Some aching in the legs so went out for a light XC ride to detox. I headed out to Maldon along tracks and trails that follow the Victorian Goldfields Railway.

Storms were forecast for today and heading towards Muckleford great cloud formations started to brew. The Goldfields Railway steam train usually runs on Wednesday so I waited for a while at the old Muckleford station, love seeing the steam train. You can usually hear its whistle across the region, but not a peep today. It turns out the train is only running on Saturdays for now, bummer!

It’s a fun ride out to Maldon and back, through bush and open farmland, generally loosing elevation from Casltemaine to Muckleford then gaining elevation to Maldon. Lots of gullies along the way giving the ride a gentle rollercoaster feel. It’s relatively fast too with speeds of 25-45km/h common— a good chance to spin out the 1×10 drivetrain, not something you get to do on single track too often. No worries there with scooting along quickly at a sustainable cadence, the 33 tooth chain ring combined with the 11 tooth on the cassette is heaps for me.

It should be a good ride to do once every couple of weeks. A light, fast spinning ‘recovery’ style ride, with the option of making it into an epic by hitting the downhill trails at Mt Tarrengower behind Maldon before returning home.