Belmont Social / PNP Pre-ride

After seemingly months of shabby weather we got a couple of corker days this weekend and on the Sunday we were well up for a few hours sifting across Belmont Hills and taking in the Pre-ride of the Round 4 PNP race course.

At 7.30am BGA, Tigs, Harry Potter and Kah turned up at my place in Aotea an after a short gasbag we headed into them thar hills.




We ground our way up to the Dress Circle and moseyed around. For once my legs were not filled with lead and I felt surprisingly good and dealt to a couple of the power climbs I'd never cleaned before. We stopped to get some footage for the upcoming DVD "Epic Huck Freeride" and then dropped down the excellent Chopper and Big Weta (great track conditions) and joined onto the pre-ride just as tail end Charlie, our very own Wonderwoman, cruised by on her wonderfully inappropriate Surly Cross Check.

Great improvements have been made to Danzig, thanks to the efforts of some wonderful trail pixies and the contribution of gravel by PNP. Much easier going if it is muddy, especially on the upper slopes.

The pre-ride was very well attended with lots of the usual suspects and many new faces. We split into two groups with Peter Barnes taking the D Course dudes and the Godfather ably assisted by his BLR minions, guided the Kilmister loop. Conditions all round the course were excellent and the Kilmister Valley was a mint ride. At the front we herded cattle along like so many Brokeback Cowboys, while Nick-K the cow-fearer hung a good distance back, hiding between riders he deemed to be 'more attractive to cows'? Does he think they are carnivores?







After many joyous creek crossings for young Jonty to submerge himself in, we headed up to Hill Rd carpark via a very testing hike-a-bike with a beautiful creek section. If permissions can be secured, this will be removed and an easy alternative used on race day (watch the PNP spam for details).




After another cracking drop down Chopper and Weta we made tracks to get back to my place where my wife, Amie, was hooking the crew up with some eats as long as we made it by 1pm! We headed up the A Course bridleway which was far to steep and hard and will be revised. Then we trundled back over the hills watching Nicko get progressively further behind and more smashed in. I think physically he was fine, but the emotional trauma of a morning of cow spotting was too much for him.

We did an enjoyable 35kms which looked a bit like this....

We sat on my deck drinking lager, eating soup and scones and telling lies and stories for a while before the boys made tracks home.

Later that afternoon I took my wife and daughter up to Mount Vic with the trailerbike. Ella was stoked to have climbed her first mountain, and I was stoked to clean the steep slope at the end of the new zig-zag trail from the velodrome, with Ella on the back. Then it was off to Ashley's cottage for lager, lulz and pot-luck foods with the usual suspects, for more tall tales, lies and mockery. An awesome day.

See y'all next weekend for XC4.

Davo