Riding with TORC

With all the racing going on at the moment I thought it might be time for a change of pace. Well that is what I thought when I was invited to ride with the Turramurra Off Road Cyclist. It was announced as a TORC Epic - Bucketty Challenge and invited roadies to taste a bit of dirt without the hassles of single-track and obstacles. In essence we were to ride from St Albans, the home of the Classic 100km in May this year, to Bucketty thirty or so clicks up the dirt road. A large range of 29er hard-tails arrived and immediately knew I was in trouble with it all being open dirt road riding. I had hardly clipped in before the bunch had split and a small group launched off the front, heads down, hammering up the road. Remaining back with a larger bunch we swapped turns on the front as we did it TT style towards Bucketty. There was no slacking and when the pace dropped another rider would launch out of the saddle and spearhead us up the road at pace. It wasn’t till the serious climbing nearing the turn-a-round point where we made our way up onto the ridgeline that I was able to make a break of my own, climbing solo to the turn-a-round point. From there it is virtually a downhill run back to St Albans and we made the most of it before hitting the flats and regrouping in pairs or triples. Once on the flat it was back to the grind and all out TT for St Albans. I was glad for my training time with groups such as Hawkesbury Tri and Penrith Roadies as this sort of riding doesn’t come naturally to MTBing. Back in St Albans the pub was open and I was able to settle into a hearty steak burger and feed my cravings for carbs with chips. Thanks to TORC for the invite and a mornings fun.