The Great North Road.

Well it was a fine day today, sunny, blue skies, not a cloud in the sky. However it was also going to be hot.

The plan of attack today was to ride the Great North Road down in Wiseman's Ferry. The team to tackle it this week consisted of the Andrew's (Graham & O'Brien), Rich, and me.

Started the ride at 9:30am and the heat was pretty mild. However the first thing on this ride is a climb to start it all off. Was about 2km uphill stretch with a lot of water bars along the way. The pace was decent as we all started to warm up and then now at the top riding along flatish areas, we got to the first exciting section with Andrew Graham launching over the handle bars after dropping down a few rocks and fully clearing the bar by about 1m and landing on his feet. (8 out of 10 for dismount, but 10 outta 10 for landing)

After about 1hr and a bit of riding we had our first problem. Puncture. Easily fixed. We decided to patch the tube, they were pinch flats so we had to cover both slits. Obi had a new special fast stick patch which we used after trying to change one tube with an older patched tube. That didn't work so we had to try patch the old one. Eventually we managed to fix them and started to use the new pump that I got which pumps at either "high volume or high pressure"

Eventually we got the tube inflated and we were raring to go. We had reached close to the peak of the climb and now rode down another 200m and the intersection to head down to Clare's Bridge. Decision was quickly made to head down this track and then ride back up. It should take us 45 mins return.

emphasis on the "SHOULD". about 2 mins into the downhill and everyone ripping down. Graham swerves to the side and all you hear is PSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTT.... there goes the back tube again.. and its game over.. another few tubes and patches later we get it going.

Now finally riding down past the buddist retreat/sanctuary and down to Clare's bridge we stop and have a nice relax. Clare's Bridge is basically 4 mass stone blocks with no actual bridge. Looks kinda cool.
Finally after relaxing, enjoying the serenity, we headed back. It was a nice gradual climb and the pace was ok. But we still have one more moment of madness.

This moment involved a quick downhill section, and Rich decided to fly down the harder bit in the middle that everyone avoided and lo and behold carnage. Firstly front wheel straight into a rock and boom!! Rich over the handle bars and still clipped in. This resulted in a flat tyre and busted elbow. Well its come down to patching the tubes as all our spares were gone. But Rich's rear derailuer is having a problem and is not changing properly so uphill is a drag. Eventually tho we make it all the way back and the final down hill section begins.

This last section was pretty uneventful but heaps of small waterbars to jump off which was awesome. Only thing was one corner i took a bit wider than i wanted and almost ended up in a ditch. But all in all this ride is damn good. Hard start as you just go straight up but very enjoyable. Make sure you bring water tho, as its long and dry. Do it early too as it does get super hot.