Monday, October 13, 2008

Playing away.


Friday night, after a looong week at work and a slow recovery from a cold for me, gareth and phil arrive in time to have a beer or two and put bicycles back together after another 'no-bikes-unless-they-are-wrapped-up-with-the-wheels-off-so-they-can-be-classed-as-luggage' journey from london town.

Early doors saturday, load trina's and my cars, install passengers and point anja and me towards aviemore, where, after a huge feed at the mountain cafe, we intend to ride in the sunshine of the afternoon, before getting ready for scx round 2 at the famous glenmore lodge.

A sparkling ride with chris, jac, mark, marty and dan on some inappropriate 'whips', pin-balling off rocks and roots with smiles spreading fast, we fed our appetites with the sublime trails of rothiemurchas. Some carbo loading and a few jars was followed by a well deserved snooze.

Sunday: bright and crisp. Beer primes placed. A moderate number of entrants, but most of the usual faces, and the course - formed with assuredness by mark, marty, jac, chris and carl from glenmore - had the racers smiling under their grimace. The pace was hot, several mechanicals, and one or two primes.

Anja took the ladies win, despite interfacing her rear derraileur and spokes, phil roared into 5th and the rest of us fared pretty well, other than gareth who bowed out from a top ten with a rear puncture, close to the end.

This is what we live for.

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