AAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!! Where the heck did the last 8 weeks go?!
Apparently they got sucked into some kind of time-altering vortex, because I’ve just been informed by the powers that be that we’ve just entered deadline week for the next issue. Everybody please fasten your seatbelts, find something to hold onto, and brace yourself for re-entry – it’s going to be a rough ol’ ride!
But before we launch ourselves into the home stretch and start panicking, we’re going to take a few deep breaths, relax, and cast our thoughts to wonderful memories of the weekend. Memories of riding. Memories of beer. And memories of rain, and mud. And rain. Lots of rain. Like, heaps of rain. But when did that ever stop anyone from having a good time?
Andi’s been doing some back-to-back wheelsize testing at Farmer John’s on a couple of Production Privee Shan hardtails. Which do you think he preferred? The 27in or 29in version?
Some more testing was going on at Llangdegla, where we had several test bikes being put against the ropes while playing around with suspension, tyre pressure and cockpit settings. Gettin’ all scientific like.
Not everyone was out riding locally though. Chipps was finishing off his sunny escapade in Español, with some useful Vitamin D acquisition that saw him in relatively good stead before coming back to a very wet Yorkshire.
Meanwhile, Mark fully embraced the wetness with a hike up in the Lake District. No bikes, but a good display of #adventurewear to show everyone that yes, Mark does in fact, go on adventures. And how much rain has there been over the past few days? Check out Mark’s sweet slow-motion clip of this rad little waterfall in Ullswater;
Not to be outdone in the adventure stakes, Rossco grabbed his Kona Process and went for a slippy slidey slop-fest around the trails of Havoc Bike Park. According to Rossco, there was no one else out riding there, though we can hazard a guess as to why…
Looking for more proof as to how wet it’s been over our way? Check out this short video below from the first round of the 2017 Hope PMBA Enduro series held at the Gisburn trail centre over the weekend. When puddles become small lakes…
Further down in the Midlands, it wasn’t quite as damp. Rachel Sokal made the most of the weekend, squeezing in about as much riding as is possible without an extra pair of legs;
“This weekend was an eclectic mix of cycling genres which has left my body in a state of utter disrepair: Friday was spent getting high and wide (or at least trying to) with ALine MTB Coaching’s Gareth using parts of me that never normally move, then on Saturday I spent far longer than anyone ever should on the rollers on a road bike eking out every last bit of energy*; and with what was left, on Sunday I took myself off to the Leisure Lakes bike demo at Cannock Chase where some fancy XC and CX bikes did very nasty things to me by wanting to be ridden faster and harder than I was able. Now for a short morning snooze and some more caffeine….
*and we can all rest easy as there is no photographic evidence of this.”
Back up Norf, James Vincent and Co. threw down an epic ride in the Lake District over Sticks Pass to access some rugged and rocky singletrack. Sounds like it was windy enough to take a parachute, and wet enough to have taken a rubber dinghy too!
Rob got a new iPhone 7 Plus, so he spent the weekend taking photos of ale. In a warm pub with a fire.
Tom Nash also spent the weekend indoors getting his rig cleaned and dialled in for the Tweed Love Vallelujah event this weekend in Peebles. Running over both Saturday and Sunday, Vallelujah will see multiple stages held across a new course of both handcut and natural singletrack, though competitors have been informed they may be in for a few surprises…
I also managed to get out for a solid day of riding in Llangdegla over the weekend, but the only photos I snapped were of mud, grit and grey skies. So instead of boring you with such misery, here’s a snap from earlier in the week. It was taken during a late-afternoon razz around Calder Valley, when the temperature clocked about 13°C, which is quite possibly the warmest day of the entire winter season. Good views too!
So that’s our Monday Morning Debrief from the weekend that was. Normally I’d slot in a video here from last week’s Fresh Goods Friday Live, but we didn’t do that video because we were busy shooting test bikes with zombies. You’ll find out soon enough…
So in lieu of an FGF video, here’s a clip of an enormous chicken;
