ride summary by peter.
a very quick summary this week as i am running behind schedule again. we lined up to do a number of climbs and take a number of roads less traveled. unfortunately this may have meant that there was a lot more crap on said roads than we usually have. we went out via belmont and abenathy rd where we got our first flat. john went to change his and found that his tube had a hole so stu gave him his spare.
we then got stuck at a railway crossing waiting for a train that was moving freight between yards. there was sea containers stacked up on top of each other so it was moving soooo sloooow. probably wasted 10 min of my life that i will never get back. russell joined us on the other side of the tracks but we didn’t get that far before gregor had a flat. by now lorraine thought she had missed us as she was coming down from darlington to meet us.
due to the delays, nev and the doctors took off with a couple of triathlon ladies that had joined us today for a shorter route up the zig-zag. we also deceided to shorten our route and would skip the parkerville section.
up coulston the first five were –
ryan – 10, ben – 7, mike – 5, peter – 3, stu – 1.
we detoured up mills rd which was another berg that tests the legs. we haven’t named this one yet, but anyone that tackled it is welcome to throw up suggestions.
along to mundaring weir rd and after a fun, fast descent it was on to the climb. i didn’t have the legs to stay with the big boys today so thought i would save them for the time trial on the last climb.
at asher rd, ryan – 10, ben – 7, mike – 5, stu – 3, andrew – 1.
final climb, ryan – 10, stu – 7, mike – 5, andrew – 3, ben – 1.
a number of riders timed themselves and i will update the hill climb time later.
ryan 7:21, stu 7:36, peter 7:55, andrew 7:58, lorraine 8:48, mark 9:00, lisa 9:19, ronny 12:20.
on the climb, mike b got a flat to be number three for the trip. on the decent stu got a flat to be number four. he also had given his spare to john, so he called me up and i had to ride back to the base of welshpool hill to give him a spare. a few guys had gone ahead as they had time restrictions. we passed mike t on berwick road in a bus shelter…changing a flat. number five.
i will try to put a bit more effort into my write up next time.
Loraine, you and I could of cycled down from darlington to the bunch if we got ourselves coordinated on Sunday!
Peter, I have another great(?)hill just near Darlington Bottle shop that I would like to see if some mountain goats can get up. It is a vicious little hill that is a gear lower than Mills Road. You do a little loop that finishes back at the bottle shop so those that can’t do it or fail to get up can wait for those foolish enough to attempt it
Thks for helping Stu!
Stop looking around for more hills Russell !!
And I should of mentioned that Ryecroft road is under repair and all gravel for another month or two. So to get through darlington(and avoiding Mills road), you continue up the hill past the Ryecroft turnoff and follow you front wheel as it winds its way up, down and around corners to the top of the hill – its a bugger and a challenging hill – but beautiful to descend. Should give it a go sometime as is more enjoyable than Mills and more interesting.