A long time between posts

Chumps.

Well, almost a month has passed; its still weird, but getting on with it none the less.

Went for an awesome ride today:

Got up at 6:20 ish, had some left over chinese (brekkie of champions), and put on my new winter riding jersey
Its an awesome jersey - so worth the money.

So any, put jersey and knicks on, then put my bike on the cars roof, and motored down to Craigs place. We popped his bike on the roof too, and headed out to rustic glenbrook, in the lower blue mountains. Nice drive along the M4 with no tolls (havent paid a toll in sydney yet - take that carr) and 45 minutes later, we were in the carpark of glenbrook station. In about 5 minutes time, mike turned up, and we unloaded the bikes then headed to the station. After a 30 minute wait, our train arrived, and we jumped on for a 30 min journey to woodford, which is a couple of stations higher up in the mountains.

We disembarked, then mounted up, riding 5 minutes to the trailhead of the Oaks trail, a 28k ride from Woodford to Glenbrook.

The ride started off with a rocky firetrail that smoothed out into beautifully hardpacked dirt; we were rolling along at 35k/hr with no effort at all. After a fair bit of flat/downhill (hit 55 ;) ), the track turned abruptly turned rocky again, just after a rather quick corner. That was a bit hairy, but we all got through it. We then had some climbs and downhills, up until the 15 k mark. Thats when the real fun began; we got to the singletrack.

To me, the best kind of single track is one thats straightish, with lots of bumps and ruts, and one that you can shift into big ring, and really get moving.

This was one of them. Craig headed off first, and I hung behind mike. After a minute or so, mike gestured me passed, so I decided to catch up to Craig.

The sensation of speed along this track was unbelievable, the brush and bushes just became a blur, and all i was concerned with was watching the track for bumps. This single track went on like this for another 5 or 6 k's, I caught Craig, and we stopped at a wider section to wait for mike. We were both so stoked with that run; everything just flowed so well. So, we waited for mike... and waited...and waited. Then another rider came along, so we asked him if he'd seen him. "Yeah dude, he's changing a flat". Hah!. So we headed back, and met up with him. Mike had been jinxing himself for the last 5 k's about a pinch flat, so we gave him a serve, and continued on. We then arrived at Little Moab. tres technical! Its a very rocky descent down a small water course, and across some rocks. Craig and I had ridden this before, in the rain, so it was nowhere near as slippery this time, but still pretty hairy. We'd almost got to the end, when i heard a "pssht...sssht....sssht" coming from my back tyre. A pinch flat!. We pulled over, and Craig continued to give mike and I shit about pinchflatting. I put the new tube in, and put the wheel back on, and we turned the bikes around to head off. Craig hopped on his bike, and went over the first rock. We heard a clunking noise, and

....

His back tyre was flat. So, mike and i stood around and laughed while Craig change his tube. We then decided that popping a tyre now would really suck, as we had no more spares. We got onto the national park road, and then cruised down to the wier. We crossed the weir, then headed up the hill out of the national park. Its a real prick of a climb, and we were stuffed at the top. Craig had beaten us up there, and headed off, while mike and i headed back to the carpark at a more subdued pace. We then went to the bakery and had some chow, then headed home. All in all, an excellent ride - I'm very lucky to have found some fellow mtb'ers down here.

So as of now, the plan for the rest of the day is to eat left over chinese, watch bad santa, and maybe play some CS.

tough stuff.