The things we do...

With the harden-the-f$#k-up 2007 cancelled due to a sniffle or something, I elected to not do the replacement ride, instead lined up for 200km on the road. Anyway who was dead yesterday may have had the weather conditions pass them by, so if that was the case, allow me to fill you in. With a warm humid air mass confusing the hell out of us and lulling us into a false sense of security, we set off from Montmorency with our lunch spot on top of Mt Macedon in our sights. The 10 of us (no photos, getting the camera out was NOT an option for most of the day) rolled our way over to Wallan where we were greeted with a freezing cold gust of wind that set the tone for the rest of the day. The sky was the blackest I've seen over the past few days and sure enough, it collapsed on us in the near future.

With water washing accross the road, hail falling sideways (good trick as its round....?) it was turning into a true epic shitfight, and we took shelter under a small sapling. Good thing too, as when we got going, we found the rest of the bunch in a bus shelter just around the corner. Wonderful... Anyway, with a few more flat tyres along the way, we persevered through the hills in the freezing rain mixed with mere seconds of sun and back to pelting freezing rain.

With most of us shaking like epileptic jellyfish, we made it to the base of Macedon and hit out for the summit/saddle and drove it quite hard for a while. With a bonk from the 4 hour ride and cold weather creeping into the corners of our vision, we lucked out with lunch, a preplanned affair at a friends place with a patio heater and vegemite sandwiches (which never tasted so good!) and shivered our way down the other side and back towards home.

A screaming gale had worked its way up and a stroke of luck finally fell our way with a large part of the ride home being with a lousy terrifying cross wind, and a 40kph no pedaling tailwind! The kays clicked off for 20 or 30 in relative ease, and then the rain started again. And stayed around... A few more flats and we're still going, coming in through Epping and some other classic suburbs, and the wind was still with us! And so was the rain..

Bedraggled, soaked through, cold and tired, we all made it back to the ranch, with 188km on the clock apparently, and over a 7 hour ride on the bikes. With the lousy weather, it was an epic ride. Another one for the campfire, as the 300km last year still regularly features in the hardest rides section of conversation, and this one has shaped up to be no different.

I'm sure that Christian will post the GPS log up in the comments section, won't you? Thanks to all my fellow riders, especially John for the loan of some great wool arm warmers (lulled into a false sense of.... yep, that was me....) that kept me from surely hypothermia! Thanks gang, and lets promise not to do anything as stupid as that again!! Severe weather warnings are now taken on board ;)