Startled by the intrusive noise disturbing my early morning dreaming......"bugger it...it's time to get up".... I gently mumble to myself so as not to disturb the better half. "What day is it today?"......"ahh yes!!" no sooner than I silence the alarm clock, I'm out of bed and launching out of the house heading for the hills...... "Phil Randall Marysville Ride here we come!!".
Scones with jam and cream welcomed all of the riders as we pulled into the car park in the usual meeting spot, for a 9am kick off!!
With a group of approx. 20 riders, we were off and had begun the day setting a fantastic pace.
Special mention has to be a congratulations to the participation of two of our female AMTRA members who gave all of us a run for our money and handled themselves and their weapon of choice superbly!! Well done girls, I will apologies I did not grab your names, but we can all agree it's awesome to see all of us, ladies included, getting out on the bikes!!
Everyone settling into the day nicely, and in no time we begun finding our individual safe and comfortable rhythm. The morning sunshine already high amongst a perfect blue April sky, there is no place i'd rather be!! Did I mention the scones were superb.........
A relaxing lunch down by the river, a pie, neenish tart and snickers bar and chat amongst the group and we were off once again. Phil asked a loaded question as we headed off...."Anyone for a challenge hill??" Hands went up and a challenge hill it was.
It goes a little something like this, rocks, rocks and more rocks. Did I mention there were rocks. Big rocks, small rocks, ugly rocks, sharp rocks, loose rocks, non loose rocks, scone rocks (.....is anyone picking up a theme in this article) and i think i saw a log in there aswell, whilst not a rock i think he just wanted to be part of the rock family. He seemed to be mingling well with a glass of red in hand and some canapés. I called him Loggy. Again, great job on the scones Phil, you would certainly get three votes on brownlow night in my book.
Lots of free flowing irrigation jumps and some slippery clay that would eat you up and spit you out for breakfast in the middle of winter.
All in all, a fantastic day had by all. We made it back to the car's with no injuries, no broken bikes and.........you guessed it, SCONES!!!!!!!!! Whilst some were extremely liberal on the layering of cream, not mentioning names, (myself), which meant that other's were frothing in anger (Ken) as they were left to force a scone with jam (without cream) down the gullet.
By now you would all have had a gut full...of this article and the lack of detail about the ride and the level of detail about the scone, but one thing I won't joke about is just how much fun we all had.
Phil, I take my hat of to you mate, keep up the great work and pencil me in for another scone...or two.
Cheers,
Chris De Propertis