We embraced the jungle and the nettle afterglow.

Monday Morning Debrief 40

What did you get up to?

I rode over to Castleton from marple mixture of road/off road, sat on top of mam tor eating my malt loaf, it was such a nice day, packed with people enjoying the sun and the views, had a top top ride, but my legs are tired this morning, glad im not in work till later
wish I had taken some pics

Helvellyn on Saturday up via Keppel and down Sticks.
Little grim weather wise but excellent

Fell race Sat, some nettles, a lot of turnips. 2h ride Sun, some flogging involved, no nettles.

Glentress black and other bits and bobs.

MASSIVE thanks to the guy who stopped and asked what was up when I’d just lost 2 chainring bolts and stripped another. We were miles and miles from anywhere and as if by magic he produced a spare!

Not only saved me a very long walk back to the car, but allowed me to enjoy the rest of the route 🙂

I owe you a beer!

(alloy Onza chainring bolts are absolutely useless in case anyone is wondering. Steel ftw)

I went to Antur on Friday, my first uplift and it was brilliant – great efficeint set up there.

Saturday, I couldn’t move as my body had been battered.

Sunday, I couldn’t move as I was hungover.

40 miles or so in the Dales starting out from Horton.

Inadvisable ‘fun’ attempt to keep up with some roadies near Bainbridge just before lunch took enough out of my legs to make the next 10 miles back into a headwind less pleasant than usual.

A weekend of mechanicals…

Friday…. 50km road ride to watch the Tour of Britain ‘Summit Finish’ at Haytor. My chain snapped & buckled on the climb up and I had to remove two links. Happily, it’s shifting a lot smoother now it’s two links shorter 🙂

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/8308384@N06/9849232466/]Gold Jersey Time[/url] by Slugwash, on Flickr

Saturday…. downgraded a bivi ride to a night ride. Unfortunately, my RHS pedal thread stripped 10K into the ride. (must’ve cross threaded it at some point). We had to do a 180 and cycle back to the car, with me firing on only one limb 🙁

Dartmoor Nightride Mechanical…….. by Slugwash, on Flickr

Sunday…. faced with a mountain of domestic chores I developed chronic fatique syndrome and sat down in an armchair and watched the last day of the Tour.

76 miles on the road for me

First ever road circuit race, Chard Wheelers Cat 4 Autumn race at RNAS Merryfield. Didn’t get dropped, didn’t crash and finished about 20th. Road races are soooo quiet compared to all the mountain bike ones I’ve done….

did the BHF London to Brighton Offroad Challenge.
73 miles with 3,000 other people.
It wasn’t a race but I did it as fast as I dared, having not ridden that far offroad before.
Raised £1,300 between this and RideLondon100 so felt I should put an effort in and finished in 6 hours, with around 20 minutes of stopping.
It’s sparked an interest in endurance riding…

Saturday – road club ride, accident, ambulance, jittery riders, brutal hill climb, wet and cold mountains, cafe stop, sunshine, banter, smiles 🙂 (Relief as friend in accident will be OK)

Sunday – Sunny road spin up the mountains and beside the sea.

Summer returned for the weekend 🙂

Mabie Forest. Red route with a hungover brother-in-law, then an attempt at the green with my 5-year old. He managed to go over the bars within 40 yards of the car, cue lots of blood and screaming 🙁
All healing up today, but he looks bloody rough…

We went and got lost at Glentress 😆 Rode out the back of the place on the enduro trails, then rambled around fireroads and walkers paths and cheeky trails behind peebles in the sun. Lovely way to spend a day.

Saturday 3,200ft climbing in 28 miles some road some off road
Sunday 11 miles got cut up on a narrow country lane tight into a ditch hedge aggravated injury, 👿

19 miles local Saturday on the HT
Delamere Sunday (12 miles) on the AM quiet early on but looked like it was getting busy when I left.

Not a fat lot.

Did go to see the ToB finish stage down the road at Tower Bridge though..

Three hour mountain bike orienteering event around Chipping Campden on the tandem with Mrs MTG.
43km. Top scoring mixed pair.

http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1833330

few hours around Akrigg country. Was great…

Rode Clachnaben yesterday morning with a mate. It was a cracking day to be out, and we were early enough so that there wasn’t too many walkers coming up the descents.

old school Glen Loin Loop in the rain, with a bit of hikey bikey thrown in for good measure, with downshep of this forum bringing up the rear 🙂

Tour de Ben Nevis on Saturday – great day, really enjoyed it. Especially the sausages half way round… 😀

First CX ride out on my new Day One – double-flatted on a pot-hole so I think I need to up the tyre pressures!

Broke my Strava cherry – i can see this becoming a bit obsessive now. Recorded my normal out the door back lane / cx ride to find that it is 31.5 km long and has a hieght gain of 584 meters, with some cat 3 and 4 climbs but that i’m about 150th out of 175 of the others that have done the recorded segments on this ride and i thought i was going great 😕

Smashed my knees to pieces on a quick blast around the valley 😥
I was in a hurry and left the knee pads in the shed…

Saturday I rode around Hebden Bridge for the first time, 5.5 hours and about 25 miles. Not sure we did any of the classic descents but the best bit was down from the Golf club that came out by a train bridge.

Sunday, me and the wife went for a pootle around the local roads in the sun.

Don’t normally post on these threads but I had a jolly good weekend at BPW:

Pedaled up on my HT a couple of times Saturday afternoon camped up the road and then took my big bike on the uplift Sunday, all told I think I got 12 runs in…

Not bad, I ache now though.

I rode some of the Peaks ‘classics’ (Hagg Farm, Roman Road, Blackley Hey, Lockerbrook) on my brand new 456 Evo 2 and I was, to quote people far younger than me, ‘super-stoked’ as a result.

Camping and biking trip on Exmoor with clubmates. Fires, bbq’s, paella, tents, a full barrel of beer,too much red wine, a young farmers social with pig racing, and 2 days of big climbs and rocky descents. Only crashed once but it was head first into a wall. Not entirely sure how it’s only a dead leg that is really causing trouble, the split lip and gashed elbow are healing well. Awesome, as ever.

Friday: rode the Zona Zero badlands in the Spanish pre-pyrenees. Awesome singletrack and swoopy fun.

Saturday: drove 220 miles for a seat post (stupid Crank Brothers dropper fail!). Got drunk.

Sunday: having recovered played on the swoops and drops of the badlands.

Today: rode in 30+ degrees along the Sarrastano ridge.

Tomorrow: probably another ride… 😛

Spent part of Friday afternoon, chatting and watching the racing up on Haytor, then rode about the surrounding countryside for the rest of the day (without snapping my chain 😉 ). I’d only finished my new Osprey the evening before, so this was it’s shakedown ride (it performed faultlessly of course).

Saturday went out for about 90 minutes with my mum, who’s recently rediscovered how much she likes cycling (having ridden everywhere when she was younger), and as a consequence not long bought herself a Liv/giant Sedona. Absolutely perfect for a more err, mature cyclist returning to riding – huge gearing range, lighter weight than it looks, low step-over height, easy upright posture for riding along whilst looking over hedges and the like …

Sunday, a session of [running] hilly laps round and round and round (very dull but useful), and then some archery to round off the weekend.

Domestic undertakings on Sat.
Sun walked the Skyline route around Edale with MrsCat – lots of fell runners out practising.
Disappointed to see 3 riders on the footpaths at the top of Grindsbrook.

Gunnerside Gill Swaledale on Sat. First time riding in Yorkshire Dales. Stunning scenery and excellent riding even though we got lost :-))

Another Tour de Ben Nevis. Glad to finish before the heavens opened!

On Saturday, just a 1-hour or so blast round a local trail on my MTB. On Sunday, got a PB in a 10 mile TT 🙂

Didn’t ride Saturday due to her car needing an MOT and a clean.

Went to Hopton on Sunday and loved it…roots ahoy! The XC loop is really well designed / built. The start was a total hoot and there seemed to be a good mix between foley bits, berms and roots. The weather was ace too. Can’t wait to go back and spend done more time there.

Northwind; we stayed in Peebles this year and found some great trails right behind where we were staying in sone little woods. Nothing too difficult, but great fun.

London to Brighton offroad for me. My very generous brother agreed to go at my pace, but we finished eventually!

4 Days of switchback singletrack, Sierra Nevadas, Spanish Spain.

Worked all weekend but managed an awesome ride at Woburn on Monday. Great to see my mate progressing and starting to get the hang of jumps 🙂