After being bailed out of trouble by Colin with the generous loan of his Giant Anthem 29er, we headed out across Holmwood Common to start our hunt for singletrack and climbs...although I'm sure no-one else is as stupid as me and 'hunts' for climbs.
The gentle warm up gave me chance to get used to the new stead as both my bikes found themselves in warranty situations. Having assured Colin that I wouldn't crash it, we started our ascent through Redlands and out into the unknown.
The bog before Summer Lightning had everyone off walking, but it meant that we could check out a cheeky singletrack trail before the familiar rocks of Summer Lightning.
The first crash of the day came from, yep, you guessed it. Whilst moving at walking speed, I ended up with the weight balance all wrong and went straight over the bars, much to Colin's horror.
On our indirect route to the tower, we took in some unfamiliar trails with a few bomb hole style sections testing our skills.
Having made good time, we set off after our snack stop at the tower with a couple of extra singletrack sections in mind. A couple of stacks occured after the new Summer Lightning section on Waggledance but no damage was inflicted.
Redlands Wood has so much to offer so I decided to take us on a different way through it compared to last time. Monica had an 'almost' crash on The Log Part 1 with Colin offering lots of sympathy, and then I had another off this time shedding some blood. Bike was fine though which was the most important thing.
Our new route down lead us to the rocky gully, which only Steve had the crazy attitude and skills to attempt - kudos for trying! The rest of us made our way down another rooty, steep, demanding trail. A few sections of twisty singletrack in a mysterious conifer forest that could have been anywhere in the world, lead us finally back to the A24 and then across Holmwood Common to the finish.
A few tweaks and changes to the ride compared to a couple of months ago, so I hope it was for the better.
Cheers to everyone who came and for putting up with my rookie ride leader skills.
We clocked about 17 miles with just over 2000ft climbing.
Cheers, Mike