Gourmet Soup and Bun
Our luck held out once more with perfect riding weather for the third in the Soup and Bun series held at the Landsdowne Forest. Thanks to the Hamilton family and Nelson Forests Ltd for access. This is another fantastic area for riding.
Three courses were on offer ranging from a kids fun loop through to a trip up to a steep saddle for those bordering on expert. The object was to have fun and find where your best option was so, some chose to try all three courses during the hour long time span.
Thirty two riders crossed the start line with Sarnim carrying a very young passenger in the baby seat all decked out in cycle helmet. Nothing like introducing the sport at an early age. There was a nappy change stop at the end of lap two and the vote from the back-seat driver was to call it quits right there.
It was obvious from comments that there was navigational confusion out there on the track despite many arrows being placed for guidance. Lap times are attached but should not be taken too seriously as only the riders know which track they used. Has there ever been a MTB navigational course held by the club? Maybe it could be an option for a rainy night at Fairweathers !
Great to welcome some new faces. Dennis Parsons joined us for the first time. Dennis looks after many of the forestry blocks in the area and rides at his own speed in most of them. He was impressed by the speed and ability of the better riders.
We may be hearing more of Aaron Bleakley who has just joined Ray at Cycle World as the new mechanic. Aaron has ridden at the top flight for many years and will be challenging our best. He has just moved up from Dunedin and is originally from Auckland.
Jeremy McKenzie fitted in a ride from his busy schedule and was in fine form despite still being in recovery mode from his epic Kaikoura 4 day adventure. Jason and Kiel had a great tussle with contrasting riding styles. It was like watching a jockey and a rodeo rider, Jason needs to tame that wild thing.
There were a few younger riders but they chose to ride the grown-ups course with mum or dad in tow. For mother’s day Cheryl produced a gourmet pot of yummy pumpkin soup and a giant chocolate cake. We hope the kids were good to her after she rode the 40ish Km home from our event.
Doesn’t get much better than this so hope to see you all at the next S & B on 8th June at “Stirling Brook”. Spread the word. Thanks to Kevin and Peter as usual for setting out the courses. We are looking at some Braille arrows for the confused for the next one.