I’ve been busy walking scoping trails.

Monday Morning Debrief 50

What and where have you all been riding then?

5 hour Rivington mudfest on Saturday and local 2 hour blast on sunday.
Cant complain.

Easyish 75km on the road bike, around El Escorial in Madrid. Not sure what I did to my knee running on Friday, but I wasn’t about to risk anything harder.

5 hour mountain grassy mountain and stupid steep woodland descents near Llandeilo on Saturday, followed by club Christmas do in the pub later. Sunday- emptied the airing/ store cupboard of (what was originally) thousands of pounds of electronics to be taken to the tip.

Billinge Wood Saturday,trail clearance then a blast down both tricky 60 and two trees.Then some more clearance an some more shredding the trails. Sunday was just a random roam looking for new places and possible trails. Weather not to bad a weekend either,mild with a bit of the wet stuff on occasion. Good weekend winter riding. Feel for you Dave,have had that experience myself and it ain’t good. Speedy recovery fella. 8)

I entered my first ever race, the first ‘Night Rider’ event run by Mud and Sweat. It was held in Haldon Forest down in Exeter and used some of the Blue trail to link up parts of the unofficial trails in the forest.

Really good fun, well organised by the guys and finished with a mince pie and mulled wine to warm everyone up 😀

210km in 10 hours on the roadie, with 4000m of climbing.
Need more mtb next week.

Short but sweet above Uppermill. Plenty of mud. And my first return to Boat Lane since one of our group went airborne and bust his collar bone.

Lots of Cannock it would be rude not to

Friday – trans-Chase epic mostly on the official trails with excursions to Castle Ring and Stile Cop. Very cold and quiet

Saturday – short loop around the North side nothing too dramatic but enjoyable in the watery afternoon sunshine

Sunday – docile social lap with Mate Who Hasn’t Been For Three Weeks 🙂

Dave, are you injured? You never mentioned it!

No riding for me either. Full of a cold and have worked almost 60 hours in the last 3 days. Tomorrow I will mostly be sleeping….

Dave, are you injured? You never mentioned it!

Something good has to come of it, if I can’t ride it can at least provide some copy….

;P

I was in that London town until Saturday night, but Sunday featured a regular Hebden ride. Saw loads of riders out (though not on any of the bridleways we were on – shows how easy it is to lose riders in the hills here).

It’s interesting that the trails have gone from being ‘leafy’ to ‘mulchy’ in just a couple of weeks. Less tentative riding through big piles of leaves, fearing what’s underneath, but more ploughing through mulchy trails, worried that they’re now all covered in frictionless leaf-mould. All part of the winter re-learning experience…

Weirdly, I just plough through the leaves because then I can’t see the problems they might or might not be hiding. Works for me. It’s when stuff becomes visible that I start to worry.

Saturday spent running around local bike park at Tai Mo Shan, 40kms of various trails, still a little sore on Monday.
Winter in Hong Kong is great, cool (still in late teens/early 20’s) but very dry, perfect riding conditions.

Sunday was Dark & White winter series event 3 @Harpur Hill, Buxton. Three hours of steep up & down around Upper Dovedale – wet limestone, leaves and mud. What’s not to like 🙂

Just got back from a cracking week in The Lakes – making up for missing most of the summer with a bust shoulder.

Great day out over Iron Keld ….

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

A big ride out round Grisedale (avoiding the trail centre 🙂 )

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

…. and finishing down on Lake Coniston ….

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

A nice ride out round Little Langdale and the slate quarries …

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

Ullswater singletrack the next day ….

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

… out to Pooley Bridge then back via the Boredale Hause trail …

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

…. before a final drop back into Glenridding …

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

Next up a loop of Coniston ….

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

Finished off with a walk round the Torver and then the Copper Mines ….

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

Finally back home for tea and medals …

Untitled by Simon_R, on Flickr

Wow – some great Lakeland photos there SimonR. Makes me want to head up there now! 😀

Took the Five on a loop of some featureless forest tracks under grey, occasionally rainy skies and loved it. I’ve had a sore lower back for a few weeks, so wanted a route without any really steep climbs or rocky descents. Although the hardtail 29er was clearly more suited to the task (I could have ridden most of it on the road bike) I wanted a bit more comfort.

It reminded me of just how much I love riding that bike. I’m not sure it’s possible for me to ride it anywhere and not come back with a grin. Not sure it did my back much good though as I couldn’t resist attacking any little climb or trying to hop off/over any little rocks, sticks or puddles (something at which I am singularly crap by the way). For a bike that will never win any races it has an uncanny knack of making you feel like you want to attack everything.