ROUGH RIDE 2005

Review

Wow, what a day of mountain biking. To start, the weather gave us a break & the day started with even a bit of sunshine. Wippets ride was made even harder than it should have been by his frame rubbing on his rear disc (effectively cycling with his brakes on!) & he didn't realise this until after about 20km. We stopped once to check it out & decided we couldn't do anything  but upon stopping again Wippet suddenly realised that if he removed a couple of washers things should be pretty much ok - still 20km of uphill riding with your brakes on can only be good for you!
Barney claimed another SPANNER prize by falling off his bike in the most stupid of places - a straight bit of road with a very small ford! Coming around the bend completely wet & with out any rain at that part of the day had Wippet & me completely baffled!
After taking a left at the decision point, we all ventured on with the 78km route but after about 15km Wippet took a sneaky route that cut out about 80 minutes of trouble - 20km of uphill riding with the brakes on had taken its toll on the guy! Barney & me carried on & soon were threatening each other with violence for agreeing to do so! The rain came down (hard) & the already energy draining hills turned into uphill waterfalls. The downhill's weren't much better & on 2 occasions I was glad that I wasn't actually carrying my camera - 1 mighty tumble that cause major pain & another loss of control on a downhill section that was caused by a lack of vision (eyes filled up with mud). Some of the final hills were impossible to cycle & on occasions the ride turned into a strange bike walking experience.
The only real down point was when we got water stage 4 confused with water stage 3 & instead of having about 8km to go, we actually had 20km left until the finish line.
Once past the finishing line, it was straight to the car, into some dry clothes & then off to Wilfs ........ Mmmmm, a cup of team veg chilli & yet more cake!

Once again, the event was well organised. I was well behaved & didn't drink until 3.00am (went to bed at midnight). The people were very friendly. There was a little bit too much lycra (some people should really be banned from wearing the stuff). The atmosphere on the Saturday was brilliant & yes, I will be doing it again ................. bring on 2006!
 

Barneys review of the Day

You did miss a 'challenging' one. 1000+ riders, 45 miles, 7+ hours, quite a bit of pushing bikes up big steep hills, but good to do to build up stamina and a good sense of achievement! Myself and whippet share the 'Spanner of the Day' award, Whippet for cycling 15 miles with his back brake stuck on, until he remembered to take out the spacing washers, which made it so much better. Myself on the other hand for coming off my bike in a small ford (a watery one, not a motor car), and ending up lying on my side in the water, with a few more cuts and grazes to add to the collection. Oh yes, and I was doing about 8 mph at the time, and it was on the straight! How? I'm really not sure.... Fair dues, excellent organisation (compared to the Beer Wobble), with good signage, marshalling, food and refreshments.

Wippets review of the Day

Am not too achy this morning, bit tired though. Bit chafed in one or two areas, but we won’t go into that! I must admit that my braked buggering up did take the shine of things, but its still one heck of an event and well organized too