Playing in the mud

Route: the trails at Lysterfield Park
Distance: ~35km
Duration: ~2 hours 30 minutes

Normally when it’s raining, cycling is the last thing I want to do. But last Saturday, when it was cold, wet and miserable, Brendan and I decided to head out for a ride. We packed the bikes into Brendan’s car and drove to Lysterfield Park, the site of the mountain biking events at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Having rained all night the trails were extremely wet and slippery but that only added to the fun. We slid around corners, down hills and lost traction as we tried to push up the many inclines that litter the park. For those that don’t know Lysterfield Park it is literally covered in mountain bike trails, with 10 main tracks mapped out according to their difficulty.

We probably tried out at least half of the tracks, including the 6.3km track that was used during the Commonwealth Games. There are some seriously hairy sections along there and more than a few times we found ourselves hurtling down a muddy hill with little chance of our mud-encrusted brakes stopping us had they needed to. It was great fun.

We spent a couple of hours flying around the trails before heading back to the car and driving home. An awesome afternoon’s ride and we will certainly be back. To see some vision of our ride, check out the video below.

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