Castlemaine x 2

The weekend started with Jane's Liv/Giant women's ride in Castlemaine.  The ride was on the Dry Diggings Trail from Castlemaine to Vaughan Springs, return.  And the group of 11 girls didn't let anyone down.  We rode well together and laughed well together.  It was the longest ride I've done since early February, so I was happy to pace myself and be sweeper for the most part.  The ride to Vaughan Springs was incident and mechanical free - all of us chatting with old friends along the trail and meeting new friends.  

Vaughan Springs lunch stop - the 'footy' shot

And the 'girly' shot

We rode into Vaughan Springs for lunch and I spotted my nemesis....the Vaughan Springs slippery-dip.  I've been to Vaughan Springs on rides over the past 10 years and have never had the guts to ride the slippery-dip, like the guys did each time.  Today was the day I would try.  I tried to get sorted at the top but was finding it difficult to balance myself upright while preparing to descend.  The platform was only just long enough for my bike, but there was nowhere to lean my knee on to stabilise myself.  There was a family picnicking in the park and I heard a guy say 'I've always wanted to do that.'  I looked up and they were all watching and had the video camera on me!  I balanced myself up enough to start, went a bit off line but managed to get it back on straight, and down I went!  So so happy!!  

SUCCESS !!!

First flat tyre - turns out it takes 5 degrees and 15 years of study to put a tube in a tubeless tyre!!

The ride back to Castlemaine was a long slog for me, not having any fitness at all.  But I chugged away slowly.  Beth flatted on the way back, which was a bit of a laugh to put a tube in the tubeless tyre.  Not hard, but a laugh non-the-less.  But the final touch was the 2nd flat for the day, 10 minutes riding from the cars.  The following photos pretty much tell the story.  2 tubes, 4 cartridges, 2 cartridge adapters, 2 pumps, a pulled laughing muscle, and sore stomachs all round pretty much sums it up!!

A simple change-tube scenario ended up nearly 30 mins of continuous laughter.  An opportunity for the flattee to change her first mtb tube (many road, but no mtb).  After a premature cartridge release it was found that the tube had a short valve for the deep-dished rims.  Tube number 2 and a pump was tried (which did not work with the little bit of valve that stuck out).  Cartridge number 2 was tried with little success.  Jane thought this would be an opportunity to practice using her cartridge and adapter.  Cartridge 1 prematurely released, then realising that the adapter had a 'Close' label that was obviously not closed.  Cartridge 4 successfully gassed the tube with enough CO2 to get a pump on the valve.  Except as Jane removed the adapter, she also pulled the valve out of the tube!!!  So our only tube, Jane holding the adapter with the valve still in it, and another girl holding the wheel with her finger plugging up the hole where the tube should be!!!  You can imagine how, at this point, we lost it.  Completely.  All work on the wheel stopped while we laughed so hard our stomachs hurt...tears rolled from eyes, and we couldn't stop.  Jane finished it off beautifully by looking at Kira with the cartridge in hand, saying 'You're the engineer Kira....fixed it.'  Valve successfully screwed back in, and the old and faithful (but slightly odd) pump was put to action.  We were back on the trail to the cars all smiling the whole way and chuckling still.  

How many tubes, pumps and cartridges does it take to change a tube?

The laughs were enough to pull a laughing muscle

RESULT !!  Tube changed - finally heading home after way too much hilarity 

 This day of fun riding and laughter was backed up by another trip to Castlemaine for the Inter Winter Series Round 2....back to the Pineys.  I was disappointed in the Super D being on before the XC, mainly because it delayed my race 2 hours.  I wanted to enjoy the race, enjoy the social scene, and get back to the dogs by mid-afternoon.  The Super D was okay - my legs were still tired from Saturday so I rolled everything that I didn't have to peddle for, and enjoyed the descents.  

By the time the XC came around I was hungry and psyched out.  So I enjoyed 1 lap of my 2, started getting angry with numpty riders who can't climb or descend singletrack, and decided to pull the pin.  If nothing else, the XC was the drive I needed to get fitter so I can out-climb the numpties at the start and get into the singletrack before them.  But overall, a great weekend of riding and laughs.

Got out of my bath to find both the dogs sharing the beanbag in front of the warm fire