Saturday there were 6 + 4 +1 +1 riders. Someone decided we should go to Pomona, Amanda and I decided if we started riding, then others would follow.
Making her return was puss’n’boots who said she thought she was doing really well scooting along. The she looked down and saw the computer was barely into double figures, and Pedalling Pete, who kindly stayed back with her, was wobbling because he was going slow (or was it that PP was recovering from self-medicating the night before!).
At the top of the Gap various people nominated to go forward or back. Bwian gasping for air through his smokers lungs joined Pete who thought he should be a good husband and 4 others (this is the 6) to head back to the fair city.
Mark and I rolled our wheels down the back of the Gap and on the way to Gentle Annie. After a kilometre or two we were thinking no one else was coming, and how would we put up with each other, when 4 other riders appeared with us. There was lots of moisture on Gentle Annie, caution got the better of us, and no one ran off the road there. 5 riders decided to race from the Cooran turn-off into Pomona, but I preferred to amble along enjoying the view. At least, that is my excuse for a gap of several hundred metres between me and the peloton.
Pomona, the usual fine coffee at the Mountain Stop Cafe for 4 + 1, as 1 other had phone conversation with wife and next we knew, those wheels spun like a rolling stone and he was out of the place. The other 1 rode on to Nambour. Ben suggested that we head back the way we came. None of the 4 wanted to enjoy the noise, the fumes, and the fast shoulder of the highway. Far better to enjoy rough bitumen, and riding up Gentle Annie and the back of the Gap. As we were nearing Kin Kin James decided he could not take the bitumen any more, and he rode through the grass instead. Apparently he had already ridden off the road on the way to the Gap.
At the start of Gentle Annie Amanda was in the lead. James rode up past her sprouting the superior quality of Staminade over Infinit. I kept wanting to change down another gear, but there was no other to change down to, which was not a good sign when the back of the Gap is even steeper. Going up the back of the Gap I thought I was doing well slowly [very slowly] closing the gap on Amanda. Then something extraordinary happened. Amanda got off her bike at the steepest part of the climb. Cramp. That Infinit! When Ben breached the top he just said he would roll down the hill, and kept on going.
The consensus of the 4, we should come back that way more often.
