Training Ride North, 24 Feb

Met the Tour guys at 5:30 on Pac Hwy, headed north, picking up Kate in Chatswood at 5:45am.
The most notable point early in the ride was how relatively grumpy Gary was without a coffee to start. He almost cracked a frown. Gary commented he had to fight the bars on his bike to pass Maiseys without a stop. But he was driven by the promise of a coffee at Pie in the Sky, north of Berowra

South of Berowra, we come across amazing thick fog which reduced visibility and speed and drenches everyone. The group is stalled with Max puncturing. Whilst riding very well given his now 9 weeks on a road bike, he's still understandably relatively inexperienced when it comes to fixing a puncture (a rite of passage for the cyclist, a lightning-quick puncture repair inspires awe and generates respect from all quarters). So we stood around and offered supportive gestures such as ""hurry up, we want coffee"". Beats his previous best time by about 45 mins.

North of Berowra, we find Pie in the Sky. Gary's eyes well up with joy, which quickly turns to thinly-veiled furious anger when we note it's not open... I further improve the situation by waiting until he's well down the hill to discover I've got a puncture of my own. During the puncture repair, it's revealed I apparently dated Mother Theresa. It was funny at the time, but would lose something in the retelling. Had to be there.

Long fast descent to the Hawkesbury, awesome views and the subsequent testing climb up to Mt White (3km). All did really well, with Gary smashing it up hill, even though the coffee at the top of the hill was expected to be International Roast quality. At the top though Road Warriors put on a half-decent brew and again we were away on the quiet, winding tree-lined Pac Hwy.

Another screaming downhill painted smiles on all. The star of the next climb (3km) was undoubtedly Kate who held her own and then some for the whole climb. Gary, now mellowed with a short black inside him was sccoting around riding laps between the rest of us, up and down the hill like a Jack Russell on the promise of a ball being pitched, whilst the rest of us just got up the climb

The group split here - all aside from me rode down to Killcare, sailed across to Palm Beach and back down the beaches. I headed north on the F3, which was surprising good with a wide, smooth shoulder and a reasonable amount of traffic. In the next 50km I averaged 30 - 35 km/h and over consistently, with 1 stop to fill up with water as the temperature had climbed. A guy came up to talk bikes, he had a carbon Colnago and was training for the Youth Off The Streets Sydney - Surfers Ride. He also had a passion for talking, which was great but I had to jump on the bike and head north.

My ride was cut a little short at the turn-off to Cessnock after 140km, my girlfriend arriving early (with cold water and an icy wet towel!!!). I jumped in the car and fell asleep shortly afterwards. The infamous effects of carb gels & powerbars inside the car made me not very popular - but it was a great morning and I'm looking forward to the next TDC group training ride.