Brads in the blender (Note: collective not possessive)

By the end of this mornings 6am-er Sunday ride the Brads had had enough of this...


El Mantes' term (Brad No.1), "that really put me in the blender" was well used this morning through the 130+ ks of The Slide Ride. Foggy (Brad No.2) was struggling to get up the last couple of climbs with the group due to cramping and general knackerdness.

That raised discussions about what a group of Brads would be called and The Duke and I decided it should infact be a blender of Brads. Today that seemed quite appropriate. El Mantes' jaw dropped when he saw the route for today but he showed true 6am-er grit to get out there and give it a go anyway. This was despite having an industrial accident at work last week that saw him fracturing his jaw. He hasn't been able to eat all week so was lacking a bit of energy... something very much required on The Slide Ride.

Both Brads reckon they had pretty good excuses. El Mantes with his jaw and Foggy out 'til mid-night last night at a roaring 40th birthday party. Nice efforts to get out guys considering you knew it was going to be a pretty hard one.

Twelve of us headed off this morning for the ride out through Yarra Glen, Toolangi, King Lake to home. We welcomed Gus, a mate of Angles, to the group and christened him to the 6am-ers with a blinder. Nice turn-out. Great company!

Some bloke turned up who looked a bit like Smithy... who used to ride with us. He turned around and went back home half way up Jumping Creek Road so it musn't have been him.
(Nice to see you mate).

It was also great to pick up Geordie who came from the opposite direction just near the top of King Lake and joined us for coffee.

Our arrival at Smith's saw a spike in coffee machine demand but I'm pretty sure they're still happy to see us. The Extractor made a guest appearance and went to pains to show us he was still thinking about us. A few remarked that Extractor's bike was the cleanest they'd ever seen. That can only be explained by the fact that it's still relatively brand new.


We said goodbye to The Claw, Fabio and Gus (maybe someone else?) at Kangaroo Ground then the rest of us ripped up the road to Warrandyte then finally decided to take it nice and easy to home. Everyone's legs were screaming with pain up the last couple of climbs although none of us like to admit it!

• Hard undulating - Jumping Creek Road and KG-W'dyte Rd
  
• Flat fast rolling turns - Churnside Park through to Yarra Glen
• Long continuous climb - Mt. Slide
• Great descent - King Lake
• Magnificant coffee - Smith's Gully
• Smashfest - Kang Ground to Warrandyte
• Cramps, screaming legs, satisfaction - all the way home
• Great company - 6am-ers

This ride has everything. I had an absolute ball !

130+ hard road ride.

Still fat. 102.5kg