Frozen fingers

Sunday morning dawned beautifully clear in Toowoomba, which also meant is was abosulutely freezing. I saw somebody scraping ice of the windscreen of their car - the first time I've seen that since moving to Australia in 2005. When we mustered for the ride at 8am it was just under 2 degrees...

Maybe fingerless gloves weren't the best option

We left Toowoomba in a pack of about 200 riders, and not long after leaving the city limits we found the fog

 

It was a bit unsettling descending down unknown, potholed roads without being able to see what was at the bottom. But that also helped in the hillclimbs - you only realised how big they were when you got to the top

It was very atmospheric out there, and a little bit frightening once the rides split and the 'social' riders were on our own with seemingly no support car

but the views of the rolling hills were worth it

Eventually the sun started to show its face and our fingers started to thaw out

 

and for one spooky minute I thought I'd been transported back to the mining villages of the north of England - albeit with a sky so blue that the locals would run for cover

After the ride we warmed up and then wandered over to watch the bike racing being run under the Tour De Toowoomba banner. We were lucky enough to have a friend racing in the A-grade criterion race, which gave us someone to cheer 

An hour plus 3 laps of aerobically maxed out racing - crazy loons. Attack!