Max XC

With only 2 weeks to go until the South Down's Way, I thought I'd better get some mileage under my belt by way of some sort of preparation!!!So...... much to Tom's delight, and Rich's disgust, I donned my full XC lycra and fingerless mitts and cracked out a good 35 miles off road, with only a 5min sit down in the middle. It felt better than expected... thankfully!! All completed in the space of just over three and a half hours.... not too bad. But, don't be concerned Rich..... I'm not favouring XC over All Mountain......

My son's first crash!

Not content with videoing our own escapades out on the trails, I thought it would be a good idea to video Josh on his bike... and the first video also resulted in his first mtb crash – all caught on camera... Puts Mark's fall at the back of the list I reckon!!!

I'm very proud!




and just to prove he's from his father's mould.... he got back on the horse that threw him......

That's ma boy!!

3 Oldies and 3 Newbies

Jim, Rich and I met at the Milton Heath Car Park and we were joined by three new members of the team. George – who works with Rich, Mark – who lives next to Rich, Dave – Mark's Brother-in-Law... although Dave did have to think about that for a while.... recent marriage Dave?

We set off around 09:30 having left time for George to pick up a bike from HftH. We set off across the back of Westcott and up through Squires farm. Mark's favourite uphill section, provided the first real big challenge for us. Resting at the top we saw a number of groups come up behind us – clearly there was a big event today which we'd not heard about.

Not letting that get in our way, we headed off upwards again and picked up the trail which took us to the bottom of Summer lightning. More up hill to find the start of summer lightning, and introduce George to what this mountain biking is all about – and why we have to do the uphill in the first place. Summer lightning was good – nice and flowing, and generally dry, given the little bit of rain we've had! With summer lightning complete we headed back up to the roller coaster and to the summit of deliverance – just to show the boys who've not seen it before!!!! After the sight seeing we headed up to the tower. Mark and Dave canned it to the top... but took the easy route!! I elected for the hard route.... and failed.... the foot went down... twice!!! Bugger!! Couldn't see what happened to Rich and Jim – they were eating my dirt!!!! Probably!!

Much needed cup of tea at the top, and eccles cake, then a discussion on what next. Suitably refreshed we headed off towards the quarry, taking in Mark's infamous jump! Jim did it...... I waited for a gap in the pedestrian traffic, and then showed everyone how it shouldn't be done!!! On through the quarry to High Ashes farm, and along the trail to Holmbury. Up Holmbury hill and down to Barry Knows Best. BNB flowed well today with some nice jumps and everyone enjoyed the trail.

Down into Peaslake, everyone had descended onto the General stores, so we gave the tea a miss, and headed back up Radnor road, back to the summit of Holmbury - missing out the log pile, because someone was sitting on it!!! Over the summit and down Telegraph, past the Youth Hostel and past the Volunteer, to head back up and towards Abinger. Through the Abinger Roughs and back to Westcott and on to the car park. A good 4 hours ride with a good group. Good to meet you guys, and hope we didn't put George off the biking game too much – look forward to the next outing with you all.

A Grand Day Out

Only "Arctic" Mark and I today. Rumours of an appearance by Jim turned out to be unfounded...
No word from Tom since Wales either, we can only assume that he has been consumed by lycra-induced XC shame or that his rotator cuff tear has taken longer than the anticipated 3 days to heal.
After a visit to Head for the Hills for Dan to inspect Mark's dodgy fork seal we were on our way. We decided to try something a bit different so we climbed up the Pilgrims Way to the top of Ranmore to ride the "Log Pile of Death" and then gave Mark his first taste of Abba Zabba, a tricky technical series of steep, rooty drops followed swiftly by Blind Terror, Blind Terror 2 (as the names suggest) and Numbskull. These are a series of linked technical challenges and not for those of a weak disposition so hats off to Mark for getting down them all in one piece.
We then took the Abinger Roughs and crossed the A25 over towards Holmbury, ascending the hill via Control Car Park 9. We rode "Resevoir Dogs" which was wet and gloopy and then our favourite "Barry Knows Best", getting plenty of air off the little kickers. A rest stop at Peaslake Stores for tea and cake and a chat with "Dave and Dave" one of whom turned out to be a fellow Ulsterman. We had a look at Pedal and Spoke, the new bike shop in Peaslake selling various accessories and more interestingly hiring out Head Cams which sparked Mark's interest...I'm sure he'll be trying one soon. We chatted to the owner who is a local lad and his mum who was trying her best to embarrass him. Good luck, I think he'll need it when the winter closes in and the mid-week trade dries up.
Back on the bikes we rode to the Pitch Hill summit via the little gap at the top. Mark cleared it at the first attempt before cursing me for not telling him it was a "Feckin' gap jump" - although as I pointed out if he had known it was a gap he probably wouldn't have done it! We took the trail from the summit which includes the rooty descent and stone platform jump, now with a low hanging branch to make it more interesting! One more climb to do the trail with Tom's infamous pile in jump on it. I also tried the table top diversion in the middle but it's very tricky to get enough speed to really fly it.
We then began our journey back to Dorking, via Telegraph Road and through Abinger again. The final incident of note was Mark coming off quite hard on the rutted bridleway down to the A25 and hurting his back. It didn't make him feel any better that I had pointed out that the track was quite tricky before we started. We finally rolled into Dorking at 2.30 for a couple of well earned pints outside The Star.

It wasn't meant to be

So... we were due to meet tonight for another evening ride. However, a combination of incidents conspired against us. Rich had to work late, and wouldn't be getting back to Dorking until late. Mark was still up for it.... but discovered he'd locked his bike in the car and lost the key... meaning he'd now have to drive home to get the spare... and the M25 was looking it's usual self for a Thursday evening. The weather was glorious all day.... until about 17:00... when the rain came. So everything transpired against us, and we felt that for tonight it just wasn't meant to be.

Mind the Gap

I thought as it's Andy's birthday we should give him a day off from posting - Happy Birthday Andy! Don't worry he's not totally out of the picture as I'm sure he'll add a couple of videos to this post.
Tursday night saw our regular-ish meet at Coldharbour, after my usual warm up climb from Dorking. We headed over to Heads Roll for some jumping practice. We started by messing about on the kicker we know well then over to the bigger stuff to hone our skills on the "Door Jump" (see previous post).
After several successful clearances I suggested we remove the door and ride it as a proper gap. I gave it a go first and cleared it and then it was Andy's turn. I could see from his run in that he wasn't going to stop and the determined look on his face said "I'm going to conquer this before I'm 40!" - Sure enough he cleared it at the first time of asking, no dramas as Mark would say!
Pumped on adreneline we took the little downhill across to Wolverns Lane and rode Summer Lightning, including the downhill jumps then through the bombholes and down Deliverance, both of us a little too quick and cocky, almost running out of room at the bottom. Finally we dropped down to The Plough for a pint of Crooked Furrow. Totally Stoked.