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Brace for impact,I’ve actually been on a bike ride 🙂
Sunny southern Spain,this year I’ve really felt the heat, the theory is you go out in the mornings but TBH if you’ve dogs and your getting up at 2-3am to let the have a wander in the garden I find after a week your motivation goes down and your coffee consumption up.
Anyway this was an evening ride of a few hours and it was getting dark on the return.
I do like a good night ride here but i think the general Spanish consensus is that the campo is dangerous after dark(speeding/drink-drive)and so it’s not something I’d recommend.
Why my mountain bike gets little use locally. Gravel territory.
Banged out a quick 745m of climbing this morning on what I call the 'Two Trigs Loop,' putting me over the calendar Everest for July; miles of moorland singletrack that's running as well as I've seen it in the four years I've been living here.
Finally the rain has stopped and we awoke to warm sunny weather again
Although we have lift passes you still need to pay per lift 5CHF per bike which could run expensive if you want to use the lift system.
Decided on a few routes for the day. One that utilised a lift and the rest would involve some climbing.
Trails were shared but not a problem on the first few as its mostly steps so not many walkers.
Swapped valley sides for the next climb and onto a bike track which varied from very good at the top to a bit boring berms at the bottom
Decided to climb up the valley after lunch which was a fire road climb and then into some sweet descents all the way back.
Due to the amount of rain that had been put down over the last couple of days we had a couple of wades where mountain streams crossed the trails. All part of the fun
Cycling tan coming along nicely...
Last day of riding in Engelberg and with a forcast of bad weather later we decided to take the plunge and buy the bike lift tickets to get up high early. 30 CHF and 6 tickets saw us on the first lift up the mountain.
A short pedal and another lift saw us at the top ready to drop down into the fist trail of the day.
Managed to keep up high most of the day before the final blast to the valley floor.
Had a great time biking and hiking here but have to say its the most expensive place in Switzerland we have ever been. Everything from the campsite to the lifts is geared up to take money from you with add ons.
Not quite as dramatic as Tracey's 😉 Still a lovely ride along the Wye (which does not have much water in it) to and from the Gym. It's so good to be able to ride rather than drive. I try and leave the ebike motor off where I can but it's still 25km return with 470m of climbing, so I'm also glad I have it. Especially on the way home!
Tuesday night group ride last night. Making the most of current conditions being very un-Scottish. Dumyat summit, Stirlingshire, then the back 'Alpine' descent before crossing the tourist path to continue descending Witches Craig. A few laps of the woods to finish.
Perfect 😎
Stunning photos @a11y 👌
I've got 'The Land Between' (500km gravel event / ITT) coming up in 5 weeks, and apart from a couple of big-ish rides back in Feb/March, have very little in the way of long rides in my legs ... So, time to do something about it!
73km / 1300m mixed ride on the rigid HT last night was a reasonable starter ... Only got to do that another 7x, so that'll be a piece of p*ss!
Gorgeous evening for it though ...
Ride to Darwen Tower and surrounding moors last night. Manually flew the drone to get better images of the tower
I finally found a house I can afford on the posh side of Sheffield. No garage though.
Took today off to enjoy the bone-dry trails at Tollymore and Donard. Rode one feature that I’ve avoided (out of fear) since I fell disastrously on it about 3 years ago! And rode a new-to-me black trail. So im on a high!
Social ride around our local reservoir. At least £750 worth of bikes in our line up, if our partners ask 😉
Riding home last night and I felt something brushing against my leg…
That will be the rapidly escaping air then!
Annoying as it was going to be changed this weekend anyway.
This morning’s blast in the woods made up for it. First half hour in darkness sprinting familiar trails made new again with a head torch. 
I headed out for my local loop around Dale's Wood, Plean Park and Torwood last night. Before I'd even manage 100 metres down the first trail my low glucose alarm was ringing. I am not getting on well with this new insulin and new injection regime I've been prescribed. Not well at all.
Anyway, I stopped and sat on a tree stump like some sugar deprived Ogre / Oompaloompa love child and stuffed myself full of glucose tablets till my sugars started creeping up again. Then I continued down the trail and got maybe 500 metres before my alarm went off again. I'm really not liking this new insulin.
So I gave up and headed for home. Back on the wee country road I realised I was very close to a shortcut that would quickly take me down to the old Denovan church and an easy spin along the river Carron to my house. I haven't been down that old track in at least a decade. I should have been more cautious on seeing that the farmer has blocked the access gate (to stop manky fly tippers), but my excuse is that my sugars were still low and I wasn't thinking straight.
It was a tad overgrown to begin with and just got worse the deeper in I went...
Oooh, the blood. There was so much blood.
I'm sitting here now in my office after a 15 minute Voi bike ride into work this morning and I'm watching my blood sugar levels plummet. Either my pancreas has spontaneously started producing insulin again after 30+ years, or the doctor was talking shite when he said the new stuff was exactly the same as the old one that's been discontinued. I'll get it balanced in the end, but till then people around me will have to cope with an even grumpier than usual Beagleboy. This could get messy, but not as messy as last night....oooh, the blood....
Arrived in Grindelwald yesterday on the 8th leg of our trip.
Did some enquiries at the local bike shops as to what trails were in the area and its more of ride what you want but watch out for walkers. Saw a couple of trails on Trailforks so put a route together to take them in and utilised some hiking trails to join everything up. Unfortunately that meant we had a 12 mile climb and just under 1500 mtrs to get to the start of the first descent but it was worth it.
Had a good look on the climbs and put together tomorrow's ride from that.
Great place but not really geared up for mtbing. All part of the adventures
This week I did a loop around the northern edge of Hexhamshire common, from Whitley Chapel across to Allendale Town via High Eshells:
then back across via Greenrigg Moor (with clear views across to Deadwater Fell, the Cheviots and Simonside):
down Dipton Burn, followed by a loop through Dipton Wood and March Burn:
then finally back to Whitley Chapel along the bridleway at the bottom edge of Slayle Forest and the byway that drops down to Devils Water. Nice ride in good weather. Bone dry in many places, though the burns still had running water.
Yesterday, I had a much better ride than the previous night. I tweaked my insulin regime again, so that when I left the house my sugars were a bit higher than I'd like but it all worked out well with the exercise bringing me quickly back down into my target zone. More importantly, I went out with an agenda!
My heads not been in a great place for a while and I'm struggling to enjoy riding my bike. I'm in my mid fifties and overweight. Cycling is the only proper exercise I get and it's become a chore. I was ready to sit on the sofa last night but at the last minute convinced myself to go out on the bike for a 2nd night in a row. This time though I went out without the pressure that I needed to do a certain amount of km's or my heart rate needed to hit a particular zone. I just went out for a wee spin down three or four of my favourite trails in Chasefield woods. When I got to the bottom of the last one, rather than thinking that I should do another loop to get the km's in and make it worthwhile, I just pointed the bike home and was back in time for the Tour highlights on C5. I was barely out the house for an hour and in no way was it a remotely worthwhile workout, but it was one of the nicest rides I've done in a long while.
I'm actually swithering about giving Strava a rest. I like it as a social media thing, as I can see what my cycling buddies are up to, but it's making me feel bad about myself as I yet again fail to hit any of my targets! Yeah, I think I'm going to only use it on big rides and away days. If anyone here knows and follows me on Strava, I'm not dead yet, just resting! 😎
Today we planned a ride up to the col. All zig zags and 1000m climbing over 6.5 miles and then straightlinedish the foot paths back to the campsite. You can ride foot paths here but give way to walkers
First path stopped for a woman walking up. She stopped and refused to move so after asking nicely went of piste round her. Her face said it all. Halfway back had to drop in to a trail via steps. Woman saw us and sat down on them, asked politely but wouldn't move so off piste again. Rest of walkers were brilliant all the way down with claps and cheers.
Just shows how some people are even without red socks.
This place is stunning but not geared up for mountain bikes
Tomorrow we move on to Verbier
Few pics from a great ride
Into our 9th leg of our trip and cant think of a better place to finish it in than Verbier. One of my favourite places to ride as the area is so vast and varied. It has so much to offer for every level of rider
Met up with some old friends here last night for beers and a chin wag.
Sun was out as we hit the trails and afrer 34 miles and 4400 m of descent we called it a day.
We move on to the French Alps tomorrow to continue our adventure
First day of riding in Samoens today and it was a hot one. They closed the bubble lift at 1.45 as it was too hot to be in them.
A change of rear brake pads on the 3rd run down meant we missed the timing by 5 mins. So opted for drinks instead
When we rode here a couple of years ago there were roots every where and no let up.
Seems to be even more roots now which adds to the fun. Just under 3000 mtrs of descent today so beers earned 🍺
Photos of the commute this week.
My Dad's been in hospital this week, so riding time has taken a hit. Managed a 40km XC ride last night which was a great reset.
Hardtail is out until I get the dropper fixed, so more miles on the digger. Calder valley Greenway, spen valley way, across Bradford to the Leeds-Liverpool and down that to Leeds. 
Coed Y Brenin last night, great! 
South downs around Jevington last night. Views to die for.
Limiting myself to one tub of berries per trip so the foraging doesn't get in the way of the biking. Tipped over 14,000m of climbing this month on today's ride, mainly local spins, the biggest month I've had since I started using a tracking app in 2019.
Todays plan was to do the 2025 EDR route. Once again the bubble lifts were going to be closed at 1.45 due to the heat but we set off in good spirits and hit the first stages. Started going wrong when we had over a hour wait at one lift as the lift guy was having a bad day and other riders were winding him up.
Ended up pedaling and doing one of the stages twice as it was so good.
Didn't manage to complete it fully as we had to miss out one stage due to the lift timings and it was a big day out
Going to try and add it into tomorrow's route
Just a few from another very warm week.
And then on probably the hottest day I tried out the new pump track near me. Bloomin' hard work, but impressed some youngsters ("You're HOW old??)
On holidays this week: all the family were at Glentress on Wednesday doing different things, me and the eldest had an Inners uplift today. We’re all back at Glentress tomorrow (but it’s not all been mtb as we had a few days chilling at Peebles Hydro).
First outing of the year on the green machine.
And then an early shower...
These dry and dusty trails are amazing until they're not.
Yeeeouch. I can imagine how that shower felt. Hope it's nothing nastier than a bit of crispy bacon.
Okay, it wasn't quite a mid-week ride, but I had a proper good day out on Sunday. I rode out from my house and climbed the 8km country road up to Carron Valley reservoir. It was really pleasant to see that there were more bikes than cars on the road! I then took the forestry track following the edge of the reservoir to Todholes farm at the western end and from there I climbed up into the Gargunnock hills, following the wind farm tracks towards the 490m peak of Carleatheran.
The views looking down to Flanders Moss and into the Trossachs are absolutely splendid up here. Not long after I took this shot I had to leave the gravel track and set out into the peat moorland towards the cairn at Carleatheran, and that's when things get a bit tricky. Following the faint quad tracks and even fainter singletrack through the boggy, tussocky moorland can be quite a challenge. No phone signal, but a paper map that doesn't really show the gamekeeper tracks I was following, and a breadcrumb trail on my GPS from a previous ride (about 20yrs ago), saw me through the worst of it. The two Buzzards slowly circling overhead for the entire time I was up there also gave me an extra wee boost. For all it was tricky to navigate, and heavy going through the long grass and heather, it was predominantly downhill from Carleatheran to Cambusbarron and the 10km road ride home. In all, 52km of riding with around 1000m overall ascent. It's been a long time since I've challenged myself like this and there were a few moments where I was worried that I'd bitten off more than I could chew, but a wise little old lady recently told me to focus on the things I can still do, rather than the things I can't, and this was one of those things I can still do.
This old tree at the top of the final descent down to Cambusbarron summed up my day. Battered and broken but still giving it everything it's got.
Beagy
First ride in a LONG time. Halfway cafe stop.
Rode from home over the peat moors via the slabs at Great Hill last night. 24 mile loop.
Day off yesterday and have some rides marked ‘summer only’. Why not, thunk I, and did one around Hampshire. Lots of very sandy tracks. Lots of overgrown tracks. The section that is a bog 11 months of the year was dry and solid.
And I got soaked by this weird water falling from the sky!
That looks like it's been lowered.
