Today was hump day. It began with a 30km race under lights – my first night ride on the mt bike and I’m hooked.
We set off at 5am and rode 2 loops of a course with steep climbs, sandy tracks and corrugations.
There was something so beautiful about the cool morning air, no wind. The stillness was magical. The only sounds I could hear was my bike rolling over the crunchy gravel, the flick of a switch changing gears and the sound of mooing as the cows in the paddocks woke to the sunrise. Watching the sun come up over Lake Eucumbene was the perfect way to start the day.
After a leisurely breakfast we rolled the 40km cruise stage to the town of Cooma. Some awesome road descents for the first 20km had most of us flying down the highway in the aero position, no peddling required! Then we hit the paddocks again for a bumpy but fun ride, topped off with a fast dirt descent, getting airborne on the water bars.
The rest of the afternoon was ours to recover and relax. Massage, dip in the freezing pool, and a nap.
But the highlight of my day happened tonight at dinner at the Marlborough Hotel, Cooma. We arrived at the buffet, serving hot food, and I noticed the apple strudel dessert was sitting on a table with a bowl of ice-cream in perfect round scoops.
I said to Meg “that’s weird the ice-cream isn’t refrigerated”. When it came time for our dessert the waitress remarked as she laid our strudel and melted ice-cream in front of us, “sorry about the ice-cream, we’ve had a few problems”. “oh, what happened I ask”, expecting a drama with the freezer or some such matter. “oh”, she says “we left it out”!
That sparked a laughing fit that lasted about 10mins and had us all crying with tears. A great way to end another fantastic day with awesome fellow mt bikers.
Jo and scoot2 🙂