The Summer Sunday

It was a small, but "quality" bunch of riders that rolled out yesterday morning on the Sunday roadie ride - everyone even managed to have their knicks on the right way, which was a great start to the day!  

Frenchie was in heaven, thinking it was a lovely summer's day rolling along in just a summer jersey and giving us all a lesson in French at the coffee shop..... "Cul-De-Sac" will never have the same meaning ever again! 

The Dirty Rats lived up to their name, arriving at Craig's completely covered in mud, doing skin-fold fat tests and sporting one smashed phone screen and a broken derailleur - there's never a dull moment in the Rat Pack.

The 8:00am L Plate ride had a good turn out, complete with Mick B and Coach Carter making a prayer to the Trail Gods before the start - just kidding, they were just doing some stretching laying all over the grass.  The group split into two after a lap around Wendy's with the new riders staying on Wendy's for a lesson with Coach Carter and the not so new riders heading up for a lap around the Sunshine track - complete with an Over-The-Handlebar-Dismount by Zulu.... more coaching needed perhaps Zulu???

The Race Review with Mick Newell Sat 30/06

With a dose of the Man Flu, I went to Rocky where 14 Riders, combined A and B grade, set out for The Caves 60km road race.

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This is an out and back circuit you do twice. Things were pretty steady on the out, averaged about 43kp/h for the first 15 km with Grainfed hitting the wind a bit, riding like a man possessed and then returning to the bunch to hide for a while. Might be a lesson in there for young players............
At the halfway point, all riders were still in one bunch. I hit the first climb on the way back out pretty hard and popped 8 riders off the back leaving M1 Cycles with Ada, Dylan, yours truly, and Brad in the break. Jay Callaghan was our biggest threat. The 5 of us worked well {Hicksy just hung on for dear life.} We turned for the last 15, Grainfed must have decided he couldn't risk being beaten by us old fellas, started calling "in" at regular intervals. Another lesson perhaps...............
Dylan was a tireless work horse but a flattie 5km out finished his race. That lad has a big heart, big talent and a great attitude, a pleasure to ride with him. I was suffering with the flu and looked after myself, missing the odd turn, Ada is getting stronger he is a solid worker. Jay was pushing us a long at a pretty hot pace as we pulled away from the organised chase. The bunch of 5 hit the last 300 metres with Grainfed out of position and on the front, in normal fashion he put on a massive effort but couldn't pull away, we passed him and in the end I managed to line scab a win from Jay Callaghan. A good hitout. And a tough course!
 Looking forward to my next hit out!
 Mick Newell