The day’s cycle to Taylors Arm and return was full of adventure with someone getting lost and someone else showing signs of having a heart attack. But both occurrences were staged for the sake of putting Colleen through her ride leader training to see what she would do. According to ride leader trainer George’s assessment, she did fine and she is now a Bike NSW ride leader.
The cycle was not an easy one to do, let alone use as a training exercise. The hills began about five kilometres outside of Macksville and didn’t let up until a couple of kilometres out of Taylors Arm, a distance of just over 20km one-way. That meant the nine people on today’s ride were strung out along many kilometres of road most of the time. Ride Leader in Training, Colleen, likened it to trying to herd cats.
But everyone seemed content to idle along, waiting at the tops of the hills for those of us who were slower to catch up. The warm spring weather, which reached 30 degrees toward the end of the cycle at noon helped slow people down as well. And there were no real emergencies, not even a flat tyre.
Special mention must go to Phil who cycled from his home north of Urunga to join the group at Macksville for the ride to Taylors Arm, then cycled back home afterwards, a total of more than 130km.
Next week’s ride will have nary a hill, or just about, but with a distance of about 60km it will still be a solid ride. The ride starts at Clybucca (BP service station) at 8am along the new Kempsey bypass. George will be leading the way.