Mountain biking smells aren’t just of damp shoes and disappointment. There’s joy to be found in the company of a good trail nose. Words by Chipps, pho …

By chipps

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In Praise of Petrichor

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It has a name! The smell I have drawn deep into my lungs since my first youthful rides and which has kept me company through the intervening Winters, thank you.

Early 90s MTBing smells for me were GT85, cold(!) pine forests, strangely long cigarettes, petrol and damp/mouldy/sweaty track mitts.

It has a name!

the chemical responsible is called Geosmin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosmin

Yep. GT85 is what mountain biking smells of.