I had orinially planned to ride the 20kms from my place to Neil's in Holder, but unsure of what was ahead, and knowing I had to climb Mt MacDonald, which was new to me, I erred on the side of caution, and drove to Neil's, via Micky D's ofcourse, for Bacon and Egg goodness :)
After a that carbo hit, we hoped on the bikes at 7:30am and ripped down to the Cottor, a couple of climbs and mostly descent and we roll into the Cottor to hook up with 40 mad keen CORC members for what was supposed to be 60kms of back country effort (it ended up over 100kms!)... and what a diverse crew it was, all types of riders, some had done the trip a few times (myself included) and some never before, some new to MTB, some sponsored riders. Some great bike porn was on show, with all the carbon fibre and bling a man could take :)
Neil Dall had the con, and set us off for the off road climb from the Cottor to the summit of Mt MacDonald, which was very steep and got the better of the less experienced (talk about baptism of fire :)), Emily and Jenny decided to head back to the car and drive upto the lunch stop at Piccadilly Circus. The rest of us cruised off for the Brindies, where we'd take a new route for me to Piccers, via Warks Road, which is longer, bur has nice undulating firetrail and the climb is in pristine fern lined forrest, which has almost fully recovered from the fires. The grade was pretty nice and we managed 15km/h average, so it was faster to ride than going straight up to Piccers the usual way (see the map, both ways up are on on there).
Adam, Neil and Kate had gotten to the top a fair bit before us and gotten pretty cold waiting at the lunch stop for us (I climbed in a group at the back, with Reedy, Brad, Neil Dall and some other boys that ride at my slow pace, although I note Neil and Reedy were hanging back to be sociable :)), so when I finally arrived, they were setting off for the descent with Adam, talking about short cutting out at Piccers, straight back to the Cottor, skipping Two Sticks. I quickly talked them out of that madness :) Assuring them it was mostly downhill from here (which is a half truth, but it sells people on the run :)) and they had to do the full Two Sticks loop, so we rounded up 8 or so others (as everyone seemed scattered about the place, seperated into different speed groups) and headed off down Two Sticks toward Mt Corree.
The descent crew was a great bunch, we kept stopping to regroup and chat and I had to stop for some food having skipped the lunch spot, and to pump my tire up a couple of times, the front had a slow leak. It was fairly dangerous on corners, but manageable, on one water bar with Adam in hot pursuit I was stomping hard on the pedals in top gear down the hill and at max speed when I bunnyed of a decent sized water bar, the flat front tyre rolled under me on the launch (I really shouldn't push down to get that rebound action at this speed) and the bike swung sideways in a flash, much like the flash of my life going before eyes! Sideways, one foot off desperatly reaching for terra ferma, flying through the air at 50km/h isn't that funny really, after I stopped picturing how dead I would be, gut instinct kicked in and I put my foot back on the pedal and turned the front wheel 60' to the right so it was in line with the firetrail and met back up with the ground with a thud, the semi flat front tyre bottomed out, but the back came round straight and I was safe, and I couldn't believe it, pure luck!
After that incident I toned it right down, fast descents but no airs, and careful on the corners, luckily, I had no more near misses and made it out clean, only having to stop and pump the tire up a couple if times. It never pumped right up though and always seemed to leak just enough to feel dodgy beneath me.
Once we'd made the bitchemn at the end of Two Sticks, we'd travelled 90kms since Neil's and I was getting pretty tired, Adam, Kate and Neil looked strong though, so we pressed on via the Bitchumen to the Cottor, for a well earned Power Bar and post ride banter with what was left of the crew (the 40 riders had gotten broken up a fair bit over the day).
It was a bit after 3pm, so we'd been out 7 hours, and I was tired and wished my car was here, we were offered lifts but the 98km odometer was begging for the the tonne, so we decided to ride home to Neil's and put in the full 112kms. The ride out to Weston isn't that bad, it's a hill, but it's all doable at an endurance heart rate, no need to go hard.
By the time we pulled into Neil's my front tyre was completely flat, but it had held together for over two vertical kilometers of climb and descent. We'd put in 8 hours of effort (albiet with some breaks), and I was stoked with how we went, felt good at the end and we shared some laughs over streches and chocolate (thanx Neil!).
Can't wait to get out and do another one now! Thanx to all for coming, and major props to Neil Dall from CORC for putting it all together.
The crew:
| Neil | Canondale Scapel |
| Michael | Merida Mission Carbon |
| Adam | Scott Carbon HT |
| Brad | Giant Trance 2 |
| Kate | Red Spesh |
| Jenny | Scott Dually |
| Emily | Spesh Stumpy |
| Jason | Giant Trance 1 |
| 40 CORC mates | Various Canondale Rush's, Trances, Carbon NRS's, Scott's and Spesh's |
The Stats:
| Distance | 112kms |
| Time | 8:08hrs |
| Climb | 2025vm |
| Speed | 56.1km/h max, 14km/hr avg |