of the ride. The lens unit failed to operate until I crashed with a perfectly executed barrel roll (I'm shaped like a barrel so this comes naturally)
On sunday we sallied forth on the Western loop after finding the 20km challenge loop was closed. However there were enough Expert loops to keep things very interesting. Included was the hill that terminated the ride for us last year, easily ridden, without the numbers of lesser skilled riders to deal with.
I enjoyed the western loop but only did 1 lap as I was sick of the sight of so much mud. Half way round I remembered I had a camera with me so a few pikkies attached.
I'm really pissed off as I got virtually no helmet cam footage which means I'll have to come back next year - darn it. Every year the same old story.
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Originally Posted by barty5
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