a day in the dales

Swaledale was the chosen dale of all dales this time. I must admit, I love this place, load sof character, great villages, top pubs, real ale and for me a lot of childhood memories of holidays of old.

So, this ride, I decided was to commence from Reeth which is about 30 mins from the A1. I parked up in the centre of the village on the cobbled car park and paid my due's into the honesty box. Whilst pulling the various bits of bike from my car another mountain bikers taxi pulled up beside me and out got a father and son combination. They had travelled from Lincolnshire and were staying in the area and getting in as much mtb'ing as possible...ideal!

This was a cold morning and I was glad to set off to get the blood circulating and some warmth regained. Leaving the village on a fast tarmac descent I was already looking forward to my flask of tea and a lump of cake on my return to the car. That, I hoped, was to be sometime away as I had a days riding to do in this wonderful part of the country.

I followed the tarmac to Grinton where I turned off the 'main' road and eventually picked up a bridleway which was to lead me adjacent to the River Swale. The route along the Swale was mainly bridleway and good bridleway at that with a few bits of road mixed in. The last stretch of bridleway takes you very close to the Swale so much so that the latest heavy rainfalls had caused the river to spill over onto the track. Looking along the track as far as I could see, which was a long way, the end was nowhere in sight. The water was deep and I didn’t particularly fancy riding it this early on in a ride. Luckily there was a bit of a makeshift path to the side which I managed to tentatively wobble my way along using the bike as a walking stick.



Leaving the bridleways behind for a short while I made my way by road into Gunnerside village before taking a minor road out and up onto the side of Gunnerside pasture. This was the start of the long climb. I soon got myself back onto a bridleway which immediately doubled back on itself and then turn north to start taking me up into Gunnerside Gill. The climb was good, not too steep but nice and long. Somewhere near the top I decided it was time for pasty and chocolate and with that in mind i found myself a seat where I could take in the amazing views.



Refuelled and eager to continue I carried on up the last section of uphill and the higher I climbed to more icicles I spotted dangling at the side of the track. Everything levelled out for a short while until I started to descend in to the main site of Gunnerside Gill where some of the mining remains still stand. The downhill was good and fast and admittedly a little worrying due to the amount of frozen water covering the path. A few sideways moments and trying not to use too much brake I got myself safely to the bottom.






The climb back out from the Gill starts with a very narrow singletrack which immediately climbs steeply before again descending back to the Gill for a water crossing minus bridge. Once again, using my bike as a walking stick I picked my way across the Gill. Another very narrow singletrack climbed and headed me further north and then back on myself to pick up the main bridleway on top of Friarfold Moor.

I remembered this path from many years ago when I came here during my student years and I had a sneaking feeling that a good downhill was in wait at the other side of the moor. The land up here is very barren and bleak, not a place to have bike mechanicals! I was heading down again and the path headed off into the distance as far as I could see. With smile firmly in place I freewheeled as fast as I dared downhill at the side of Old Gang Beck. The freezing air was doing fine job of numbing my knees and chin but this was not to dampen what was an amazing downhill...I will definitely be back to visit this one again.







Seeing tarmac again, i had a short climb up hill to the start of the next bridleway. Not too easy to find which was the correct path I slowly inched my way forward, checked the map and checked again I decided to descend onto what I believed to be my chosen path. Then disaster struck, my chain snapped. Not too upset as I knew I had put a powerlink in my Camelbak not too long ago, so I set to work. But, my powerlink was doing a fantastic job of hiding, it was not to be found anywhere. Now getting seriously cold as the weather was starting to change I decided, whilst chomping through a sausage roll that I would do a quick fix and shorten the chain. This done, but deciding this was not the best chain repair I had ever achieved and after consulting OS once again I opted for the road option back to Reeth.

It was a shame, but it just means I will have to return sometime soon to complete the full ride. All in all I covered approximately 33km and had a great time.

One last thing to do before driving home....cup of tea and cake...only the tea I left in my Dwain Dibbley flask in my car had gone stone cold...how disappointing!

what better way to start...

....my 1 week holiday than with a Bad Brains trip over to Llandegla trail centre in Wales.

To say we were heading to Wales, the start time for this trip was most respectable. In fact my 18 month old son made sure I was up with plenty of time to check, check and recheck I had all my kit with me.

I was to be privileged with the company of Fat Lad on this very trip to Wales so off I went as quick as I could to meet with a promise of good old British bacon butties and a cup of tea. There’s no better way of getting the cycling body prepped for action and with a little arm twisting I was enticed into having a second butty and more slurps of tea. Full of food and excitement of riding somewhere new we decided to load the car get ourselves on our way.

With two dismantled bikes and enough cycling gear to complete the Trans Wales we headed off West to our meeting point. The 2hr car journey passed by as if it wasn’t even trying to make us feel the discomfort of long distance travelling and soon we were crawling round the car park looking for a suitable spot to park up. With the lower car park full of cars and riders tweaking their bikes and making last minute pre ride checks we made our way up to the additional parking where we found Glen and Lynn and a few other Bad Brainers.

This was Al’s and my first outing at Llandegla and the countless sightings of body armour wasn’t doing anything for my overworked imagination of what I was going to find here. Is anyone riding XC?? Thankfully, when the ‘all I can see is downhillers’ vision had cleared I recognised some Bad Brains faces riding their usual choice of bike sans armour.

Bike rebuilt, lid on, Camelbak packed and strapped into position we freewheeled down to the trail centre to meet up with the rest of our group. Good turnout. Without counting there must have been around a dozen of us. And with groups photos taken we headed off onto the start of the track.

The initial part of the trail is a wide track which steadily climbs out of the trail centre for a good stretch and eventually brings you to the first of the downhill sections. Now, Llandegla knows how to do berms! These were big and immense fun to ride.

After an extended stop due a shoe stuck to spd pedal incident we continued on with the fast flowing singletrack. Now, if I were to try and describe the extent of this ride I think I would get entirely lost and meet myself coming backward a few times. So, all I can try and do is sum it up as best I can, here goes...

- Big grin
- Berms
- Switchbacks
- Jumps
- Table tops
- Short climbs
- Long downhills
- Rocks
- Drop off’s
- North shore
- Fun black sections
- Front wheel landing!
- ‘should have put my seat down’ moments
- Thrown off line
- Heavy braking

We rode a couple of the sections twice and maybe three times, it really was worth the climbs to get back to the start. Each run building the confidence to go just that bit quicker and to ride the jumps just that little bit smoother.

Eventually, after lots of fantastic riding the trail was nearing the end and finally we landed back at the trail centre. Time for tea accompanied by a huge helping of a huge cake brought by Chip. If there’s ever a time for sneaking your own cake in to a cafe this is not the cake to do it with! With a diameter close to the size of a car wheel and a thickness that none of my knives at home would make it through this will now be my immediate vision whenever anyone mentions ‘cake’.

A cracking day out and a great start to my weeks holiday. I will definitely be revisiting at some point.

I will add links to pictures and videos as and when they are available as I didn’t take any of my own.

new old winter bike

I've decided to build myself a winter bike so that I can tuck the Superlight up for the winter in its cosy warm bed to get plenty of rest for next season.

I must say, I am finding I am having to work bloody quick on this project as it feels like winter is upon us already. Mince pies and sprouts at the ready...

The idea is to build using no new parts, so ebay has been seeing some action from this corner of its empire

what I have so far:
- trek fuel 90 frame (this is my old frame which I used before the superlight)
- Easton EA50 stem (going to put this on the Superlight and swap the bontrager stem back)
- XT shifters
- XT rear derailleur (swap from Superlight)
- chain (swap from Superlight)
- LX Cassette (swap from Superlight)
- front wheel, Mavic XM719 deore hub
- Selle Italia Flite seat, put this on the superlight

still a fair few bits to get but enjoying looking at the moment, hopefully have this up and running very soon...

23.10 update

now have a set of XT disc brakes, bargain from ebay.

Looking forward to getting this built up now, maybe even put my manitou black forks back on this bike to save the expense of new forks as I know what i am like when i get spending...this little lot aint going to be cheap....or 'this little lot will only be cheap love' if talking to the Mrs!

has it been that long...?

...didn't realise it was that long ago when i last updated on here. Well, i'm still riding lots but seems like life has got a whole lot busier for some reason! Moving house, jobs to do on new house, designing a shed (yes really!) and work all seem to be eating a lot of my time up. But the bike does manage to get out now and again...and thankfully takes me with it.

In between my busy diary I seem to be getting plagued with much more bugs, colds and illnesses these days. Not sure if it is my son who kindly brings them home from nursery for me or my 32 year old immune system is not what it used to be??

Anyway, I'll stop the moaning now and promise to get out on the bike a bit more than I have been and report back here more often...

secret recipe

Just got back from a fantastic and fast ride out from home. I managed to cover 36km in just less than 2hrs and I felt great, I could of had more I'm sure and I'm certain it was my pasta concoction I knocked up for tea.

I knew all day at work that for some reason I was on for a bigger than usual Tuesday night ride, there was just something niggling all day and I was eager to get out on the bike.

My idea was to get home then straight out on the bike. So home it was, changed and banana consumed...then...this is where the plan changed, I decided to spend more time with my son and have my tea first. The wife already tucking into her culinary delights left me stranded in the kitchen looking for possible ingredients. A pasta dish it was to be, laden with veg and (this is what I believe to be the secret and trail busting ingredient) chorizo sausage...oh it was a delight!! Anyway, as simple as that, and all topped off with a chilli tomato sauce. It worked for me anyway!

The route:> Ackworth > Wragby > Haw Park Wood > Old Royston > Newmillerdam > Secker Wood > Newmillerdam again > Walton > Crofton > Ackworth

Mountain Mayhem 08

Well, I am struggling to find time to write up on this amazing event due to house move, family commitments, work, continual biking, etc, etc

so in the meantime have a read up on what went on at Big Al's blog, a very well written report which truly captures the moment...the 24hr long moment!

Also, some excellent photo's to be found here.

10 Under the Ben - Sat 31st May 08

Have bike, have wife, have kid…we’re off!

Following the arduous but increasingly view rewarding journey north we finally got to Fort William around tea time on the Friday. With a quick check in at the guest house we were reluctantly back in the car for a quick 5 mile trip to the Nevis Range where the 10 Under the Ben event village had been assembled. Surprisingly when we arrived it was fairly quiet so we promptly made our way up to the Nevis Range centre at the top of the gondola ride where registration was taking place.

Only at this point I think I realised what I had let myself in for, when listening to other riders it seemed everyone else was taking part in a team….oh how sensible they are, but where’s the fun in that? Now, accepting this as the point of no return, I gave my name in exchange for an electronic ankle tag.

So, after a very quick look around at the top Kay, Oliver and me set off on our journey downwards back to the event village. Deciding there wasn’t a lot happening at this point we made our way back to base camp.

By this point, Caroline, my third support crew member (3 – Kay, Oliver, Caroline) had made her way down from Ullapool to join us for a huge pasta tea. Huge is probably not the word, in fact mammoth with lots left over is probably more apt. Got slightly carried away with the Fussili !!
Friday night saw me have the best nights sleep in months and I woke up extremely refreshed and full of adrenalin for today’s race. Two bowls of porridge for breakfast and I’m now full of a mixture of adrenalin and Scottish oats.

We got to the event village for just gone 8.00am and as it happens we got a really good car parking spot right next to the course which turned out this was going to be my support / rest area.

Dressed in my racing attire (sorry folks there was a bit of Lycra going on) I ambled over to the compulsory race briefing, not sure why it was compulsory as they never told us anything new from what I had read in the event programme. Back at the car I got myself together, dressed, wheels on, seat in, water on board, checked seat height, checked I had my water, checked I was dressed! And I was ready for the off.

The start area was now very busy, so after a last toilet check I get myself nicely positioned somewhere near the front of the pack which presented a few photo opportunities for my support team.

After a fumbled count down we were off, to a very slow pace as riders sorted themselves out and gradually got both feet clipped in and pedalling. The pre race lap must have been around 3 miles which soon had us coming back through the transition area and off to start the first official lap.
I made good pace round the first lap completing it in around 1hr 5mins and after a very short stop and another photo I set off for lap 2.

I found it hard to pace myself against other riders as there were riders of all abilities and also team riders who were going all out on their laps. So keeping my head down I plodded along at what I thought was a sensible pace.

Lap 2 seemed to be quickly over and after a short rest I was away on lap 3. Things were going well! By this point the sun was getting very hot and the white stone tracks were throwing heat back at me from every direction. The good weather meant the tracks were on the whole very dry and fast. In terms of mountain biking, the whole of the course was fantastic and consisted of a bit of everything from rocks, roots, drops, berms, fast downhills, river crossings, boardwalks and plenty of other things to choose from. To have this on my doorstep would be good!

Now, when it comes to punctures, I have never seen so many people with tyre lever in one hand and a semi inflated tube in the other in one day. I kept wondering when it was to be my turn, surely these rocks were not going to let me get away with 10 hours of riding at full psi? I must have had someone looking out for me on Saturday because smooth rolling with no technical issues was the order of the day for me.

Nearing the end of lap 3 I decided now was the time to take a longer rest before setting off once more and for some unbeknown reason to me I made the fatal mistake again (I didn’t learn from the Merida in Wales) of eating too much. After a good rest in the shade and now full of bananas, cereal bars, sandwich and energy gel I sumped back onto my bike for yet another hour plus in the saddle. Lap 4 wasn’t good, it hurt and I felt sick…I seriously thought this was going to be my bail out point, how could I do anymore feeling like this. Granny ring on all the hills to conserve energy I finally made it round. Back to my support team who amazingly told me I looked better than I did when I came in off lap 3! Time for a drink, change of plasters on the hands to protect the blisters, banana and that was it this time, no gourmet pit stop to be had.

Reluctantly but at the same time willingly I lifted myself onto my bike once more. Lap was good! Felt loads better, picked my pace up slightly and got round another time. Some of the sections, in fact, one in particular which was a bloody steep short climb had me taking the bike for a walk but I figured better to walk a small bit and feel better for the rest of the ride. I nearly did myself a mischief at the start of lap 5, a very steep drop with a few steps plus tiredness equalling complete lack of concentration had me entangling my plums in my handlebars! This I decided was also to be walked on my next lap.

My personal target, for whatever reason, was to do 6 laps, and so with that in mind off I trundled for the last time into Scottish mountain biking bliss. In fact, lap 6 felt great, it was fast, my legs felt good, the hills seemed a bit easier again and even the blisters were not hurting as much. Inner strength, second wind, whatever I were to call it, it got me round and quickly. But, truth be told, I was glad to see the finish line for the last time and have my end of race photo taken.

Electronic tag handed back, miniature bottle of Whiskey received and a check of my times, I decided this was now time to go home.

All in all a fantastic event. Carloline did ask, about 10 mins after finishing, if I would do it again? Still not given her an answer, but the answer would be a definite yes. I can’t wait.
A huge thanks to Kay, Oliver and Caroline for supporting me on the day, I could not have done it without them.

And, to top it off, a fantastic amount of sponsor money raised for the Thembalitsha organisation.

All round big smiles

Now looking forward to Mountain Mayhem in a couple of weeks…

Final ride stats

6 laps - (approx 63 miles including pre race lap)

ride time (including stops): 9hrs 44mins

in the senior solo male category i finished 45th out of 88

less than a week to go...

Saturday 31st May will see me going round and round in circles up in Scotland, it's the 10 under the Ben race at Fort William.

Trainings going well

Feeling the fittest I have felt in a long time

Been training at a high intensity with the idea that on the day I should be able to go for longer at a lower pace...just got to remember to go at a lower pace!

Settled in on the Superlight now, mind you i think the merida in wales helped a lot with that!

Energy gels and drinks a plenty purchased

new cycling shorts (extra padding!) bought

still to get disc brake pads and spare tubes

need to start eatin lots of pasta!

and overall, really looking forward to it in a strange 'I can't wait to go to Scotland and completely knacker my entire body' kind of way

again and again...oh...and again

for yesterdays ride I decided to give myself a taste of what is to be at 10 under the Ben at the end of this month. 10 under the Ben (for those who dont know) is a mtb race in the foothills of Ben Nevis, its a 10 mile course and you have 10 hours to complete as many laps as you can or want to! I have entered this as a solo rider and with me will be the family to give me support, food and drink.

So, Saturdays ride...

the route: home - Low Ackworth - Rogerthorpe - Upton - Hemsworth Bypass - Home (10.5 miles)

terrain: mix of off road and tarmac (I used the tarmac to really push myself and maintain a high pace)

conditions: warm, slight breeze (which was behind on the homeward stretch!), muddy tracks

laps: 3

total distance: 31.5 miles

lap time: 45 minutes

overall, felt good after doing this, the hardest thing I found (and this is the reason why I decided to do some laps) was the mental obstacle of doing the same tracks over and over, but i need to get used to this for the end of the month. Physically I could have carried on, which is good news as on the day I think the atmosphere will hopefully carry me round also and take away the monotony of lap after lap

my first Merida - Builth Wells Spring Marathon

“flippin hec’ – that were hard!”

Saturday 12th April

I arrived in Builth Wells, after a marathon of a drive, at around 1pm which saw me clear to getting a good camping spot tucked away in a quiet corner of the campground. By the time I had all the bits to my tent strewn around the place and the outer tent blowing around like an oversized empty crisp packet the camp ground was starting to fill up rather rapidly.

After a very quick tent building episode (to try and avoid the rain from the ever darkening clouds!) I took a walk over to the event village to see what was happening. A mix of trade stands, registration, food bar and general boggyness under foot. The remainder of Saturday was fairly relaxed (reading, listening to music, drinking tea) and I met up with Glen and Dasnut from Bad Brains.

That evening we watched the ELBNO race get under way just before 8 and I think I hit the sleeping bag and roll mat combo at around 10.

Sunday 13th April

It rained heavily through the night that could mean only one thing; it was going to be wet and muddy today!!

The marathon was due to start at 10.30 so I made my way to the start area just after 10. Myself and the other Bad Brainer’s lined up together for the start, we positioned ourselves fairly close to the front which incidently was to be the only point of the ride where I would be near to the front!

We were off, a mass of mtb’ers pedalling away through the town of Builth Wells and less than a minute in, the pace car was gone which I am sure was closely followed by a number of Elite riders. Glen started showing good pace early on and I decided to let him go on ahead and suss out the route! ;) I made good pace up the first hill which was on tarmac, finding it hard to ease off if other bikes were passing. “pace myself” I kept saying “save the legs”.

The first feed station was around 25km into the ride, just before this little tent of energy there was a wooded section which on map looked good but in reality and in thick ankle deep mud was in fact a bloody nightmare! A combination of mud, slippy tree routes and riders bunching up made for a very tricky section.

Shortly after the first feed station, where I ate a banana at light speed and filled up my Camelbak reservoir, we were back into another uphill tarmac section followed quickly by up hill off road. There certainly seemed to be more up hills on this ride than downhills! Somewhere around this point a fellow biker asked me how to get rid of cramp which he was suffering in both legs, I told him about the old Salt n Vinegar trick which I had learnt from numerous people and offered him the only bag I was carrying. Not long after consuming these on the move, and I had pulled away a bit now, I heard a great ‘yelp’ from behind and turned to see the Salt n Vinegar man going down like a sack of ….!! Maybe the crisps idea was not the best advice after all?! He wasn’t the last I saw suffering the effects of cramp that day.

We were fast (or probably slowly) approaching the 40km mark at which we knew there was a hell of a hill to climb. No sooner had we remembered this, we found ourselves dropping into granny ring yet again for another long drag. I think this ride is the only ride I have done where most of it has been in my granny ring!! We made it to the top where a photographer was waiting to take a pic of the pain in our faces, I’m sure he must have succeeded with me.

After an awesome downhill the choice to take the route for the 50km race was presented to us. Dasnut, who I had been riding with for a while decided this was to be his chosen path back to Builth. I quickly convinced myself that I would carry on and conquer the 65km, especially now I had come this far. Shortly after saying our goodbye’s I started to wonder if I had made the right choice especially now that the heavens decided to open. Huddled amongst a crowd of bikers under a gazebo in the middle of nowhere I found myself at feed station number 2. This time, I could hold back from stuffing my face with biscuits and crisps and the occasional banana. I set off in the rain, some more tarmac and then again off road into what turned out to be, for me, the hardest climb of the ride. A climb so long and with so many false horizons, this turned into a challenge of mind over matter as well as fitness. I eventually got to the top of what I thought was the last hill of the ride.

On the decent, which was grin-tastic again, I met up with a welsh bloke who just happened to be similar pace to me. So, not through discussion, we ended up riding the remainder of the ride together. The hill which I thought was the last, was indeed not. We were met by a marshal who had a smug look about him and proceeded to inform us that we could carry on back on the road which would be 6 miles back to Builth Wells or continue with the marked course up another huge hill for a 7 mile trip back to the finish. At this point my heart sank, thinking I had used up all my energy and that I would most certainly die if I went up this last hill. But…my new welsh friend somehow gave me the motivation and encouragement to do it and go for the 7 mile with huge hill option…so that we did. And, amazingly, I got my second (or maybe this was my third!?) wind from somewhere and started feeling good (ish!) again. The climb was hard, a fair amount of walking but the constant chatting made it all the better.

The final off road downhill was crazy, basically a very steep mud chute, that I rode completely out of control. Concentration at this point was minimal. A short tarmac and path section threw me into the winding finishing slalom through the farm yard and to the inflatable finish line. A finishers T-shirt was shoved into my hand and I made my way wearily back to my tent. 6hrs 25minutes of riding got me round this marathon, I was pleased just to get round, never mind what time I achieved.

There is something quite addictive about this kind of riding, although when doing it I’m sure I asked myself numerous times ‘why’ and probably told myself not to do this ever again, but worryingly I am looking forward to the next one….

I'm off...

off to Wales. My first Merida is upon me and I can't wait. Driving down to Builth Wells today, hoping to be there early afternoon to get my tent up and waterproofed! All my kit is laid out ready to be packed, anyone would think I was going away for a week or two! And I'm so worried I am going to forget something...I can see double and triple checks happening.

The bike is clean and well oiled, new brake pads, puncture fixed and air pressures set...

blimey...I thought i was just going for a bike ride, where has all this extra pressure come from?!

With the pressure comes excitement, I slept like a kid on Christmas Eve last night...says it all really

anyhow, its early and theres a lot to do.............now where did I put those tent pegs?

...good news...bad news...

good news - i now have new bike, off for the first ride on it tonight, somewhere local, something not too demanding just so I can get used to it.

bad news - still coughing like a an ex-miner, i just can't shake this bloody thing off. I have managed to get a couple of turbo trainer sessions in but not sure if they made me feel and better or in fact worse?!

off for some food and a ride on me shiny new bike

the dreaded...

...'man-flu' has struck at a pain in the arse time of the year. Not rode my bike, or the been on the turbo trainer for that matter, since Monday, its now Friday and I am feeling anxious to get back on the bike. I just know that if I do any training at all then it may make the symptoms even worse and when you are talking 'man-flu' that could end up very serious indeed!!

So a day of bed, coughing and spluttering, fresh orange juice, loads of water and a heavy dose of the latest mountain biking magazines it will have to be for me.

it's happening!

the santa cruz will be in on Thursday this week, Anodized Blue, superb!! So, hopefully up and running with it by early next week....

19 days to go...

my first Merida is nearly upon me. Builth Wells April 13th and I can't wait.

The training is going well, I'm noticing a definate increase of speed and stamina which has to be good. I am getting in a good mix of on the bike time and turbo trainer sessions (and family time of course!!). The bike itself is another matter...

I have had my eye on a Santa Cruz Superlight frame for some time now and last week I finally took the plunge and ordered one (via Stif bikes in Leeds). I never realised how weak I was at choosing colours, been a designer I thought it would have helped, but not in this case! After many a minute of deliberation I opted for the Anodized Slate, then after many more minutes of filling in details for my order and a phone call from Stif to Jungle (UK importer of Santa Cruz bikes) it was confirmed the chosen colour is out of stock....noooooooooooooooooooooo!.....3 weeks lead time at least......! I left it on order with the other bits I needed (XT front mech, Syncros seat post) and came away very unhappy at the thought I may not have my new bike built up ready for the 1st Merida.

After a restless night of 'what on earth can I do' thoughts I woke with the positive attitude of changing my order to the Anodized blue option, after all they told me they had all othere colour options other than the one i chose. I would of course have to order a new Hope headset in Black as my current headset in red would look a tad odd on a blue bike!?

So, 9.30am came around and I put a call in to Stif, "no problem sir, we can change that over for you sir", "I will just check with my colleague that we can price match your headset", can I give you a call back sir?"

The call back confirmed to me that the Anodized blue is also not in stock! Flippin hec, how hard can it be??! I mentioned to this 'new to me' sales person that they did confirm on Thursday they had every colour other than anodized slate...."can you double check?"...and so that is the call I am now waiting for tomorrow.

Anyway, I gave the Trek a quick wash down this morning to wash away last Tuesday's Pootle remnants so I didnt have to carry all that unwanted ballast, so a quick wash later and with my camelback reservoir filled I was off on a Monday morning mainly road blast. The reason for the 'mainly road' outing is because the Trek is desperatley in need of new bushes. I do hope the Superlight turns up next week so I don't have to have these replaced just now.

The ride out this morning was good, it took in the views of Ackworth, Low Ackworth, Featherstone, Heath Common, Walton, Haw Park Wood and back home - 18.2 miles, 1hr 30mins constant cycling, 12 mph avg speed. I was happy with that.

Had a good wash of the bike once home ready to swap all bits and pieces over to the Superlight next week........hopefully.....fingers crossed.....

4 hours of ups and downs

the Peak District, that was the chosen playground for this weekends riding. I had arranged to meet up with Pete and Tom (Bad Brains recruits) for a ready to ride start time of 8.30am at Heatherdene car park near Ladybower Reservoir. Waking to wind and a little rain was not going to curb my motivation for yet another day in the saddle. After a detoured journey through Sheffield I finally found my way back onto a road which I had some recognition of and evetually found myself at Heatherdene. The other two had hit the same problem as me in Sheffield and rolled up a little while later. Our ready to ride time shifted to just before 9.00am.

So off we set, taking a right out of the car park and heading towards the A57 and with a short section of Peak District tarmac we found ourselves heading off left on to a bridleway just next to the Ladybower Inn. This is a steep and rocky ascent which warmed the legs up in no time. The track eventually turns left and still headed skywards we were finding ourselves battling the wind more and more. Good news though...the rain had stopped.

A fairly long climb and it brings you to a superb viewpoint overlooking Ladybower Reservoir and the surrounding beauty of the Peak District. The next section contours for a bit then takes a sharp left for some downhill fun. A steep descent, albeit, through a number of annoying gates lands you right next to Ladybower. Its amazing how quick you can lose your hard earned height.

Our path (or as it happens 'our tarmac track') brought us round to Fairholmes car park just infront of the dam wall. The dam, it must be said, was looking very impressive today with the amount of water it had dropping of its top lip.

We made our way up the West side of Derwent Water and never been far away from very steep hills to climb, we decided to do just that. More or less doubling back on ourselves we took a bridleway UP through Gores Plantation with our sights set on getting to our 'summit point' from where we would take a right turn to lead us to Rowlee Farm and its grintastic downhill. Full of switchbacks and natural berms and near on ear popping descending this can only be described as awesome.

The pleasure is all too soon followed by the pain and that said we were now facing another long rocky climb. The legs were certainly getting some use today. We were now on a track which if followed further than we chose to go would bing you to Hope Cross. We took a right turn, signposted Edale, before you get to the stone cross in the middle of nowhere, a track I have done many a time and a track I love more the more I ride it. Its downhill, its long, its fast. There is an uphill section about midway down, not a rocky one this time which comes as a bit of a treat at this stage of the ride. Then more downhilling as fast as you dare (or as fast as your bike wants to go with hardly any brake pads left!!) right down to a B road near to Nether Booth.

Turning left onto the B road and following it until we got to Townhead Bridge where a left turn brought us to the start of our last major climb of the day. Another rocky climb but the legs were still turning. A switchback eventually took us even higher with the thought in mind that this must be leading to yet another fantastic downhill section, and that it did. We were finally spat out onto tarmac near a place called Aston which left us with a few miles of road work to finish with.

Back at the car, thouroughly pleased with our pace today and a mouthful of fruit gums kindly donated by Tom, I felt a very happy man. What started as a rainy and windy day turned into a dry (ish!) day with even a bit of sun. And whats more, I am feeling fast on the bike...the training is paying off...

a muddy Wharncliffe...

...and that it was, a complete mudfest, but good fun and good training all the same.

The red route it was to be today, the first time I have ridden in Wharncliffe for a while and those trial builders certainly have been busy. The first 3 sections (all singletrack) of the red have potential to be very good, the first section today was all rideable, the second section which is nice and rocky was a nightmare in the wet/mud.

Once through the singletrack introduction it brings you to one of the many fire roads which cut through the woods in every direction. From this point the views were excellent, especially for a forcasted wet and windy day! I know I should never trust www.havn'tgotaclueaboutheweather.com !!

The whole of the red route is very well signposted throughout. I never saw much evidence of the black route, even some sections which I knew to be the black route were not marked. The red route is good, if a little short, but for a route which keeps you in the woods the whole time it is excellent...and besides...you can go round as many times as you want you know!! I did 2 loops today which totalled around 14 miles, with an average speed of just over 7mph. That just proves what some of the terrain is like.

The uphills are still as good as I remember, nice and long with good rewards at the end! Some of the fire roads have been laid with aggregate which is a bit loose in places.

All in all a good ride, nice and quick (in places!) but I think I will leave it for a while and try again in the less muddy conditions...I'll be back!

sunday rider

well...its Sunday...its very early...06.30am...I'm up and the weather is looking good, contrary to weather websites belief. Plenty of time for some breakfast and a pack up of the car with all things mountain bike.

I am off to ride some of the new trails which have been built in Wharncliffe Woods, nr Sheffield. Hoping to get plenty of miles in for a good training run, perhaps even a double loop of the woods. I will report back more later when I have been........

pootle once again...

...the weather was good (considering it was snowing on Monday!), the tracks were a mix of dry and muddy, there was a good collection of pootlers and off we went for another edition of a Tuesday Bad Brains Pootle.

Leading this ride from The Plough at Warmfield was the great Uncle Chip himself. There must have been around 10 of us out last night, good turnout for a mid winter ride. Only 5 minutes into the ride and it was hard on the brakes trying to avoid bumper to bumper collisions as we all involuntarily regrouped right on top of the remains of a burnt out car...unfortunatley Chip had sustained a shrapnel injury from the once smouldering vehicle. An injury that the slime in his tubeless tryes could not save. After a short while, and with new tube firmly in place we were back on our way.

We took in the delights of some places which were familiar to me (Haw Park Wood, Wintersett) and some which were not.

Not too much of an eventful ride other than Phil managing to complete an arse over handlebars moment which for us viewers was hilarious, perhaps not so for Phil who subsequntly had to detangle his plumbs from his handle bar and cable combination.

All in all a great ride out (apart from the cramp in both sets of toes at the same time in the ride!) and a top pint of Theakstons to finish with.

just stay in and ride

have turbo trainer...have bike with strange looking skinny slick tyre (looks the business!)...have a room with plenty of space...have my mp3 player with a cool levellers album...and...have done my first session on it and loved it.

I can see perhaps why people say they can be boring but to be honest I quite enjoyed it. I think I will keep my mp3 player up to date with fresh music and I'll be fine. Looking forward to the next training session and of course getting back out onto the proper trails. I think I will leave it till next tuesday (pootle ride with Bad Brains) which is nearly a full week since I went to the Osteopath, it'll be right.

new toy...

its turned up, my new turbo trainer. Well, turned up is perhaps not the phrase to use as I had to go to Leeds to collect from the delivery depot as they had tried delivering it twice over the last 2 days...and i was away. Anyway, its here, its built up and..........i now need a slick tyre to run on my mountain bike....

off work - newmillerdam

its always good to go for a walk somewhere that I usually only frequent on my bike. Had a really good walk around Newmillerdam woods today with the family taking in the usual biking tracks. Not a lot to say other than top walk, great afternoon out, some interesting photo opportunities and a nice pint to finish with...

'back' with a vengeance

Another great ride last night with Bad Brains pootle crew (res raid, morley). The wind was high and the tracks were dry (ish) and overall I am feeling a good sense of fitness on my bike.

It looks like we have teams sorted for mountain mayhem this year and I have managed to talk myself into taking part in some of the merida marathons, first one in April. So…training is now a must…but…

…just been to an Osteopath today. Bloody hell…what an experience, for those who have had the ‘pleasure’ you will know what I mean when I say it doesn’t feel natural what those guy’s do to you! I have had a back problem for a while now and typically whilst sitting in the waiting room for Dr. TearYourBackInTwo the problem seemed to miraculously disappear! Anyway, a ½ hour consultation and wrestle has subsequently ‘popped’ something back to where it should be and landed me with a week off the bike. ‘A week off the bike’…nightmare, that’s like locking up Jimmy Savilles track suit and cigar wardrobe and keeping the key for a week.

So, onto wiggle and I now have a turbo trainer on its way to me. I have had the idea of purchasing one for a while and this has just helped me get my arse into gear to get one. So give it a day or so and my garden shed will not have seen so much sweaty, leg spinning, lycra action. I will report on the turbo trainer of choice once I have it and it is set up in front of the TV.
As for now, 3 days holiday off work, which I am going to use to do a lot of nothing other than trying to stop my back from going back to where it should not be. Hope the turbo trainer turns up quickly…