Sunday 1 March 2009 - Appin

What an excellent start to Autumn, with a very enjoyable ride at Appin, and starting at a civilised time so that we got to do whatever we needed to do in the morning!

Although, that said, the fact that we didn't plan to start until 10.30am didn't mean everyone actually managed to arrive on time (Paul gets the award for last in, letting those of us there not much earlier off the hook for now - kudos to Mark (and Akis) for being there on time though - photo belowing showing just how proud Mark is of this award!).



In any case, Paul (eventually) joined Akis, Mark, Nick, Tim (on only his second ever mountain bike ride), and Stephe, for a ride departure around 11.00am. The bike that Tim was forced to ride (having been told that his own bike was unacceptable) turned out to lack some basic gear changing functions in the pre-ride warm up, so it's fair to say that he was up against it for most of the ride - although he made up ground on downhill sections when the gears were less relevant...

The track was great, albeit a little sandy (some rain the night before would have been useful), and everyone was having fun. Photo below shows Mark, Nick, Paul, Stephe, Akis and Tim) just after Section 1...



Akis had a nasty fall when pushing the pace a little, but was happy enough to show the new folk the line of the roll down to the wooden bridge - and demonstrate his ticker everywhere else on the track. A second lap was intended to be completed a little faster, but suffice it to say that we're not proposing to post the eventual time as a 'hot lap'... (!)



Generally, a great ride, just the right amount of heat, and a good opportunity to compare Appin with Ourimbah. All photos are up here (but, in the absence of Doug, they continue to be no good I'm afraid).