Parklands Ride Summary 12/03/2017
I sprang out of bed with the epiphany that our club rides have been lacking in nasty hills lately. So I thought what better place to catch up on this elevation shortage than Parklands, our ride location for last Sunday.
Arriving early at the Atkinson Road West entrance of Parklands I passed Chad grinding up the hill to meet up with Andrew for a few sneaky runs on Phoenix before the group ride started at 7am. Be like Chad, embrace the climbs.
Slowly everyone trickled in and begin to get ready. Eventually 20 of us found ourselves at the muster point at the top of Phoenix. Here we divvied up the group to those who wanted to undertake the ‘advanced rookie’ ride that Toby graciously offered to lead and those who wanted to reacquaint themselves with the brutal near vertical climbs from the east to the west side of Parklands.
The advanced rookie ride of 8 became a boot camp with Sergeant ‘Pain’ Toby relentlessly driving the squad through treacherous loops that included the ‘black grade’ Top Track. However looking over their route it was a good introduction and took in many of the good trails that snake throughout the Meadows. A challenge yes, but not insurmountable and reports from the riders are positive so good work Toby.
Cranking up the difficulty I dragged the remaining 12 riders down Phoenix to start off the climbing through the technical Double Dab rocks, up the pinchy Fire Line and onto Upper NZ before going further up the still raw technical trail known as Beehive. At this point I had ran out of hill so I reluctantly headed down Lower NZ and Ho Chi Ho. This is where Terry took a tumble down Lower NZ (video below) but was back on his feet in no time and there was not a scratch to be seen on the bike, he had quite a few, but the bike was fine. I think most people have stacked it going down there.
The rest of the route is the usual Road Rage, Rock and Roll and Rock’a’dial. Chair lift and M1 before finding ourselves back at the cars.
Coffee was down at the Bli Bli bakery while watching the traffic snail past due to the traffic diversion from the Mooloolaba Triathlon events.
Ben Johns
Club President
The long way
The easy way
