For your reading pleasure please find a ride report for BamBam’s inaugural MTB fluffer, from the alternative Horatio perspective:
4:40 am: ALARM!!
4:50 am: drove to Gordon station. Blue Heeler (bike) packed in Baby Swede (that’s the car – don’t ask).
5:10 am: departed Gordon and rode to some park somewhere in Snives where the Cascade trail starts.
5:27 am: gobbled down breakfast of peanut butter and honey poppy seed bagel (the evil wheat)
5:30 onwards: at rear of group of about 7 all of who had proper MTBs and/or knew how to ride them. It’s rocky, muddy, steep and my new 300 lumen front light keeps getting shaken loose and shining right in my face. The group disappears into the ether and I am left navigating with a tiny head torch.
5:50 am: climb up and out of cascades and head through G-d-knows-where to some park eventually to emerge near some pipeline which is very muddy, slippery and steep in parts. The local kids have kindly made some jumps which (because it’s still pretty dark) only come into view just before you hit them
6:15 ish: emerge from Pipeline and go along road for a while until we get into a proper “technical” section. Clearly the first two off road bits haven’t been technical enough. This involves going around, over and through many large puddles, luckily they are filled with mud and not blood.
6:40 ish: emerge around the Wakehurst parkway somewhere. Our ride leader, the aforementioned BamBam declares we are running way too early. I then spend the rest of the ride joking that as the identified “slowest rider” I really could have afforded a breather somewhere along the way, as the ride pace is OAFATSR (only as fast as the slowest rider). I can tell this joke is wearing thin by about Mosman.
6:50 onwards: the rest of the ride is what I would call pleasant, having some really fast descents down to the spit bridge. My crappy old hybrid really came into it’s own here, it’s 700c wheels and 3-4kg weight “advantage” helping me keep up with BamBam on his 29ers. Of course this advantage was soon lost on the ascent through Mosman and Cremorne. Eventually I lost the lead peleton of 4 riders who could obviously smell coffee and dropped back to await the ride leader who had now taken up the role of “lantern rouge”
7:20 am: arrived at cafe and had a wide selection of seats (they are usually all filled by the time I get there) Awaited the 30 or so riders who had toddled in along the road like sensible people.
8:00 am: peeled my arse of the chair and crawled off.
Conclusion: a nice change of scenery from the regular OTP
A great run in. Thanks BamBam for leading it and as the identified “slowest rider” in the OAFATSR paced ride thanks for waiting numerous times.
Cheers, Horatio