The best in a long long long time!

The weather has been kind, we've been out!

This weekend saw an XC Tom style jaunt with Dave 2 and his mates starting at the Star in Dorking, and heading off along Abinger Roughs to get to Holmbury. Up Holmbury and, after a chain fix for Mr Edwards, a quick jaunt down Barry's!! First time some of us have done that in probably over a year!

Surprisingly it was a good run (wish I'd had my Nukeproof!)... and a quick enduro style climb to get back.

Yoghurt pots was a bit sticky and then Rich's new way back up to Leith was, despite the moans of others, the best way up....

A cup of tea and an essential flapjack was needed for me at the top of Leith - paying some rather inflated prices at the new tea window!! However, after 2.5 hours my legs had failed, so it was a gruelling ride back to Coldhabour, and an easy flow down the road back to Dorking.

The weather smiled on us.... the best in a long long long time...

FoD 2012

Finally got round to putting this together, and Simon thought it would be ready a week after riding! This was back in September 2012 when it was warm and the baltic winds were not blowing.

When will the summer start?

Knackered two ways...

Despite having slimmed down by nearly 2 stone, but my riding will be curtailed (more so than over the past 4-5 months) due to 2 knackering factors...

1. 'Mallet finger' - ruptured tendon on my left ring finger, caused by being hit by a tyre swing trying to catch Ruby when she fell off. 6 weeks in a plastic splint, sticking straight out... Nice.

2. Ruptured disc in my neck (C5/C6, apparently). The specialist has advised agaist anything which might induce further neck trauma (which is pretty much any riding for me, as falling off is always an option). This has also meant that instead of boarding this weekend in Morillon, I will be skiing - not exactly in line with the consultant's explicit instructions, but life is not risk-free... I will be having an operation to remove the disc and fuse the vertebrae, which will take a few months to recover fully from.

So, all in all, a big old bunch of arse....

Happy riding, chaps.

Dunnie

Redlands

Wow, 2 months into 2013 and this is the first post on the blog since last November. I guess it's a reflection of the awful summer/autumn/winter we've had and also the non-biking distractions occupying everyone, myself included.
In fact a quick scroll down shows there have only been half a dozen posts on here since last June and two of them were about road bikes.
On saturday the two Marks and I took a quick trip up into Redlands. Conditions on some trails are remarkably good and the light snow and solitude provided an atmospheric backdrop - unfortunately there was no photographic evidence to corroborate this.
We had a bit of fun, most trails will be better once they've dried out a little more but it does look like the trail pixies have been active over the winter, opening up some new lines and re-establishing some old ones.
Fingers crossed for an end to the interminable rain and a dry spring - perhaps 2013 can be the year MTB makes a comeback!

Replacement Bus Service!

So, after weeks of no cycling, we finally arranged a jolly out on Sunday. Mark, Rich and I... meeting at the Pilgrim at 0830! Train from Redhill to Dorking (as still no cycle rack) at 0727... arrived in plenty of time at the station. RAIL REPLACEMENT SERVICE! No trains from Redhill, and was told I couldn't take the bike on the bus! :(.... So off i trotted on my own with the Mega, and did a little XC jaunt. Should've changed the bike - aside of my lack of fitness levels, the Mega was not really the bike to be hacking round an XC course on - next time take the alpine - or even the trusty stumpy!!

What it did remind me however, is that XC is a little boring - bring back all mountain. Now where's that phone to book the towbar fitting.

PS - The Trek Domane has arrived! Josh asked how many bikes did I want? I had to explain the concept of n+1.....

Uh Oh!

It's coming...

Octoberide

New camera test and video of some new jumps we hit last weekend.

Mark

Joining the Dark Side

I realise it's not really appropriate content but I've just pulled the trigger on one of these - a full carbon race bike.

I'll see you on the Zig Zags in my lycra disguise sometime soon!

My Olympics

Cav's time from start of the zig zag to top of Boxhill (opposite tea shop) 5 mins.  My time on the 5Pro 11mins 55secs! I've got some training to do.....

La Clusaz 2012

Last week I had the fortune to take an afternoon out from our family holiday in the French Alps and hit the trails of La Clusaz.  Wilf had come over from Les Gets and we hired a couple of Scott Genius 50's to tackle the trails around La Clusaz.  After taking the Beauregard cabin up the mountain we hit a technically demanding red which got us in the mood for some sweet alpine single track riding.  The bikes were right for the job and the remote front and rear lockout came into it's own during some punishing climbs - I'm sure the air is thinner!

For some insane reason I forgot to pack my knee pads which didn't help when I lost it on some wet rocks whilst hammering down another red.  The day ended on a very technical red where I lost it 3 times on some tight switchbacks but we both had big grins to show for our efforts.  La Clusaz is well set up for VTT, certainly not as extreme as Les Gets/Morzine but not as busy.  They are building more trails for next year but we were not disappointed.  The hills are bigger and the falls harder and all caught on my GoPro so maybe in a years time I might get round to editing something together.

Tom