As Cannock is closed we need to make a last minute change of plan.

Any one got any info on the conditions at the Malverns and/or the Cotswolds in terms of the snow?

Snow free in the Cotswolds (Stroud / Cheltenham / Cirencester areas)

Thanks very much simonjj, Cotswolds it is. 🙂

back of fish hill on saturday.

can see some snow from Cheltenham on the top of cleeve, not much though.

Some trails are OK on the Malverns, others still partially covered in ice/compacted snow

Hmmm OK people thanks. I don’t know the area at all, but thinking of doing this route. What’s the diagnosis?

No snow there(I live down the road between Horsley and nailsworth) could well be muddy down the bottoms.

Ahhh great tang thanks. I guess everywhere will be muddy that doesn’t have snow so I reckon it’s full steam ahead.

Thanks all.

Getting drier where exposed to wind, yesterday was freezing in the headwind ride. Suns been out all day here!

Still abit on the hills above Cheltenham nothing to worry about.Drying very quick mind the wind is bitter.Wait till late morning till the ground can thraw and dry or you might get covered.Forest of Dean is good so they say without the wind.

We did that route I put above and the conditions were near on perfect. There was the odd muddy puddle but generally speaking it was actually dusty and dry. Pretty much the only thing I will be washing off the bike tomorrow is dust. The sun was out but not too hot. The wind was only strong up on the top where it was open and exposed and then we were on tarmac anyway.

Nice route, although I’m not sure the descents are quite rewarding enough for the often pretty steep climbs. Having said that when I have no idea what is around the next corner I tend to err on the side of caution, so if we did it again then I would probably ride it a bit differently so it could be more fun. The views are nice though and over all I would be happy to ride it again.

What surprised me though was “that” area of woods (locals must know what I’m talking about) a distance off that route where we stumbled across a bunch of cheeky stuff. We actually got a bit lost following tyre tracks. 😳 I say cheeky but it’s just so blatant it’s a wonder it’s still there. I have never seen so many lines cut and features built so densely in such a small area. Most of those features are huge. We didn’t really have time to explore them properly but we walked a couple of the lines just to see what was there and it was a maze of step downs, kickers, gap jumps, berms etc. Most of it was far beyond my gnar level though. Would be nice to go back and work out which are the “blue” lines. 😀

That blue line is the M5.

Boom boom.

Thats not the proper Cotswolds down there :wink:You need Lecky/Cranham etc.