A Cracking Time at Rogate

The mountain bike rides were fractured today- Gwyn had a group riding from Bletchingly but Lee, always keen to shoulder the burden of improving our skills, had managed to collar four of us to go crashing downhill at Rogate.

 

The Rogate trails are dug into a piece of hillside right next to a quiet country road and have a good progression from steep but smooth to trails that were a bit more broken, then on to substantial drops and gaps.

 

I must admit that when I arrived, having dragged down the big bike and full face, I was feeling pretty shattered, but after smashing out a couple of runs was starting to get into it. The short runs mean you get a fair bit of practice on any given section which gives you some confidence to work up to things you  might not normally attempt.

 

We were definitely starting to get faster and were just starting to look at moving on to our second venue for the day at Staughton when disaster struck and illustrious leader Colin managed to send himself out the front door and in a fight between his shoulder and the ground he came off worse. Right, that's it, fun's over, sit down, poke, prod, yup, hospital time! A little musical chairs with car drivers and we were running our casualty back up to East Surrey. After some examination, the suspected dislocation was discounted but a broken (Doctor's words- 'shattered') had taken its place.

 

It'd been a fun day though, so we can just hope that Colin is back on the bike nice and soon. If you want to come and commiserate at the AGM I'm sure there will be tall tales to tell! Just don't ask Lee, he seems to be getting a complex...

 

Mat

 

Thanks to Lee for the photos!

Event / Article Type
MTB-Downhill Day at Rogate/Stoughton
20141108 - Rogate 1