Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud!

Thursday 09 Dec saw a mere 3 of the Over The Hillers (2 established members, Dunnie and Mark2, together with David2, another Dorking Cliftonville rider - must be the water) out on a starlit night. We met in Holmbury St Mary, in the car park at the viallage hall. Top Tip - get changed at work, as standing around a dark rural car park in your underpants is guaranteed to have the local Neighbourhood Watch thinking they are the target of a new Dogging Ring!!! Whilst awaiting Mark and Dave's arrival at the appointed hour, I fitted the 'double-Bastid' configuration - 2 Deal Extreme 900 lumen lights up front. The resultant test up to the treeline 100m away was like a scene from Close Encounters. I have to say that for £102 all in, the 2 lightsets give a fantastic coverage and brightness, in particular widening the frontage of the light pool, and getting away from the slight problem of having an off-centreline beam with only 1 on the go.

Shortly after 1830, we set off, climbing up to Holmbury Hill (David is as accomplished a climber as Mark2, so I brought up the rear from a [very] safe distance), whizzed/splooshed down to Car Park 1, and set off on BKB. Very muddy conditions, and no shortage of slippery roots was to be the order of the night, and the ground conditions meant that careful line-selection would be neded to avoid coming to a standstill in the gloopy stuff. I led (something of a rarity!) down BKB - we got some good speed up on the top section, and were at a respectable pace coming into the new bit. David2 soon discovered the importance of a head-mounted torch in negotiating 180 bends, but we had a great sail through the big berms of the ew section (with a big shout from the front to identify the Bish/Dunn berm!).

Rather than hit the road to Peaslake, we took the bridleway back up to save losing more altitude, and crossed the road to take a firetrack back up to Holmbury Hill. After a quick pause to admire the view, and discuss the demon trail which leads off Holmbury to the South (does this have a name? It's the one Simon double-handlebarred a good while back...), we hit Yoghurt Pots. A relatively dry starting section menat a bit of speed was gottten up, until the Pots bit ... super-gloop and poor line-selection saw both David and myself coming to a standstill at one point, but back on and through to the finish - slow, mucky, but great crack. And a well done to David - riding through that trail with only a handlebar light is pretty difficult!

After a quick debate, we hit Telegraph Road, which was pretty hard work, particularly on the top half, before a right turn at the bottom saw us take a rooty descent down to the road below Holmbury, and a bit of a road ride to the car park. A pint of Hobgoblin in the pub, and we were off by about a quarter to nine. Not racing stuff, but my decision to go for big chunky downhill tyres (Maxxis High Rollers) front and rear has certainly cut down on front and rear wheel slippage.

Welcome to David2, and hopefully you'll see a bigger showing the next time you come out.