The shoulder

Sunday was the appointed day for a longer, flattish ride. The route chosen covered a fair bit of new ground, had a mix of terrain, some long flat sections, some rolling hills, a fair dose of wind and no major climbs.
We started with a reasonable size group and the pleasant surprise of dry roads. The planned route was to go North and East to reach Waiwera via Country roads, then return out the way we had come and branch off around through Helensville and Kumeu.
By the time we had hit the top of Albany Hill the wind was building and the group thinning. The Worm was only ever going to be with us for the one hundred kilometre option and he left us at the top of Albany Hill, after providing us with some sterling work across Red Hills Road and Ridge Road.
Doris and Mike departed shortly after, Doris suffering an interesting speed wobble down the the fast descent of Kennedy Road.
After that we settled into some serious lapping and rigorous keeping of shared work. The next excitement was Serge's decision to exit stage left on a righthand corner on the metal road section into Waiwera. His straight ahead instead of right bearing was an interesting way to take the corner. Luckily his Look remained upright and apart from a few Russian grunts his pride appeared to be intact.
At Waiwera we noticed that the wind was now quite strong and favourable for the next leg of our journey We were now faced with 50 kilometres of flat, interspersed witha few small rollers. Fast fun was looming.
After we came back out of Waiwera we had a great tailwind section. There Junior and Mike T, hence forward known as "The Crocodile" due to his new skinnyness, wound the pace up a notch. It was good, fast fun. Their lap done and the pace eased a little, remaining steady, still fast, but not in the forties anymore. Unfortunately the high pace and the winds started to catch out the heavyweight, Mysterex. Before long he was pleading with us to leave him out there to ride his own way home.
We recommended that he stay with us and we shepherded him back to town. During a drink stop at Kumeu, he commented that he would most likely still be rolling around out there that evening, a wind tossed fifty nine kilogrammes and miserable, if we hadn't been strict with him.
The tailwind fun turned to a crosswind near Woodhill and decent sort of slog. It was good for the soul.
The last section in, on the Norwestern Bike Path, was just a pure exercise in gritting teeth and getting it over with.
It was a great ride, saw some new roads and felt the incipient Spring.
We will repeat the ride up there, maybe just wish for a little less wind.