What a beautiful morning. Less chilly than yesterday with the sun rising steadily across the Northern Beaches. Surrounded by beautiful views including South Curl Curl, Manly and many more on the way. So warm that even ‘the Jugs’ were out (apologies – had to crack that one). Matt was joined by many more Fluffer newbies including Ian, Phil and new Fluffettes Adele and Jenna. Given the numbers I may have missed many so apologies in advance. Mavis and Bernadette joined after bolting it up from Manly, Gemma joined us in Manly.
28 on the pedals today – so many for a winters morning. Absolutely fantastic. Briefing went swimmingly, normal T&C’s accepted and we pedalled into the distance up Mona Vale Road. SatNav and Big Phil kindly volunteered to be Lantern Rouges. Apparently there was once again a photographer above the St Ives Showground who probably caught us at our most scrappiest moment after a mechanical was called. This won’t be a photo to be proud of but at least we were out in force – 25 up Mona Vale and 3 picked up on the way.
Every time we regrouped I saw more and more faces that I recognised – Michael, Jamie, Robert, Timon, Gregg and many more. The sight was impressive. A large rolling group (steady speed recognising that many had not done it previously) down Pittwater with a secondary back group who were either on fixies or needed a little bit more confidence to join in the fray.
As the sun rose on South Curl Curl the beauty blossomed. The light on the water was fantastic and another impressive morning dawned. Congratulations to all of those riders who joined us. Apologies for the herding and the loudness of the instructions but hopefully that helps us to keep moving.
On time delivery at B&T at 7.45am. This is great considering the size of the group. All safely delivered.
Big apologies from Big Goaders to Big Phil and the B2B’ers (great to have you on board and I look forward to you bringing out the B2Babes to meet the Fluffettes – doesn’t every group have a name for their female riders?) who we managed to drop with a puncture. Fortunately they hit the pedals hard and managed to catch up just after Manly. How did 25 people not spot that we had lost 3!!!!
Laura once again managed to dash across the North Shore and failed to find us. She was 3 mins ahead at Manly. Laura – download Google Latitude and I will switch it on for a Tuesday and Thursday Fluffer so you know where we are.
Can you all please download your rides to www.rideable.org.au who are tracking this mornings commutes into Sydney. I expect the Fluffer to be a dominant line on the report. Drastique will have his slight Akuna variation to add a little originality.
Congrats to one and all – we were only discussing that a couple of years ago it was lucky to get 8-10 on the OTP. To think that between us we can run an MTB ride in, a Fluffer and an OTP is impressive.
Salute the pedals and pedal safely. For those heading back towards Manly tonight I will be at SHBS at 5.30pm.
Regards
Big Goaders