Enjoying the goat track

The texts started early both Singer (aka Black Death) the hard nut training partner and Adam (Old Skool) asking if we were still riding with the rain pelting down. A quick check of the BOM website (gotta love that internet thingy) and hey lets ride. Early morning departure through Samford and just prior to the start of the ascent comes the first flat of the day for me. Quick tube change (not)actually needed to use a five dollar note to stop the cut from busting another tube and we are back underway (thanks for the tube Singer).

Old Skool was a virgin at climbing the GT and was spared actually seeing where we were going due to the low cloud around the summit. A quick snack at the bottom and we are away. For those that haven't ridden GT it is unsealed road with a 10% gradient and with the rain last night made for an interesting climb. Old Skool only has his hard man 53/39 whilst BD and I run compacts. So the climb was interesting to say the least for him. But he seemed to manage all the same. Yes he was dropped on the climb but he made it.

The descent back to the Gap via Mount Nebo was sweet with Old Skool pretending he was attacking ala Il Pirato (Marco Pantani) in the drops and in the dog (i.e. the big ring) over any little climbs the whole way back. Awesome ride even made the coffee at the Gap Coffee Club seem bearable.

Highlights included the number of cars using the goat track in the morning. What is doing there an ungraded road carrying so much traffic ? At least they were all courteous and left us enough road to get past.