Lunchtime Ride

Yesterday saw another fine day in Wellington. The sun was out, but so was the wind. I was running the days errands when Helen called and said that the boys from work were going riding at lunch today. I was feeling a bit tired and sore after the last two days of riding, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to get a guided tour of Mount Victoria.

I met up with Helen and her boss, Geoffroy, at the NIWA parking lot. Geoffroy took off like a rocket; Helen and I struggled to follow him down the road. After a few zigs and zags we finally hit the trail. We had a pretty good downhill run towards what looked like a dirt wall. Geoffroy didn’t show any signs of slowing, so I stayed off the brakes and followed him. Luckily, the wall had a really good transition at the bottom, which shot you right up it. A couple more short tracks led us to track that went around the velodrome. It looks a lot nicer the than one in Canberra. It is still concrete by the walls aren’t nearly as steep and the transition from corner to straight is much more gradual. After the velodrome we turned up hill and climbed a very steep rocky track to the ridgeline. We followed the ridge to the summit grinding up and over this ridiculous hill. We all made it and Geoffroy admitted at the top that he was hoping one of us would put a foot down so he could as well.

I was a little nervous about getting down from the summit, as most of the tracks Helen and I had seen when walking were really steep. In the end it wasn’t too bad. The tracks were covered in roots and got pretty steep in places, but the only person that came off was Geoffroy. He managed to go over the bars on a rooty downhill and did this amazing slow motion somersault while trying to stop himself. We all made it back to NIWA safely, and I had a bit of battle riding home against the wind. I look forward to doing some more exploring around Mount Victoria. It’s great that it is right in my backyard.