On Recovery: “It seemed like a good idea at the time”

Before Marathon Champs, Mr Jamie Bailey and I had discussed the prospect of a nice, casual CX ride the next day.  A public holiday with nice weather is far too good an opportunity to pass up!

Trek Ionos CX atop Rob Roy

Jamie lives in North Cooma, aka Tuggeranong.  It’s a different world down there.  It was a 35km commute to get there, and my legs, nicely smoked from the previous day’s exertions, turned every slight incline into a mountain.  With a headwind added to the equation and some geographical embarrassment involving some bad bike path signs, a road of death and riding down a staircase on a cross bike, the following words popped into my head: “it seemed like a good idea at the time”.

I soon added mechanical embarrassment to geographical embarrassment.  Jamie’s driveaway is so incredibly steep it deserves its own Strava KOM.  I cranked up unnecessarily, and sure enough, heard a BANG from my chain.  The Powerlink had busted clean open.  I’d love to claim pure wattage, but the powerlink was pretty old.  Riding up the drivetrain had seemed like a good idea at the time too….

Jamie proposed riding to the top of Rob Roy range.  I’ve heard tales of how steep it was, and cross bike gearing (and traction) is usually very finite.  Once again, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

What followed was a procession of ridiculously steep fireroad climbs (Strava reckons 213% gradient, my legs agree).  With limited traction and big CX gears, hilarious crashes and numerous hike-a-bikes ensued.  It was a lovely day for a walk though, and we rewarded with some nice views.

Descending was an equally hilarious affair on the CX bikes.  Tackling the Rob Roy range will probably be better suited to the mountain bikes next time!

The rest of the ride was simply awesome.  Some nice winding fireroad, singletrack and doubletrack around the suburbs of Tuggeranong was complemented by gorgeous weather and even a few CX-inspiring horse grids, promoting some nice dismount / remount moves. The ride home was equally awesome, cruising bike paths at night with a nice little tailwind. It makes me think of one of my favourite quotes: “recovery days are for people with nowhere fun to ride”.  Thanks to Jamie for an awesome day!