Naseby 12 Hour Mountain Bike Race April 16th 2010

This year’s event was showing a lot of promise – we entered on time and had a reasonable show of talent and scuffers alike – just like last year; but with different people.

Myself, Phil from Henderson Cycles in Alex, a friend of his; Craig Wight (pronounced White) and the love of my life – Keighley.

Recent events transpired to send it all pear shaped - read previous blog entry if you need updating.

I informed Phil that he might need another couple of riders just in case....he found a couple of local ladies thru the bike shop.

Then I re-invited myself back into the team as Keighley and Chuck were under control in Christchurch Hospital and no longer requiring my 24/7 bedside attention.

A small glitch the day before when my boss promised his pop up tent to two teams, but that was resolved thanks to Phil who had a spare one...

Jeff was there again, but with a far more palatial camp set up this time. He’d sent a text at 1.02 PM advising he was set up and good to go....you weren’t allowed onsite until 1pm and Jeff was first in the gate at 12.40....Legendary.

There was Cam riding solo again and another 3 teams sharing our digs, but plenty of room for all and sundry - even these guys:

I arrived much later and we quickly added the pop up to the mix thus completing the set up phase.

Next was the roll call phase – The girls were coming up on Saturday Phil said.

I asked where was Craig – our anchor man, the guy we’re hoping to string together endless sub 30 min laps while we drank beer and heckled the solo riders...

He’s in Taupo was the reply.

12 hours to go and he’s driving a truck down from Auckland that broke down, so had to go back to Hamilton to get a waterpump, back to Taupo fit the water pump and then keep going....

But at 10pm that night just as we’d found Phil’s bottle of Old Masters Port; Craig was on the Ferry across Cook Strait – a mere days drive away. Sweet as.

Aaron from RR Sport Dunners had ponied up with amazing accommodation via a family connection so we headed off there and giggled away like a couple of schoolgirls till the wee small hours until we faded away in a boozy haze......awakening in the same boozy haze wishing we didn’t have to go racing.

That’s right; he had his race face on and was out to prove the naysayers very, very wrong – McGrother can smash it all day in the dog people – look out.

I sent Phil out for the first lap as my knee was bung and I did the first lap last year anyways.

Once again the weather was great – warmer this year though and the course was mint.

I learnt the last bit of downhill single track to the finish was called “The cat puncher” for some strange reason that only Aaron knows...even though some guy broke his collarbone and thereafter the race radio referred to it as ....wait for it....collarbone alley.

How they came up with that one I’ll never know. I like Cat Puncher.

I know you’re wondering how I rode a year on from last year – I’d moved my cleats to a much more powerful shoe/pedal position and could really deal it out know. My cranks and bottom bracket probably need replacing I dare say.

New tyres were on the 29er complementing the wash and wax it had lovingly received prior.

And new FOX (there’s the plug) forks now with 15mm axle. Oh yeah baby.

I sucked as usual with times around 31.5 mins or slower which makes me think maybe I exaggerated my lap times from last year. Certainly there was no chance of knocking Ryan Cull from CSI (best prize for a wanky acronym) off his 24.09 min perch.

The day unfolded like a cheap Bali knock off watch – slick handovers or arriving to find no one on our team in the tent – real hit and miss stuff. Classic.

Craig arrived about 2pm and promptly knocked out our fastest lap on a bike I wouldn’t have ridden if was paid to; no suspension, vee brakes, 26 inch wheels, hardtail.

There that should get some discussion going at least....

From our excellent pit set up we watched a lot of Solo riders go past – many on singlespeeds and most with a wretched look on their faces as they ground uphill into the campground.

I may have quietly and politely said “bugger that” because it didn’t look like as much fun as we were having in the cheap seats handing out informal prizes for “most outstanding nipples” and “best cleavage”. I wouldn’t call myself sexist – more of an observational roll is how I’d describe it.

At one stage we were in tenth place in the mixed vets grade – then with the blink of an eye 6^th place, just like that. Must have been that 6 seconds I pulled back one time....

Hannah has taken on the moniker of skate/sifty chick while recovering from a busted ankle so I didn’t have to arrange any impromptu catering this year. Marc may have busted a night lap in a fairly smart time, but that hasn’t been confirmed by the commissaries panel as yet.

My night lap was marred by lack of familiarity with the night time riding environment even though I had a new light set up which bang for your buck (again, there’s the plug) is awesome.

Or was it the total lack of training or recent blip in the game plan ?

All three I’d say – I was done.

Fortunately Craig wasn’t and he bought us home inside the time limit to chalk another lap up for team www.redwoodrevolution.blogspot.com

While we all dipped out at a very well represented prize giving (riders and goodies) Craig did get an honourable mention for most determined effort to get there and some booze to boot. Nice.

Marc was in charge of post event fluid repatriation and thanks to Emmerson’s Brewery, dehydration wasn’t a factor.

Sunday dawned with the frost from Hell – wait that doesn’t make sense, because Hell didn’t actually freeze over, it was just very cold.

The Cafe was shut on (potentially) the most lucrative day of the year, but the girls had the coffee cart cranking again which was a smart move on their behalf.

We were packed up and ready to roll surprisingly early for us – well me anyway.

No trip away would be complete without a few distractions – the private museum in Naseby was a tremendous tribute to the past and his neighbour gets a special mention for his enthusiasm to motorsport; he was racing motorbikes at Porirua when I was in a pram !

Hayes Engineering in Oterehua was impressive for another dose of yesteryear.

And the chow and cuppa at the Cafe in Omakau was very pleasant.

Different to last year, but just as enjoyable for a bunch of different reasons.

Cheers Naseby.

6th of March was supposed to go like this..

A lot happened that day.....

I'd entered the Alpine Classic - here was the words from the Otago Daily times newspaper 2 days later:

On a warm and sunny Saturday morning, about 100 cyclists took off on the tough 135km bike ride, from Queenstown to Wanaka over the Crown Range and back again, in the Outside Sports Alpine Classic Cycle Race 2010.
The field of 67 individual starters and 16 teams took off from Guilty Bar in central Queenstown, and were back in Queenstown in record times, with no accidents along the way.
Organiser Bill Godsall said the race had been attended by cyclists from all over the South Island, and he was very happy with this year's large and strong field.

A friend; Carl Boomsma did the first leg and I rode back to Queenstown - my wife & kids were going to be at the top of the Crown Range to cheer me on - I'd missed the bunch at the changeover so sent them a message I was on my way - Keighley replied that Charlie really wasn't well and they wouldn't make it.
I rode most of the 66km by myself and to make it brief; I suffered like a dog up the climb, descended like a grandma, but only got caught by one person and that was about 6 kms from the finish - he was 4th in the teams, we were 5th. Overall we got 29th from the 67 starters.
I was stoked to do so well.

I'd got a text when descending off the hill and checked my phone - two messages; one from Jess saying that when I got the message from Keighley that I wasn't to panic and it was all under control - the other message said that Charlie my 2 year old son, Keighley and Jess were driving to Dunedin Hospital (3.5hrs away) to get Charlie checked out as he had been wobbly on his feet and not the best for a few weeks....

Next day he had an MRI scan which showed a golfball size "mass" inside his head which was applying pressure to his brain causing him to be unwell.
Later that day he was on the air ambulance to Starship (kids) Hospital in Auckland, 5 days later he endured the longest surgery in the world (well it was 8am-7.30pm before we got him back) and then another 5 days later he was up and about again.

Go figure.
Talk about an emotional roller coaster ride. Phew - words can't do it justice.

Luckily everyone rallied and was super supportive to help us all through it.
Charlie is now based in Christchurch for at least the next 4 months while he starts his year long course of chemo therapy to hopefully show any left over cancerous cells that he's the boss and they just aren't welcome !

There have been numerous articles in the local papers about a fundraiser the neighbours have put on to help raise money; so I can look after Emily in Wanaka (i.e less time for work), also so we can fly Emily up to see Mum and Charlie (her flights are not paid for) and lastly - Keighley had to pull out of her studies to become an Early Childhood Teacher and only got 1/2 her fees back - hopefully she can resume next year.
You can read about us here, here and here.

One of our friends in England suggested putting a Paypal logo up on this blog which works for our Internationals who have flown the coup -
thanks Amy - I'd never have thought of that myself.

Everyone's support and generosity is overwhelming, but will really help us get through this time in our lives in much better shape -

A huge thank you to you all.

Holidays, Rails & New Trails

This post is bought to you by myself dating Mid February 2010 back to our family vacation in December 2009.

The Upper Clutha Tracks Trust have been putting time, money and resources into some great new trails alongside Lake Wanaka, Hawea River and the Clutha River.

I'm sure there is a lot more they contribute to but today we're talking about the new trail from Albert Town (where we live - 5 kms from Lake Wanaka) to Luggate (another 12kms by car) that follows the Clutha River.

It's so cool I've done it twice in 4 days..

Did I mention the Luggate Hotel has 8 beers on tap and a glass jug sets you back about 10 bucks?

There, just did.

Saturday was with Callum on the yellow terror rigid single speed and this avo with Paul Smith (formerly of Essence Bicycle) on his Singular single speed 29er.

Other recent bike rides feature my dad on my Karate Monkey and my son Charlie riding on the back of Gary Fisher with me in the pilot seat.

Last year UCTT finished another trail alongside the Hawea River right up to Lake Hawea (about 10km from home, one way)

We did 1/2 of it on Sunday stopping for peanut butter sandwiches...

Other rides of note was from my brothers place in Petone up Wainuiomata Hill - yep, you did read corectly I did indeed ride up it this time - no shuttling and then South along the ridgeline and down into Wainuiomata.

This is one of Caleb's best ever tracks and his video does more justice than me telling you all about it.

Karangahake Gorge near Waihi on the Corromandel was another great day out with Tom & Owen.

Mmmmmmmmm can you say Native trail goodness ?

On holiday in Nelson over Xmas I was crook as dog who just got kicked in the guts, so it was pretty low key taking the kids on the back to the shop sort of stuff........

And there was a brewery round the corner from the motorcamp we stayed at in Mapua.

Riding it was none the less.

Oh me and Flossy got to bomb down the South side of Takaka Hill on borrowed bikes which was pretty cool, but also shows how inefficient baggy shorts and a casual button front shirt are for sneaking through the wind at warp factor 40km/h.

Only good for about 38 and who wants to get in a tuck wearing flip flops ?

Another perspective on the weekend's ride

This just in from our newest contributor - yeah, the guy about to whack it into the hammer....

"Attached a photo from the weekend if you need a contribution to the wettest story of the year - this what the front looked like 15 seconds before it went single file gutter."

Thanks Scotty.

92km of yeah well, you know.....well "fun"

I think it only fair to say for starters I'm not really one for setting long term goals and whatnot - imagine the disappointment if you got run over tomorrow and you hadn't ticked them all off.

But I did say late last year that I'd (like) to do the "fun ride" round Lake Dunstan and then I promptly ended up on death's door before Christmas with a head cold/sinus thing that would have laid up even swine flu itself.....

So I kind of said yeah nah.

Right up till yesterday infact - even after I'd installed the new (wider) handlebars (check it out man, I'm riding a 31.8mm stem now.....), changed the seat, cleaned the bike, fiddled with the seat height a few times, took it for a test ride in the new kit and still, I was to coin a DB phrase - ambivalent about forking out $35 + 10 bucks late fee to ride round a lake that is only 30 minutes away and I could ride round it anytime I like!

So, fast forward to this morning: woke to rain - oh goody I can sleep in.....

Still looking for inspiration.........................................................

Found this on the interweb last night and after that I thought :

"If Andrew Meo can still lay the smack down at 47, I can bluff my way through a 92km fun rideat 40"

Rain stopped: bugger might have to go and do it - plenty of time to make it - yeah lets go.

Coffee x 2- check.

Bin full of stuff - check

Bike - check

Shoes - had to stop 10 km down the road: to....... - check.

Forked over the money, much relieved that they did this:

-instead of pin holes thru the new jersey.

Got changed, went for a roll to suss out the finish - like I'd be featuring, but at least I'd know when to slow down...and then the wind changed to a Southerly and it rained.

Crap.

Money down, must ride now.

It's been a while since I've turned up at a "fun ride" seems that the guy who invented carbon must be laughing all the way to his big fat bank.

Even in the deep south, the fashion setters make an appearance:

Then we lined up, started rolling and it rained.

Riding, riding - it rained heavier.

Riding riding then it really rained a lot and we weren't even out the neutral zone.

I knew we were out the neutral zone because Scotty from Outside Sports got things going in the tailwind at 60km.....

My grupetto was a little more sedate, but the big ring it was in and before I knew what was happening I was bridging a gap and moving through the field and feeling ok - well I wasn't puking at least.

Thanks tail wind - you rock.

And no one was in toeclips !

A couple of old steeel frames, but I was on my new to me but 5 year old carbon Trek, so no time to mix and mingle discusing friction shifters buddy - I've moved to nine, yes nine of the finest on the bars !

Cross wind section from Taras to Maori Point Road; I was the man and pulled the bunch on through - I thought I was just riding on the front, but some guy said "nice work there" and he looked like he'd conservatively done about a million km's in his day - same Sidi shoes as me too.

I commented of course that I thought I had the oldest shoes, but no, we had matching it seems.

"Got them in '94" he said.

I replied that mine had been riding with Johan Museew when Smile Upton owned them.

Anyways, Luggate came and went 50 km's from the start in 1hr 20 mins...........pretty good.

Then it was head wind to home (42km) and rain and a bunch that couldn't really organise a piss up in a brewery.

So I sat in, had lunch and then it rained - a lot.

Like if you were driving in your car, you would have slowed down to 60km/h and put your lights on too.

It was the most wet I'd ever been riding my bike.

Then we had thunder and lightening as well. Wicked.

At least I didn't have a mortgage payment of carbon wheels out there in the deluge.


I was pretty glad I had my knee and arm warmers on...and my vest on under my jersey, and a merino 1st layer - ah, I can hear Andrew Meo's words now "always wear a woolly layer even in summer - can't go wrong"

This was true as it was indeed summer and fortunately the sheep have become softer and market themselves better these days.

Andrew was also reknowned for issuing red cards for infringements over incorrect sock length, missing a turn on the front, letting a gap open up.........once when the boys were racing in the Top of the South Tour, we spent a whole afternoon driving around Blenheim looking for a good coffee.

We'd do a drive by then send in a scout on recon, filter machines earning a "no way in hell" and a dirty machine a similar response.

But I digress - do check out Slims blog tho, he had quite the day today.

Somehow I ended up last wheel in a beautiful echelon of five riders spread across the road past the Cherry farms - it was a thing of greatness as everyone else was strung off my wheel unable to organise another line.

Ah, it was the sort of thing even the Ariostia team time trial would have been proud of.

Shame my sodden gloves and hands couldn't feel the bars or that my ankles were part of my body at this point....

We even collected up another small bunch - life was good.

The finish line was looming after a left hander in the industrial area, 4 guys jumped, I didn't.

Well until two bloody school girls who had wheel sucked their way around the whole way tried to roll me on the line - I don't think so.

"Stop riding like a pussy" was all I could hear from Slim at that point, so I fed it to them and finished 4th in our bunch of maybe 30 riders.

Stats:

Race distance 92km,

My time 3hr 1 minute.

Winning time 2hr 20 minutes by the young junior who won 3 golds at the Track Worlds in Russia last year.

I finished 29th overall in the 35-44 year old age group and 79th overall out of 243 riders, so just squeaked into the top 3rd off the field.

I ate 2 bananas, 1 muesli bar and drank 1.5 bottles of water from my bottles and must have swallowed another 16 gallons of wheel spray.

1 cup (more or less) of dirty water emptied out of the frame when I got home.

90 psi in the Conti 700 x 28 tires made the big chip that much more comfortable - poo poo the nay sayers.

At prize givinh I picked up a flyer for another race in 2 months time from Queenstown to Wanaka and return over the Crown Range and thought yeah that wouldn't be so bad....

Which is good as I've finished other "fun" rides previously and wanted to sell the bike.

Didn't get a spot prize, but never mind that's racing.

A ride with John in mind

You've read about it in a magazine - here's my take on going riding with this guy:

I'd like to keep this brief; but won't.
They say it's all in the details - and there's a bunch of important stuff here.

Grab a cuppa and settle in.
No names have been changed to protect anyone- they're all real people and more than likely some professional courtesy's and client confidentiality will be breached.
So; I'm at work talking to a guy on the phone about stuff and he says John Tomac was in his shop yesterday, cause his son is racing in the World Junior Motocross Champs the following weekend and he might get to go for a ride with him on the Monday.

Holy Crap I'm thinking - could I wrangle a quick trip to Taupo to go riding with John ?Too right I could.
But after careful consideration it was too rushed and damn expensive.

So I found a way cool picture of John on the drops from back in the day and emailed it up to my un-named contact and asked if the man could sign it for me instead.
By chance I was talking to the same guy the next week and asked him how the ride went with John.

"Didn't go - he's too busy with his son's MX racing, but he might be going riding on Monday with one of the MTB magazine editors"

Holy Crap I'm thinking - could I wrangle a quick trip to taupo to go riding with JOhn ?Too right I could.

How to stealthfully find out which magazine was riding with John?
Caleb didn't mention it the day before, so emailed Bruce - he said Carl might be onto it.

Carl asked how I knew about it and wasn't thrilled about a million gatecrashers at his party.
After some too-ing and fro-ing and my insistence that I wasn't going to let a ride with John slip through my fingers twice in two weeks, Carl offered me the last seat in the Falcon departing Wellington in two days....

This time, I just looked the other way when I booked my airfares online after asking the boss if I could bunk off for a couple of days - he said it was a must do and a good one to tick off the list.
Wifey said go for it (expletives removed)

I sorted a loan bike from Taupo and even better than that I could catch a lift to Queenstown airport with the Boss the next day.
Those of you who know my boss know he is reknowned for his timekeeping.

My flight was at 10.30, his appointment was at 10 - he arrived at 9.05 and it's an hours drive from here.

We got to the airport, (with a ticket along the way) by 9.50.The nice Copper was OK with posting the ticket as he could see we were in a hurry!

So, Wellington here we come.

Big Brother (mine, not the State) collected me and after forgoing the Friday drinks with Jonty and Oli we went for a great ride around, up, down and along the ridges of Wainuiomata.

My folks joined us for dinner and luckily we ran out of booze, so hit the hay before things got messy.

Just like to point out that it's my brother who has an affectionate relationship with the bottle - not mum and dad.

The early departure turned into a mid afternoon one, introductions were made and off we went; the four guys, with bikes, in a big car loaded fully to the roof and a ride with John in mind.

The towns passed us by, not much to report other than the weather was pretty average through the Desert Road and Taupo looked promising for dinner.
Carl said he couldn't wait till then and how about Turangi ?

"Anyone eaten in Turangi? I think there's the Fish Restaurant behind the gas station, but the service could be slow"

Josh said he'd had a good fish burger at the chippie - thinks it was called the Grand Central Fry....

"Sounds great, take us there Josh"

"It was 9 years ago - might not be there"

A collective "crap" was uttered.

So we turn in, take a right and well blow me down with a feather there it was. GCF.

$6 fish burgers; 4 pieces of fish in each, so freaking big you couldn't close the lid on the box if you tried.

The best fish burger I've ever had, possibly never to be surpassed.

Off to Taupo to collect the bike, then onto Vegas and the Thermal Motor camp and two of your finest little log cabins if you please.

Carl bunked with Josh, I bunked with Warwick who it turns out is a retro MTB grouch just like me.We carried on a like a couple of school girls (not like that Aaron) reminiscing about various races we'd done and the benefits and downfalls of bar ends, drop bars, Onza porcupines and Ringle bottle cages.

Finally we shut up about 1 in the morning and got some kip.

Sunday - hello Sunday, hello rain, but hello Zippys and the cooked breakfast and strong coffee.

It was the kind of day that if you were local you'd flag it and watch a re-run of Bathhurst when the Ford Sierras and Godzilla ruled the roost...we didn't have that luxery, so we saddled up, rugged up and hit the trails.

I could bore you with a blow by blow account of them all - but lets say A trail, Tickler, Direct, Frontal Labotomy - that's more climbing than I do in a month.

Josh's Pivot and Warwick's Spider weighed maybe 5-6 pounds (each) less than mine and let face it - I suck riding up hills.However, point the Foes FXR down Billy T and I was off like a robbers dog.

It was mighty slippery and adhesion was not a strong point of any of our tires, but who cared ?

Our brakes cared - they wanted to know why we let all the brake pads run down to the metal....oops;

and with Split Enz, Pondy and the Chinese Menu on our dance card, it was looking like a noisey trip home.

We hosed our bikes off, and retired to the showers, walking in fully clothed and rinsed all the filth off everything - shoes, helmets, gloves; the lot.

The Fat Dog called for dinner and we met the guys from Tomac bikes who had made the trip from Christchurch.

We were all pretty toasted so didn't drink ourselves into oblivion and besides; Carl would have had a confirmation email from John waiting back at the campground.
Good news awaited. we were on.

Monday: Zippys again, then Bike Culture for brake pads which we were all freaking out about - imagine us paying retail for new pads x 6 pair!Mike came to the party and hooked us up, then let us fit them as well. Cheers Mike

Hanging out at the carpark waiting for John to arrive was a jovial affair with much rehersing of our opening lines which mainly consisted of jibberish, followed by more stuttering.

Actually I kept it together and told John he was pretty lucky to be going for a ride with us as it's not something he would get to do every day.

Ben Townley tagged along too - I got to carry his I-phone as he didn't have a pocket (I think he really did, but I can understand his excitement about letting me carry it)
Business first, introductions, discussion of the game plan and off we go to the first of 3 photo spots.
Warwick lent John, his wait for it, Tomac signture Oakleys. He was like a schoolgirl.
John popped his carbon signature XC bike up on the back wheel and mono'd down the hill effortlessly - I was suitably impressed.

2nd photo spot and John and Ben are egging each other on to hit up a gap jump.....Ben is on an Epic, John has Sids on the front.

It wasn't a problem.

Everyone was impressed.
Even Josh the uber cool xc weenie had his tail wagging by now.

Everyone wanted to ride next to John by now - I got to see the back end of the group - all my mojo got chewed up the day before, but before we turned into Split Enz, Carl said I should slot in next to John and hang onto the master.We ambled along chatting about Bob Roll (go and Google him now if you need to) and John's previous career as a roadie in Europe....then it was a pleasure to watch him carve up the trail like he'd ridden it every other day.

After a little regroup I dropped my camera and that was that; my moment of riding next to John was done and dusted.I think it was probably just as well he didn't ride with us the day before as things might have been different - but really I think that's the camomille tea talking.

Back at the carpark John had time to change - yes he was wearing cowboy boots and then he was bombarded with us groupies asking for most everything to be signed.Helmets, t-shirts, jerseys, bikes, cards, you name it.Funnily enough he didn't ask for my signature.

Mike May joined us on the ride with this Yeti....very cool.

And noticed a crack just behind the chainstay - wouldn't that rip your knickers after figuring out how to make a titanium insert that splits so you can mount the belt drive.

Back to zippys for farewells and coffee then it hit the road jack.
GCF was calling and once again it didn't disappoint.

I drove all the way home which ws probably about 250 km's to many, but hey we got there without any tickets or eviction from the pilots seat.
All too soon Monday was there, but luckily big brother has a single group Faema and an excellent recipe for porridge.

Dad ran me into the airport, this time through the Mt Vic tunnel as opposed to round the Bays with the clock ticking....
Family collected me on time and I didn't leave my helmet and Ground Effect top on the plane this time - bonus.
Everyone was pleased to see me, I was pleased to see them, I'd been riding with John Tomac; life was good.
An here's an interesting fact - Cinelli custom made the drop bars John used to run as he wanted a really deep drop section.....

He was pretty impressed when I asked if they were custom.

Who's the man?

Actually I think it was Carl this weekend - just coming right after Glandular Fever, certainly not 100%, but he pulled it off and got it all jacked up.

Cheers Carl.

Cheers John.

Star on Saturday - Sucked on Sunday

Yes, hi folks.
Coming to you live from high in the hills of the 473 (that would be Dunedin)
Locals of the 443 would get that line...

Anyhow, we rolled into town with the banjo's blazing on Friday (being from the country and all) after a reasonable trip across from "Central" what with the scone grabbers in tow......
Chuck had face planted on the playground in Roxburgh, across the road from Jimmy's Pies - hey what's a bleeding chin between social workers these days ?

Keighley had a bunch of moms to talk to about reusable nappies, so the kids and I collected Marc; our host with the most and went to Mazagran Cafe which is indeed sensational and minimalist - 1 x counter, 1 x coffee roaster 3 tables inside and 3 outside and the coffee should be licensed to thrill - phew !
These cats sre so cool they don't take eftpos - cash mate, yep, folding.
So, to speed things along along, had Japanese for tea from The Jitsu - fantastic and Emersons dark beer - variety TBC (London Porter - mmm).

Saturday was a trip to the Farmers Market at the Railway Station - if you live here and don't go- well you're missing out.
Then around the shops and as a special treat in the avo, the merry trio of myself, Marc & Hannah rode up Nicol's Creek (40 mins approx) and then gently rolled back down at a sedate pace.
Actually I told a lie.
I would have been convicted for failing to stop, speeding, reckless use of a vehicle and plain stupidity.
I instantly gave it a 20/10 on the rideometer and a gold star + it is now my new best all time favourite track to ride.
Fresh Fish for tea from the aforementioned market - another fantastic meal.

Sunday, I had the crap beaten out of me by Hannah and Marc with a few laps up and around Signal Hill.
For those not knowing this riding gem, it is up and down and all around and brutal.
Lots of rock sections just waiting for you to ragdoll ............
So, to sum up -
Great food, the weather behaved this time and awesome riding - once again I ruled on Saturday and rolled on Sunday.
Which reminds me of another away weekend I had recently, but I cannot divulge the contents of that one just yet, for fear of all media whore privileges been revoked.......