Once again another hugely successful Steam Easter tour in Jindabyne.    Unfortunately this report has had to be censored – the old adage ringing true “What goes on tour, stays on tour”.  But I can share the highlights of the 4 day trip with you.  For me, it had to start with having to travel down with Greg due to Daniele not fixing up the front seat in the car properly.  Before we even got to Cooma we had been told off by Kerry for going past the Volvo – exchanged text messages with the rest of the convoy – and met up with a very shaken Muir at Maccas in Cooma.  Apparently (and you will have to ask Colm for the full story), Col’s arm locked out while Muir was driving at speed and was wrapped around Muir and there was lots of screaming and shouting going on.   I don’t think Muir fully recovered from that all weekend.

Good Friday dawned bright and sunny and a bit chilly to start off with.  We did our usual ride up to Dead Horse Gap and back (having talked Daniele out of riding to Khancoban on the first day) – however Johnny Chuo was prepared for 150kms.  Greg took off on the descent (he did get a head start) and took out the GC points for the day.   We knew that if we hadn’t caught him by Ivo’s farm the very dead weight of him would just roll him out of our reach.   

Friday night was quiz night as some of our party were leaving us the next day.   There was much cheating going on but Team Brazilian were fairly and squarely beaten by George’s team at the end of the table.  Kerry’s team were absolutely hopeless and will need to learn how to read properly before next year at the very least.    The Piste Haus was kept up half the night by Julie and Breeda’s insane giggling as they, Marcus and Colm traded secrets on their most embarrassing moments.   Col still won’t let on what his was or why the girls found it quite so hilarious.

The next day we changed the routine and did Charlotte Pass just so that Andrew, John and Paula could experience this most delightful of rides.  Perfect weather – no wind and gloriously sunny – saw the Steamers climb 42kms to the Pass and then descend back down safely.  Greg and Marco took off again on the descent and Greg rolled into coffee a couple of mins before the peloton holding onto his GC points.  Sat night was a bit of a quiet one as the team appeared to have peaked the night before.

Sunday dawned still and clear – the remaining riders set off intrepidly for Thredbo in convoy to start riding up there over the top of Dead Horse Gap to Tom Groggin’s.   I drove it on Friday with Greg and Daniele and Greg passed out in the car half way back up after pleading with us that it would not be possible to ride back up there with non motorised transport.     The descent was made safely with all the group riding down to at least the 11km mark at Leather Barrel Creek and the intrepid few (Daniele, Marco, Greg, George, Muir, Rob, Kerry, Breeda and myself) starting from the very bottom and counting down the 18kms back to the top.  The boys deliberately tried to drop me at the bottom and if the climb had been a couple of kms longer I would have got them back as I was starting to hear Greg’s breathing quite clearly as he sucked himself to Daniele’s back wheel like a leech.   For my liking there was altogether too much down hill for a climb.   However, Greg and Rob and I rode back down to Thredbo to the bakery where the gannets had been settled for a while – Colm’s quote on the bakery was “Have you ever been in a supermarket in the Soviet Union ?”   Not long afterwards, Breeda, Marco and George swooped in looking very pleased with themselves until they discovered there was nothing left to eat.

Daniele had gone back down to do hill repeats as is his wont, and picked up Kerry and Muir.    Muir was having a bit of a tough day at the office but was well enough to tell Kerry to be quiet and apparently when Daniele got to them and Kerry and Daniele started discussing climbs in Italia it was all too much and he had to be assisted off his bike at the bakery while the very last pies were purchased for him.     All in all a huge day – but little did the team know that it had only just started.    Breeda and Julie were counting down the minutes until they could in all conscience start drinking (they lasted until 4:30) while the Bacon Busters calendar was passed around.   

Dinner was sensational (thanks to Marco’s mum) and then it was presentation night.  This started as all good presentation nights do with awards :

Marco – for getting lost the most often (and that is quite hard in the Snowys where there is usually only one road)

Colm – team player for riding off and leaving Kerry in her moment of crisis

Kerry – for having the best dummy spit award after Colm and Antonio rode off and left her

Lisa – for most improved rider

Muir – for best hit the wall award after the climb (nowhere to hide in this group Muir)

I got the QOM award which I shared out with my girlpower mates

Greg – got the GC award which he basically earned by being able to hang onto Daniele’s wheel for an 18km climb

After that, the night gets a bit blurry.   Kerry started it by dancing on the table – Colm did a Dusty Springfield impersonation which was followed by a sensational Joe Cocker by Antonio.   I seem to remember pretending I was Kate Bush at one stage when Wuthering Heights was on … but I think that was just a bad dream.   Greg and Marco stepped up as DJs and we partied on until we dropped.   So if you can imagine a group of baby boomers head banging to Midnight Oil, ripping Greg’s shirt off to Sex Machine and singing along to Abba you would just about have it.

Suffice it to say, we only rode 25km the next day and Kerry and Lisa didn’t even make that.  The recycling took some considerable time to take out.    What can I say ?

AM

Regards,

Anna Murray