Tuesday 25th November

Fatboy (FB) picked me (RJ) up and headed around and up to the top of Evans pass. It was pretty windy up there with a cool southerly blowing. We met up with Geez, Tinks, Twopot, Rex and Diego (Not sure of his name but he is from Argentina) and then Abba arrived. We headed up the track and the wind was from the back so got quite a bit of assistance. On the 2nd set of rocks Tinks stopped. Well actually his bike stopped. The freewheel had blown so he was not riding with us, he went home. A bit of a bummer. We all carried on from there at a good pace, stopping at Livingstone Col for a regroup. Wind was cool and nasty here and it had altered riding a bit. Up and over to Breeze Col for a brief regroup up and over to Godley Head. All flowing nicely. Blasted around the traverse and then down the anaconda. Great run down here. Good jumps. Stopped at the bottom and then back up again. Always a grind but went up pretty quick. FB had chain problems and did a quick repair, so I led off up towards Evans, and at Livingstone Col we realised that FB and geez were missing so Twopot headed back while I led the rest up the next climb. Just a cruise so the others would catch up and they did. FB led on the downhill with me hard behind him. Came around one bend and FB is just standing up, wiping the dirt from his mouth. All his teeth were there but a slight graze around his mouth, a dent in the helmut, and a nasty looking knee. We got on the bikes again, blasted down the last 400m and took off for home. A bloody good ride for all of us and a lucky escape for Fatboy.

I am away for the next week so I hope someone will keep this blog up to date.