Archive for the ‘stacking’ tag
Confidence is the mother of all stackings
Last Sunday I did the “Sydney 2 Gong” again. This time, the weather was nicer, as we didn’t get any rain or sun. The clouds kept the temperature stable and, without the sun to burn the skin and eyes, things were way easier.
Also, this year, I was worried about that big pain I had on my left knee, so I went easier this time. Of course, I did my speeding sometimes, whenever I saw fit, but not for too long and I usually stopped after that to way for my “team” (Nathan and Ros.)
The only thing that went wrong was the downhill in the National Park. I did that last year, it was a hell lot fun and, because I knew the place, I decided to go full speed downhill. One of the things I always do is takeover slower racers on the right side (exactly like a car around here.) The thing is, I expect people to do the same, so I got a little bit scared when someone going down faster than the 60km/h I was tried to take over on my left side and decided to give him some space. The problem is, I gave him too much space, hit the dirt in the side of the road and had a (as Nathan called) closer conversation with Mr Gravel.
The result: A small cut on my left knee and small scratches on the other limbs. After a minute recovering and starting to go downhill again (this time, staying on the left side and pushing the brakes really hard), all the scratches start to itch, which is not a good thing to feel when you’re scared to fall over again.
On the lowest part of the park, we had lunch and then I had some time to see a first aid tent and get some small repairs on my bike (the lowest gear in the hear was hitting the spokes.) Weirdly enough, after getting patched, getting my bike serviced again and having lunch, I felt ready to start the uphill battle off the park, in a more cautious way.
So, that’s it for this year “Sydney 2 Gong”: Besides the biggest bicycle stacking of my life, things went smoothly and almost like last year.
