Bikedock Belles

As Debbie sensibly came prepared for a good day out this left Molly to honour the Belle tradition of preparation: she was pumping up her nearly flat tyres at the start time and then set off without her provisions, thus with no food, no map, no glasses (and streaming eyes), no brakes (!!) and no idea. Thank goodness for Debbie, who DID have food to spare and handily took control of the map (and the situation). They embarked with much kerb and ramp hopping until Molly was painfully reminded that she was riding in trainers, not SPDs, and ended up with a pretty cool bruise (she won't say where) and a deep appreciation that she wasn't a bloke at that particular moment.

The Dolly's round seemed promising as they made headway and accrued points... that was until they pushed their bikes halfway up Slieve Donard to the highest point on the course map (a black gate amongst some ruins) for the grand 60-point control, where sadly they succumbed to the thin air of high altitudes. Their hopes to have the best overall female round were suddenly dashed when oxygen deprived Molly noticed that sheep droppings perfectly resembled a chocolate version of the Sportbeans she found in Debbie's Camelbak and went to pieces, making the pair cry with laughter after she inadvertently ejected mucus from her nose over Debbie's camera in an effort to stifle her laughter for long enough to take a picture of said Beans next to said sheep droppings. Having spent too long in the Death Zone high up on the slopes of Donard, they failed to heed their own prophetic advice "Do not pass beyond the gates" and chose to push on through the afore-mentioned black gate in the direction of the straightest line to the next control (never really the best idea, especially in hilly areas) and find their way downhill on sheep trails across the hill face instead of down a good, old fashioned man-made path beside a wall. This is the point at which the race was lost for the Dollys.

But their efforts of the day were valiant. Debbie performed the most elegant 3 point slow motion dismount-and-roll maneuver yet recorded in Trailquest history. Together the pair scrambled over boulders and heather, taking the opportunity to use their bikes for upper-body weight training, toiling for a decent part of an hour to regain some form of ridable terrain. Debbie remarked more than once how grateful she was that Belles Julie and Cathy weren't taking part in this particular round as their map-reading "skills" surely would have left them requiring the aid of Mountain Rescue if fairly decent map readers like Debbie and Molly could have got the plot so wrong. Fortunately, it was confirmed by Belles Taryn and Andrea (and Andrea's hubbie!) this round's map wasn't the clearest one they had seen thus far, which was huge consolation to the Dollys after having performed feats even a mountain goat would reconsider.

Having visited a whopping 5 controls (6 if you count the one they were right on top of but couldn't actually see), Molly's Dollys made a strong finish with wall-to-wall grins, exhausted abdominal muscles from laughing, and a joint consent that there was indeed no better way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon in January.

PLEASE NOTE this was written by the Monthlies themselves...not only do they rock at throwing themselves into everything, but they also rock at reports! True Belles' style! C'mon you other girls...get out and have some fun....and share it with everyone!

Ding Dong!

Andrea