
Originally Posted by
thecharmed01
This ride had it's good and bad points, but I think it's been put on our list of only do if you are truly desperate unfortunately.
I don't mind a bit of gravel, I'm getting a lot more confident than I was, but there was way too much gravel on this ride. It felt like more than half of it was on gravel roads, then a lot of the rest of it was just kidney shaking bumps. I think the dust didn't help much either - it was like riding Desert Storm in January!
I thought there was too much 2-way on the gravel roads too. I'm not very fast on gravel, and being stuck on one side made it hard for people to pass me as I'm not confident enough to ride on the edge of the road when it's cambered and deeper gravel. So I know more than a few people must have been getting frustrated behind me on those sections.
This particular ride felt a bit repetitive, and like I was riding Ohariu Valley with all the gravel and up's and down's.
I quite enjoyed the B forest loop, and on the second run the boys did the B over the A and said the B was way more fun. Other than the merging section it was quite a cool little forest part - but way too short!
The trail was really well marked though, there were heaps of marshalls and there was only one place where I wasn't sure if I was heading in the right direction till I saw more bikers. Which was impressive as I am the one who always gets lost haha.
Lunch was great too, the ladies helping were super friendly and they were very well organised. Bagged lunches make such a difference I think, you don't have to struggle to hold everything!
One comment from the boys when they got back from the second loop though, was that they had a near miss with a marshall, who was coming toward them on the gravel road, with two quad riders following behind. It was on a ONE way section and had he not been in front with a flat tyre, he said that they would likely have collided with them as his usual riding style uses the whole track as a rule and they came around a blind corner to be faced with them.
My partner was quite angry that a marshall should have known better than to be going against traffic, on a one way section with limited visibility.
He felt that if he had been full speed (with an inflated tyre) or if he'd been following another bike/quad rider he would never have been able to see the riders coming toward him till it was too late.
At briefing they were really making a point about being cautious on the two-way sections and only riding one way on the rest. So he was quite stroppy about it. Moreso with it being a marshall.
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