Sunday 17th July

Wow what a day. If you were not there you missed an awesome ride. Phatboy picked Sandals, Silverfox and I up on time and we headed up Mt Pleasant Road. We hooked up with Te Rex (he rode from Hornby) Dozer and Tinkerbell. We headed around John Britten Reserve and regrouped before coming back. Ages since we went both ways here but very enjoyable, all pumping hard. We then headed up the first bit of Greenwood. Once again all hitting it at pace, feeling good and the gap from front to rear rider was less than usual. We regrouped at the farm track before the ruins. Headed down this and then cross country to the top of Jollies Bush for a look. We headed down this interesting little track, enjoying it. Some awesome steps and I was pleased to master one lot. Yahoo I was on a high. We regrouped at the road where Phatboy wondered how to get over an attack of native nettle (Onga Onga or Urtica ferox). Up the road to the Pines. We then headed down this track for a change. Phatboy led to the first fence where we all stopped and had a laugh about everything and nothing just cos we could. I led off followed by Silverfox who was charging. Down over the fence and then down the side of Clifton (I think it was Clifton). We have come up here but never gone down. Exhilarating and at speed awesome. Feeling good we headed down across and up onto Richmond Hill. Clambering up here following the sheep trail then up and up to the road where we climbed up to Greenwood ruins for a bite to eat. Everyone feeling on top of the world. The weather was perfect, the sun was shining and we still had a good downhill to go. Phatboy set off at pace, closely followed by me then the fox and others from there. Fast we were not missing a beat, until a regroup point where the Fox had to fix a puncture. We watched some other riders go through and as we had time we cheered one who attempted the rock challege near the end twice. gave him a cheer. Phatboy then led off again with the pack in the same order. I made a mistake of following too closely and missed the rock climb (dabbed at the top) due to having to bleed off speed. We were flying. Stopped for another giggle and a look over the harbour before climbing back up to the top. I was not as good at the climb as I was at coming down. Phatboy and Tinkerbell cleaned a nice nasty section on the way. Regrouped a couple of times. I failed in the technical section and walked across the slope to miss the worst of it to my shame. Still better than recent excursions though. From here we blasted across the top section and back to the cars. All in all a great ride and it will become a regular route maybe mixing it up and doing different directions. fun, fantastic and oh so fast. Enjoyed it all.