yet another character building ride and a proud mother post

with the forecast of temp in the mid to high 30's, a total fire ban somewhere in the state and high winds it was obvious no ride was going to be "fun".  With having to avoid mega hill climing due my asperations on the track, my options for good long rides are quite limited.....so I reluctantly set the car off towards Black Rock .... another ride along Beach road would be the site of my suffering.

The way the flags were flapping and the boom gates swaying gave me a hint of what I was up for, so instead of going out for 1hr and then turning round, I decided it'd be Black Rock to  Frankston and back no matter how long it took.

Needless to say the ride out was a soda and was done in 43 minutes, and the ride back was diabolical!  Actually even the ride out was tricky with the wind coming from behind my left shoulder but veering quite a bit so occasionally as I passed a road to my left I'd be blasted directly from the left and nearly lost it a coupla times.  there was no chance of sitting up hands resting lightly on the top of the bar.

On the return journey  my back was giving me the hurry up (couldn't sit up ..see above) and I was thoroughly shattered. I also noted with some dismay that all the traffic lights I normally willed to be green ...WERE green but this time round I wanted them to be red! Later on I had an exuse for a long rest as a following cyclist handed me  back my little saddle baggy that had apparently slipped off its mooring.  I thanked him profusely and then spent a good few minutes fixing it back on..grateful for a genuine reason to stop and rest.

Ricketts Point came and went without a glance at the speedo.....who cared...not me that's for sure.

I found my car and sat like a stunned mullet for quite a while before packing up and wandering off home.

Wildside..slight error on my post re this..Rhino's not with Ben, although another mate is...Andy Bell who's riding in the vets class.  Currently Ben's sitting in 7th place in the Open class with a great ride today ending up 3rd for the stage..Andy was doing fine but looks like he must have had a mega mechanical during  this morning's stage.