Trails Nouveau

Slippery trails were promised and slippery trails were certainly delivered- the relatively dry, cold weather in the run up to Saturday if anything making things worse as the slickest of the mud was a thin layer on colder, harder ground beneath. Still, there were no complaints from us as it was a beautiful morning, and we were well prepared with spikey mud tyres. Well, with one exception, as we were graced with the presence of Alan, our esteemed Road Racing Secretary, equipped with a cross bike. This could be about to get interesting!

 

Now, the ride description had promised not only slippery trails but also to not to skimp on the ups and downs, so starting as we meant to go on it was straight up through Denbies and down Golden Nugget, where optimistic cross tyres very quickly found their limit! No harm done, pretty sure there were plenty of smiles and there was plenty of speed on an unsuitable bike beforehand!

 

With the familiar done, we headed out along the front of Ranmore via a few trails sampled by some on Dave's ride some weeks back, with a few more attempting the log roll, but then we were heading north in search of Dave. Not Mr Ricketts, he was already with us, but a lovely bit of trail going by the name of Bingo Bongo Dave. Laughs and smiles at the bottom confirmed that it was accepted as a new favourite and then as we headed back to the North Downs Way we quickly added Wonderland and No Name to that category too. The final treat before tea was a very quick loss of height down to the A25, twisting and turning (and me trying desparately to shake Dave off my back wheel!) and then we were at Tillings for tea.

 

Cake, tea and coffee were accompanied by much cajoling of Moji to come to Wales in February and make some proper use of that monster bike of hers, then we were off again. Unfortunately we had gravity debt to pay back and up White Down we went, with one more new descent lined up. Rip Van Winkle is the trail where the photo comes from, with Mark balanced precariously on a nice tricky narrow ridge at the bottom. Unfortunately a failing camera battery meant that's more or less all I got!

 

Hopefully everyone enjoyed the new trails, I certainly aren't likely to get tired of them any time soon!

 

Mat

Event / Article Type
MTB Experienced - Rykas
20141213 - Mark