The jingoistic circus that is Australia Day has come and gone, and we managed to escape most of the silliness (apart from several obligatory car-loads of abusive bogans) by doing a long one in the heat, perhaps to compensate for missing out on rubbing shoulders with celebrities in the TdU part of the country. The last time i did the "Jilliby Run" was about a decade ago, where Ham and I rode from Sydney up to Ham's parents place on the central coast (near Wyong), then returned the following day over the feared Bumble Hill (our version of Willunga, i imagine), with backpacks, to prepare for the rigours of euro village hopping.
This time we lacked the backpacks, or the day up our sleeves given the cyclonic forecast (the rest of the long weekend being a torrential washout), so the 170 km was to be knocked off in a day, just as Ham had done only weeks before with Andy K. Speaking of whom, Andy was again out in the near vicinity, clocking 180 by spinning loops on the Peats Ridge - Mooney Mooney circuit. Respect!
Kev did the lions share of the work, and Anita did an admirable job of hanging tough on the wagging tail. Subsequently, and in her first dalliance with Strava, she became queen of Strava for the inbound Yarramalong valley sector. Might be a monster in the making here!
After a great spread of sandwiches and cordial hosted by Mrs P, we got back to the business of dealing with the nasty side of Bumble Hill, which was just as tough as i'd remembered, with its three uncompromising ramps and dead as a door-nail surface, made worse by the oven-like heat reflecting off the surface. But at least we had a taily for the remainder of the journey back to the cars at Berowra (heralding the storm system approaching from the north). 170 for the day (3:04 out, 3:30 back), and 3000m of up, and another step towards 3peaks in March.
This time we lacked the backpacks, or the day up our sleeves given the cyclonic forecast (the rest of the long weekend being a torrential washout), so the 170 km was to be knocked off in a day, just as Ham had done only weeks before with Andy K. Speaking of whom, Andy was again out in the near vicinity, clocking 180 by spinning loops on the Peats Ridge - Mooney Mooney circuit. Respect!
Kev did the lions share of the work, and Anita did an admirable job of hanging tough on the wagging tail. Subsequently, and in her first dalliance with Strava, she became queen of Strava for the inbound Yarramalong valley sector. Might be a monster in the making here!
After a great spread of sandwiches and cordial hosted by Mrs P, we got back to the business of dealing with the nasty side of Bumble Hill, which was just as tough as i'd remembered, with its three uncompromising ramps and dead as a door-nail surface, made worse by the oven-like heat reflecting off the surface. But at least we had a taily for the remainder of the journey back to the cars at Berowra (heralding the storm system approaching from the north). 170 for the day (3:04 out, 3:30 back), and 3000m of up, and another step towards 3peaks in March.
Great work team "Q". Wish I'd been there too, but Jindabyne was a-calling (my legs were screaming).
ReplyDeleteYou were missed Greggy, but sounds like you got some good hard days in. I'm guessing you guys missed the downpour.
DeleteLooking great team! See you guys at 3Peaks!
ReplyDeleteFletch