To Leith and back

Date : 6th February 2010
Riders : Rich, Andy, XC Tom
Area : Leith Hill

A cold morning arrived, and Rich and Tom had already decided to push for the Lance Armstrong esque route that is Dorking to Coldharbour (ok, so it's a slight exaggeration, but it is a steep climb!!). Tom and I arrived at Rich's, and after much faffing about with shock air levels (me included) we set off to pick up Dave on the way. Arriving at Dave's, he met us at the door, looking like he'd just got out of bed, and telling us he needed to change his brake pads... but thought that was all. We all agreed, the 3 of us would ride on then meet him later on “the Hill” somewhere.

So with the steely determination of an Everest mountaineer on his final push to the summit, we set off for Coldharbour. We made good progress up the road, with me resting in XC Tom's slipstream – no idea whether it helped, but I kept up – with Rich falling a little way behind – something to do with the beers the night before I think.

We rested briefly at Coldharbour before pushing on to Leith, up the trail and towards the start of summer lightening. The usual seatpost drop, and we were off, looking ahead, not at the trail, and pumping the bike, not braking in the corners, but still not getting quite enough speed to launch over the last jump before the second section. A brief pause and we were off again racing through the next piece of trail, which flowed well considering the conditions. With Summer lightening behind us, we headed off to the tower taking in the “Bracken Trail” (Does it have a name?), whose level of bracken generally meant you couldn't actually see the trail!! Off to the top of the tower, with Tom leading the way, in his usual XC head down type way (despite wearing his humvee baggies!!), and missing all the fun trails off the sides!!

Up to the tower for a well deserved cup of tea, and a slice of date and marmalade cake... lovely! Tom lusted over a green Orange 5, and got talking to the chap who owned it – thus cementing his longing and determination to purchase one!!

Off we set for a bit of a play, finding a a serious kicker to session. Rich went first, but not much air was had. Tom went next, and very impressively looked as though he went vertically upwartds and landed vertical on his back wheel before the front dropped down. A few inches further back and he would have been on his back!!! Despite Tom feeling he was in control we decided the kick was too severe, and re-shaped it in expert fashion, allowing us to session it with confidence!!! A few more drops and jumps of varying skill, and we headed back to the tower. On to personal hygiene and up no cycles, at which point I decided to take on a puddle at slow speed which was much deeper than you could see!!! My front wheel disappeared up to it's hub, sending me slowly and gracefully into the air, and just pausing at the vertical point, for what seemed like minutes, before unceremoniously ditching me over the handlebars. I somehow managed to stay on my feet, but as a consequence received a seat up the arse!!! After a few minutes heavy breathing and huffing and puffing, I was able to rest back on the bike and we were off. Back on the trail to Coldharbour.

Hitting the road at Coldharbour, we enjoyed the 30mph shoot down towards Dorking, and bumping into Dave en route (remember Dave!!). He'd only just sorted out his brakes, and a couple of other things, and seemed to have found 3 other riders to go off with. They were heading to Peaslake!!! In this weather? So we wished them luck, and set off on a little off road before hitting the main road back to Dorking. At 36mph on the road Tom, leading the way, thought is would be funny to allow some water to escape from his mouth, as Rich found to his cost!!!! Oh how we all laughed!!!!

Back to Rich's place, thankfully all in one piece, to meet Mark2 just arriving home. His bike has been in the wars, so wasn't able to make it, but we let him know what a good time we had anyway!!