BurbleChaz

Today is Anzac Day - a public holiday across Australia. The weather looked good, so we loaded up the bikes and headed over to Lysterfield. We arrived about noon, and the car parks were almost full. We started out together by doing the singletrack around the lake. After five miles of that, Sensible People had had enough. We parted ways by the car, some of us seeking a secluded spot by the lake for some reading and photography, others to do silly things on the trails.

I was taking it fairly gently up Middle Buckle Trail, enjoying the scenery and looking forward to the more challenging bits when a rider coming down the trail misjudged an obstacle. He executed a textbook faceplant from a height of about two metres. Impressive. I stopped to check he was OK. Cuts and grazes, but nothing serious broken on him or the bike. Once he'd recovered a bit I continued with my ascent. I had a lovely ride to the top, a reasonably quick descent of Middle Trail and climbed the mountain with fuel to spare (behold the mighty power of breakfast). There was no-one to applaud my masterly ascent of the switchbacks, nor to witness my fearless execution of the fast traverse section. Halfway down the berms, there was a potential audience. He'd entered a tight turn with a bit too much enthusiasm and had slid impressively across the gravel, leaving sheets of skin in his wake. The poor chap wasn't feeling very well at all, so I stayed with him until he'd calmed down, then rode slowly with him back to an area that, while not exactly civilization, at least had other people around.

Feeling pretty good, I opened a large jar of the quickly, and finished the last few miles of the circuit as fast as possible, allowing for pedestrians, children and slow riders. 1h9'36". It would have been a lot faster if I'd left them both bleeding on the trail.