Step right up! Step right up!
Come one, come all! Come in and sit down, and make yourself comfortable, the show is just about to begin!
Tonight we’re going to take you a journey. A journey through the weekend’s festivities. There are tales from foreign lands, and stories from closer to home. There are bikes, mountains, sunny beachside resorts, arduous test sessions, rain, mud, and…a rescue of a lamb??
Of course that could only mean one thing – it’s the Singletrack Monday Morning Debrief!
Our dearest and most glorious leader of the Singletrack Clan has chosen to take a sabbatical this week to a slightly sunnier part of the world. He tells us that he will be there for a week of intense self-realisation and new learnings that he will bring back to teach us all. And of course, we believe him. Because he is our leader. And, this is what you do. All we can do now is to spend the rest of the week looking forward with bated breath of his return, so we can all share in his learnings about this so-called “Sun” that he speaks of.
Also looking TO RUB IT INTO OUR FACES, Rachel Sokal sent through two ace shots of her riding trails in Mallorca. Pretty much the same as Todmorden right?
“Incapable of independent thought, this week I followed the masses to Mallorca for a week of sunny Spring road riding. Despite the fantastic scenery, wonderful weather and great roads I couldn’t help but find the whole thing – quite frankly – a little dull.
So come the weekend I persuaded the Other Half to hire mtbs and head off for a little trail discovery…”
“The trails here are a combination of concrete and dirt tracks and mega rocky and stepped walking paths and, despite the shoddy hire bikes with euro brakes that desperately needed a bleed, they were blumming awesome. And, to make it even better, we saw about five other people the whole day compared to the hoards on the best bits of road. A much better way to spend a biking holiday I reckon.” – Rachel Sokal.
And back to normal programming…
It wasn’t quite as warm and sunny over the British Isles, but it’s been slowly warming up here, and anything aside from torrential rain is considered “pretty good riding conditions”. We took advantage of said “pretty good riding conditions”, and spent a solid day of back-to-back riding over at the Llangdegla trail centre to put a few test bikes through their paces.
Calderdale’s Blonde Assasin, aka; Antony De Heveningham, has been rocking out on a new Norco Fluid test bike that you’ll be able to read about very soon on the website. It’s a smartly-spec’d £1100 full suspension bike, and Antony has just gotten back from a weekend of technical trail riding in the Peak District. He’s also been blasting down some local Hebden Tech as well, including a very greasy Blue Pig. Go Antony!
If there’s any better way to spend a weekend but mountain biking with mates, then we would seriously like to know. James Vincent got in the spirit, catching up with some old riding buddies to hit up one of the Seven Stanes trail centres. He also snapped this lovely shot while him and the crew were riding rings around the trees at Mabie near Dumfries. Swell!
Like many others out there, poor ol’ Oli Townsend’s winter riding momentum has been slowed down by an awful lurgy that’s sidelined him for about a month. But from the looks of these weekend riding snaps, a much healthier Oli has found the mojo again!
“The last time I wrote a weekend debrief, I foolishly mentioned that I’d finally got rid of a long lasting chest infection that I’d been suffering from. I jinxed myself and it promptly came back, so I’ve now had another month with very little biking involved. #sadface”
“Luckily this weekend I banished the lurgy and headed out on the road bike for a country roads and coffee shops ride, then saw the error of my ways and took to the hills with the NE’s finest mtb club, the Muddybums – Mountain biking in the North East of England for a tour of some of the UK’s best moorland singletrack.“
“The sun came out, we had the trails to ourselves (we met ten people all day, and two of those we saw twice), Willie the chief route finder managed to shoehorn some amazing techycamberedgreasy singletrack and we finished up at a cafe for yet more cake to top it off nicely.” – Oli Townsend.
While we attempt to fend for ourselves without the direction of our fearless leader, thankfully Hannah has stepped up to the plate to keep everyone moving in the right direction towards the (**ARGH SHIT!!**) deadline for the new issue. As the most responsible adult in the office, Hannah has assumed the role of Chipps, which was a no-brainer decision given that even though she has a bit more hair than Chipps, she also wears glasses. It turns out she is also capable of sheep-whispering, as she managed to rescue a lamb. Looks tasty Hannah!
And that ladies and gentle-folk, is the end of today’s Monday Morning Debrief Show. We hope you enjoyed, and trust you’ve also been recounting your weekends escapades around the office cooler/drinking fountain/water dispenser/coffee machine/fridge/vending machine/kettle/stovetop/AGA/campfire. To help ease the pain of being without our loyal captain, we’ve got this short little tribute video to remember his spirit and to keep us strong in times of need.
Enjoy and HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!
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Is that photo in mallorca the pilgrims steps trail? A bit “cheeky” if so, i understand there is a 3k euro fine if caught on there with bikes. Dont ask how i know ahem.
I was going to say it was legal…. And then I recalled we actually tool this photo when we had missed a turning and gone a little off route….So maybe it wasn’t…. But we didn’t get fined, so all is ok….
Great shots of the ride on the North East moors. Seeing 10 other people out there is a busy day! I went riding in the Peak District recently and it was a shock to see how many people could fit into the same bit of countryside.
By the way, Oli was doing that ride the wrong way round thus avoiding the sting in the tail climb at the end.
When we say North East Moors where are we actually talking about? (Looks great)
heebyjeeby, north east is a bit misleading as those bits of trail are in the Cheviots and almost in Scotland. The route is called middle route and is in the Northumberland Mountain Bike Guide.
Thanks thrunton thrasher.
Thought it looked more Northumberlandish…
Did some riding up there courtesy of HIgh Fell Events (Breamish Behemoth and Clennell Collussus)….an underrated part of the world IMO
I love Mallorca, I was there last summer doing mountain bike activities with Karakorum Adventure guys
http://www.karakorum-adventure.com/en/activities/mountain-bike-mallorca
But it seems that thas would be fine to do in North East moors too