I figure it’s my turn to write up a YPR ride. I haven’t done one before. I’ve even made the effort to use CAPITAL LETTERS, to make it easier to read.

HY, HP, Al and myself all rocked up to the Lysterfield car park at roughly 2pm. HY and I got there first. I spent the time drooling over HY’s new bling bike parts – his new brakes and wheels which cost more than my entire mountain bike. We then had a random conversation with “S-Works dual-suspension” guy. Or rather HY and S-Works guy continued to talk about their super-expensive bikes and I sat there, staring at my own rather cheap-looking bike, in comparison.

Eventually, the 4 of us rolled out. We started along the Blair Witch trail. The super-fast toboggan-style track was gone. They’ve built a new super-twisty track which is not as fun. It hasn’t worn-in yet. Hopefully it will be better in a few months. Also, the BMX-style jumps are gone. The big hole in the ground has been filled in. Not that I would have done them anyway. The last time I tried to perform a jump, I did a 2 metre endo on the landing. Luckily I survived that one.

Next came the Buckle Trail. I love the signs they have there – it has picture of a bicycle, and beneath it, a picture of a walking stick-man, but with a cross through it. I tried to rollover the first big pile of tree logs, but ran out of momentum near the top. I didn’t fall because the pile was quite well-built and stable. Of course, the first stack of the day belongs to HP. As usual, another static fall. He attempted to rollover a pile of logs. Somehow, he picked a diagonal line over it. As you’d expect, he got stuck halfway over it with nowhere to go (except backwards, perhaps). And then, like the Titanic, the front of his bike lifts up… and up, and he proceeds to fall backwards.

The Buckle Track links up with the Comm Games track. Here, we encounter the Rock Garden – and it’s called the “Rock Garden” for a reason! As we watched some of the pros roll through it as if they were cruising on Beach Rd, Al decided that it couldn’t be that difficult. However, despite my encouragement, I couldn’t get Al to tackle the double black-diamond run. He mentioned something about the consequences of falling off your bike, and the abundance of boulders to cushion your fall.

Finally, the infamous Churchill climb. It’s short but not very sweet. I like to call it the lactic acidosis hill. It’s a steep singletrack climb that requires a lot of concentration and spinning. HP blasted past me at the start. However, he had misjudged the length of the climb and blew up soon after. I kept my tortoise-pace going, kept spinning and retook the lead over the puffing HP.

We finished the rest of the Comm Games track. Tackled the berms which is always fun (when they’re in good condition, that is) and headed back to the car park.

A great day and weather for riding. Lysterfield is still a great park, even though we always complain that we’re bored of it.

Well, the TYP expansion plan is in place! I’m sure venture capitalists will be looking to invest in new uniforms for us very shortly…

Hay, Steve T (from high school for those of you who remember), and I headed out for a cruise today on a lovely London autumn day. It got off to a bad start when on the way down in the elevator a dude pointed out to me that I had a bit of a flat tyre. Hmmm… not good. Gave it a quick press and it wasn’t totally flat so pumped it up with the Pocket Rocket before rolling out. I was guessing a slow leak but I figure I could at least get to Hay’s place where I could use the floor pump to test it properly. I get to Hay’s, pumped up the tyre some more, and sure enough the hissing became louder. I found the leak was from where I had my last puncture. That section of the tyre had a pretty bad/deep cut hence I’m thinking that I’ll need to replace it ASAP.

Nonetheless, changed the tube (in under 5 mins!) then rolled out to Steve’s place around 20 mins behind schedule. Steve lives in SW London (we’re in the NW) so we had to go through the posher suburbs (i.e. Chelsea) to get there. I think I saw no less than 5 Ferraris.

We get to Steve’s and the sun was actually peeking through still (*shock*) so we rolled on through to Richmond Park. The original back up plan was to go to Hyde Park if Hay’s knee was playing up or if it started raining, but it was all good.

About another 20 mins later on the London roads, we arrived at Richmond Park. Although it was busy with traffic, I could see how early on a Sat/Sun morning it could be a popular course for cyclists. There were still quite a few roadies doing laps on this ~10km course and there were even these things called ‘hills’ that really made me huff and puff (I’m going to struggle with Beach Rd when I get back…). Anyway, Steve managed to pull away on the hills every time on the Wilier but on the flats I was still sucking strong like a Hoover.

Was definitely the best ride I’ve been on to date. Will have to go back next week (weather pending).

^Picture of Richmond Park: Yes, be sure to be out by 8pm as they have to cull DEERS. I did see a few little ones on the side of the road which I thought was pretty cool. Poor bambi…

Guys, the boss and I will be home for three weeks during the Xmas break. Who’s down for some Yum Cha on Boxing Day??

Let me know and I’ll try to suss something outm thanks.

Happy birthday, Dude.

(Short and sweet)

Conversation I had with a Tesco (it’s like Coles Express) checkout dude today.

Me: (Hands dude 4 pack of Coroners Coronas)
Him: (Scans) How old are you?
Me: You’ve got to be kidding right, I’m (insert age).
Him: Can you show me some ID please?
Me: (Hands him my drivers license with a grin) The age is there on the bottom right.
Him: (Checks)
Me: How old are you?
Him: I’m 22. (Hands me back ID)
Me: (Walk out with beer and ID trying very hard not to crack up)

Funny thing is, I actually did start using some moisturiser (and hair gel ) recently as I felt I looked like a fossil after seeing pics like this and this, but surely that Nivea stuff couldn’t have worked THAT well to shave 10 years off…