29/10
Sudden brake lights, a loud thump, and a clobbered kangaroo was flung from the passing Navara's bullbar straight into the bike lane, twitching with an express ticket to heaven....just another thing to dodge on Saturdays early lap. D shackles, big bitumen blisters, steel strapping and stones littered the highways edge on a 17k solo, better on the well worn track of Mitchell and Archer to rendezvous with the Couldabeens at the shop. Kel, TatPaul, Cougar, Shorty, Trav, Cate, SuperMario, Mel, Rocket, Pistol, Ralphy, Wozza, Troy, Nev, HBK, Bruce, Temple and a thousand uninvited murderous mosquitos filtered in for the 6am off. TatPaul and I had the honours of dragging the bunch up to speed on leg one (the resplendent Godfather gracing us with his presence) the pack settling into the social schmooze till Orrvale Rd when a vehement verbal was hurled from a ute driver, inconveniently forced to stop at a stop sign, just for 19 lives on bikes. Unperturbed, the journey east continued, a holler to caution Darth Vader's appearance sharpened eyesight and wits. The sidekick decoy Rottweiller lay at the roads left edge, Darth barking and bolting from the right (without consequence). Deviations and distractions over, bike business resumed for Boundary, steering east into Old Dookie flagged the day's scenic solar start.
Words with Wozz, banter with Bruce, guffaws with the Godfather, rhetoric with Ralphy and cackles with Cate make for a satisfying social start to the weekend, oxygen usually used for gasping on weekday rides and the race to reach work usually stealing any post ride interaction. Headed homeward in Lemnos-Cosgrove Rd, my turn two arrived at the kennels with TatPaul then with Bruce from Boundary, heart and lungs coping admirably, mental detours distracting leg objections to reach Ford Rd. Pussycat pack #1 was well populated, BassoDave back in the bunch a welcomed watershed moment. Sprinters and stayers shuffled the sequence in Wanganui Rd, Rocket unusually taking a back seat as Wozz, Bruce, Boof and the sprint starved wound up the boost to the hill. Picking off those jettisoned from pace, I'd led a string of tailenders (motivated by magneticMel on my Mavic) up the hill to reconvene rolling in Rudd. The Lemontree's table tattle on nana's recipe's, sports doping and peloton positioning kept the head occupied, taste buds tied up with breakfast.
Steps 35,211
31/10
The Cate collaboration Monday works well, reacquainting the legs to turn after a slack Sunday (24 hours seems an eternity off two wheels). New Dookie Rd is rarely spoilt by traffic and a WNW'er for propulsion made an easy tap to the church. More a niggling breeze than a tough wind west in Old Dookie Rd, enough though to brew an angry crank to crest the main eastern channel bridge and get it over with to Boundary Rd. Being slowly drawn closer to the summer and its solstice (by two minutes a day) the sun peeked atop the clouds at the fig farm. Back to town via Channel Rd and the mandatory charge at the ChaCha tuned up the engine and the head for the working week.
Steps 38,975
1/11
My mules and stallions concept for a Melbourne Cup day ride found favour (an anti-clockwise Toaster lap left A Mart at 7 for the mules, the stallions at 7:15 to chase) Kenworth, TatPaul, Shorty, Temple, HBK, Cougar, Ralphy, Car, AvantiTrev, SuperMario, Jase, Kel, Weapon and Bo fronted, long-time-no-see Lucy, Aimee, Jen and AvantiAndy too, ring-ins MeridaAndy, GiantLen and ApprenticePete put the starting gate at 21.......the biggest collection of self appointed Donkeys ever! Shorty and I set the pace at 'no chat but not flat chat' for leg one south on Conrod straight, silencing the troop talk and setting a precedent of pace to make the stallions sweat. My recall was rusty on MeridaAndy and GiantLen (from the distant days of the hospital and library bunches) while two long lines of hopefuls worked east. Helped in Mitchell and River by a light WNW, ApprenticePete and Weapon, AvantiAndy and Jen commanded the caboose, as the pack hovered in the high 30's. Lucy's a tough nut to match as we worked north in Boundary Rd, last weeks pot hole dramas now disasters from a vehicular pounding.
GiantLen has taken a half wheeling leaf from the HBK book, MeridaAndy reacquainting himself with the Merida, good to have Jen (with her mojo) back, the usual verbal nonsense swapped with HBK, but no hot tips for the afternoons race. No sign of the 7:15 stallions (Hoges, Trav, Bruce, Nev-bro-Kev, ChrisA, Boof, Wozz, Pistol, Rocket and Cate) as we turned into Old Dookie Rd but ApprenticePete was missing in action (taking a shortcut of recovery with Weapon riding shotgun). Heart and lungs ran well for my 3k turn at the front in Lemnos-Cosgrove Rd, the diet direction and 4kg less of ballast has the old engine coping better. Word of stallions approaching in the rear distance enthused the drive to Wanganui Rd but I'd been caught within the survivors as rotations froze at DECA, no escape till the fragmentation nearing the hill. Tailenders were collected in Rudd Rd as the pack drove toward the base station, euphoric stallions catching us at Tarcoola, hoot'n and holler'n a fine 39 average. Seemed like Saturday all over again with breakfast and banter at the Lemontree's long table.
Steps 35,321
2/11
Still we wait for winters weather to wane, the warm layers out yet again (15 degrees this time last year). Numbers were down from yesterday's peak, Wozz, Cate, Rocket, Boof, Shorty, AvantiTrev, Pistol, Weapon, Bruce, Ralphy, Troy and Jase the die hards on Wednesdays grid. Spearing south out of town, FDC's were absent from leg 3, my turn to huff and puff with Jase from the bridge to the dip in River Rd, but next up AvantiTrev trimmed 10% off the pace. It was almost a holiday in the draft of a dozen, time spent pondering position of the next turn with a wary eye out for Boundary Rd's archeological dig. Into a light headwind on Channel Rd, the ChaCha arrived all too soon, the ever so slight downhill to Hopeful corner was no help to me, on the front again in the mid fourties cooked me by Prentice Rd. Still pleased to finish within sight of the sprinters, the social roll home a tasty dessert.
Steps 36,390
3/11
Rear wheel rebuild #2 (replacing a well worn hub, correcting the crooked cassette) and a slick new pair of Michelin Pro4's were easier to roll, there's a measure of comfort on fresh rubber replacing the treaded (but thin) Michelin Grip's at 6,000+ k's. A solo Toaster was tapped as a prep for the weekends Tat 200, I was away in 77rpm la la land on Lemnos-Cosgrove Rd with a delightful dawn arriving.
An earlier westerly had fizzled out to nought to make the turn back on Old Dookie Rd a pleasure, south in Boundary Rd the distant strobe of turtle tail-lights pierced a low fog. By River Rd's third k I had Hare headlights in hot pursuit, but was sticking to my resolve of a tentative tap to tackle Tat's 200. Hares had caught me by Kialla Central, the invite to climb aboard their track turns train to great to resist. Pistol, Rocket, Wozz, Hoges, Bruce and Trav swapped 30 second turns in the 40's, but by Dave's dip thoughts of Saturday's distance threw me into a conservation cog, dropping off the back at the highway to cruise back to town.
Steps 51,832
4/11
Kenworth, Bruce, Rocket, Weapon, Pistol, Cate, Shorty, Hollywood, AvantiTrev, Kel, Bo Chops and Boof made up Friday's happy clan, FDC's Grumpy, Pelly and Ralphy joining in at the grid instead of an out-of-town rendezvous. A pacy spin south in the 6 degree chill warmed up the muscles and the heartrate, Kel, perfectly perched, prompted a sit study, so many with a unique seat stance. Kenworth positioned behind Ralphy in the bunch must rate as a B double draft. Into River Rd, the oncoming Cat pack was longer than a BigMat absence, our velocity east pegged for a bit by AvantiTrev but reinvigorated by Ralphy. So keen to avoid the chasm of Boundary Rd's pot-hole, I missed and struck a fist sized rock, kicking the front wheel sideways to prompt a proper posterior pucker. Plenty of daylight to navigate Channel Rd, the speed built steadily to the Kinder, Hollywood reckoning he had just 3 seconds worth of sprint. Yet again I scored the front out of Hopeful corner, way too soon to figure in placings I sunk all investments into stretching the bunch long and hungry. Grumpy wound up the boost at Prentice Rd but Boof appeared to have the Avanti advantage for the ChaCha honours.
Steps 38,162
Week 44 273km. YTD 13,400km
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