In Which I return to the Peloton

After being absent in China for the last three weeks I was really starting to miss the regular Thursday afternoon ride along the Warburton Trail. In particular the part I was missing the most was the traditional coffee and cake at Milgrove. I have to admit that the food in China is great but they doin’t know how to make a genuine cappucino and I couldn’t find a chocolate eclair anywhere.

It was encouraging to see so many riders waiting at COGS for a start to the ride, although I was a little disappointed to find that I was the only China rider that had ventured out for the ride. The clouds of dust on the trail indicated that the drought certainly had not broken in my absence. Gary debuted his brand new plastic fantastic mountain bike but spent most of the ride lamenting the fact that it had got so dusty.

The early pace was quite aggressive but that did not worry me because all I could think of was the Milgrove Bakery. I was quite happy to leg it out to Milgrove, but I had no intention of continuing to Warburton. I had waited three weeks for this piece of self gratification and I was not going to wait any longer. As the rest of the peloton laboured on up the hill, I executed a left hand turn and headed straight to the bakery. The next few minutes were spent in an orgy of happy munching and drinking, while I waited for the others to return from the climb.

After lunch we continued back at a faster than normal pace, spurred on by Crasher Lewis and a couple of others. If I gained any (temporary) increase in fitness while overseas I might as well enjoy it before it quickly disappears in the advancing autumn. The final climb up the hill to COGS still raised a sweat but I think I might have achieved a very slight increase in speed over my normal somewhat sluggish rate.

On the way back home I stopped to buy a couple of punnets of raspberries but later discovered that they were mouldy. A sad finish to an otherwise most enjoyable afternoon.