The following ride report pre-dates the website, and was exhumed from emails sent at the time.

I think we were all a bit surprised by the turnout, evident when we pulled into the car-filled gravel opposite the Chidlow Tavern. Things were pretty well organised at the start and we were soon all marked up as the “P” team with a start time of 9:49. Coffees, a warm-up ride, the inevitable footy talk and numerous toilet breaks filled the time void following the 8.30 briefing. What was that about a pot hole at 8km? Finally we rolled into the start queue. The MC seemed to have a good rap for each team as they headed off, with plenty of background knowledge. I wondered what he would make of the Sei Coglioni? In the end it was a roll-call and words of encouragement. “Where’s Paddles?” and “Who’s this Brett guy? I thought as we rolled off, concentrating on not missing my pedal.

The first turn was after only 100m, and we were a mess already. Need to work on that start, but it wasn’t long before we had some shape and settled into the first descent. This was a tough course to judge effort on with long descents suiting the big boys and climbs suiting the little guys. For some reason I expected it wouldn’t be long before we got passed, but as it turned out that only happened once, and we passed at least half-dozen other teams. It wasn’t hard to see we why as we rode more and more together as the ride progressed while the teams we passed had splintered. With the first lap complete we decided we could make some time by trying harder on the descents - my HRM data shows we were faster going downhill the second time around. No such ride is complete without a mechanical problem, and Stuart obliged by dropping his chain on the last climb. He then showed that he’d been holding something back by flying to the front as we came into town to drag us past one last team that had lurked tantalisingly ahead of us for the last few kilometres. A good lunch and a beer or two completed an excellent morning.

The official time was 1:51:48 for an average around 31km/hr, and an excellent third place in a field of 23 starters in the B-distance. Not bad at all for our first outing. If we had maintained that pace for a third lap we would have rolled in a more sobering 14th of 34 A-distance starters.