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.