First Night Ride of the year!

October 29th

I must be the queen of procrastination this year. I've been looking for people to ride with for ages, I've been surfing the web and seeing group rides being advertised but never getting the motivation enough to get out there and join them, preferring to go ride (and play on my bike) on my own at a time and place only I have to agree with myself. But... I've yearned to do a night ride and I just am sensible enough to realise I really should not go night riding on my own.

So... I blocked out my Wed night work diary so no-one could book a call, I charged up my lights (or so I thought) and packed my muddy bike in the car. After my last work call I grabbed my lights, tested them, aaaagh one works but the best one does not! How come? It's been charging for 8hrs! Surf to www.lumicycle.com check charging instructions- ah- should have plugged battery into charger before plug charger into socket. Let's try that, yep its working but too late for tonight, I'll just have to survive on backup light from Fenix, strapped on helmet.

Arrive at Nirvana 15 mins early. 3 other riders there but gradually that builds to 12 riders, all blokes and all regular riders with mainly light XC bikes or hardtails. mmmm my idea that we would play on Singletrack for a couple of hours may not be realised! We leave sometime around 6:45/7 and sprint off into the cold night. There is snow around in places remnants from the sudden drop in temp last night and snow storm.

The pace is fast but George hangs back with me and keeps me chatting. My bike and its extra pound of mud seems inappropriate for this riding style and I start to worry. We pick up Dave at Abinger and continue on up to Holmbury. I'm always at the back with someone, the pack always waits for us but as soon as I arrive we head off so I really get no breaks.

It's dark and I'm chasing lights so its tough to realise where we are in the Downs but I soon realise we are approaching Peaslake. Now I'm worried if I'll have the stamina and pace to make it back! I drop my saddle to ride Golden Birdies for the first time in the dark at least I know where the diagonal roots are as its pretty wet and slushy with melting snow.

But we go further and soon I can see we are over at Winterfold woods and there is talk starting of stopping at the pub (I realise I forgot my wallet- I'll be popular!). We lose the rest of the group at a singletrack turn we missed so we scoot around our own trails to try and regroup. Someone comes and finds us and leads us on. We're back in Peaslake and climbing to Holmbury, down Yoghurt pots which is surprisingly drier than I expected and then the off camber bit under Telegraph. Finally arriving at the Kings Head in Holmbury for a drink after George took a tumble off a climb.

Getting cold in the pub and pulling on that fleece and buff that I threw in my pack as an afterthought (thankfully). We still had to get back to Westcott! Now its only 1 degree outside and my clothes are wet. My teeth start to chatter as we ride down the road and I cannot control them however hard I try, my whole upper body is shivering uncontrollably. George, Hugh and I cut off up a climb which helped warm us a little and by the time we got to the A25 we were ahead of the pack. At Wotton Hatch we cut off road again and no more climbs to Nirvana and said my goodbyes - quickly packing my bike in teh car and whacking the heater on high for the drive home. Home by 11:15- a bit more of an epic than I thought.

Will I go back? I thought not at first but then it will be good for my fitness, so maybe I will build up my hardtail so I can ride a lighter bike around and not hold the back so much.

Glad I finally got out there though.

North Downs with Pete and Lee

October 18th

Wow people to ride with at last! Pete actually made it out on a bike and Lee came down from Oxford for his first tour of the North Downs singletrack.

Pete ahd a route in mind rather than just playing on singletrack. Recently I've been riding on my own a lot so I've started just playing and sessioning the best singletrack routes. Parking at the Holmbury village CP climbing up to Homlmbury hill viewpoint and heading over to the reservoir via black hole and then sessioning "Golden Birdies" 4 or 5 times (takes about 5 mins to get down and 10-15 to climb up) and "I should coco" a couple of times, then back via "Yoghurt pots" and "Telegraph" back down to the CP. Dry trails and fast tracks.

So anyway today we start in Peaslake and climb up Pitch hill and play on some of the singletrack that I think is called "T1, T2" which has been logged a bit but the route is coming back now and then down "Baptista" which has been logged a little too but is still fun, twisty and challenging but not so much to manoeuvre your handlebars through nowadays and back down to Peaslake.

Too early for tea so we climbed up to the reservoir and top of Holmbury, yoghurt pots, then the off camber parallaling Telegraph and the new stuff Dave showed us (nameless). Took the bridelway past the school until we climbed almost to Leith. At Leith Tower we had tea and sandwiches and cake of course and bumped into Simon from Nirvana, reminding me I must ride with him again.

"Windy Willows" was the usual fun but a bit muddy over the log jumps at the end!
Scuttled down the steep descent towards Friday street then climbed up via Simons Copse and back down the bottom of Summer lightning to Rookery. Cross the A25 and along white Down back across A25 and climb up near Abinger to Holmbury.

Lee thought we were done but we pointed towards Peaslake and how much further we still had to go. He was sprinting ahead on his light 24lbs Specialized hard tail and I steadily did leg presses on my 33lb Hustler FR set-up to climb on up to the top of Holmbury.

Finally we had the fun fast fling down Golden Birdies which was massive fun as usual such sweet singletrack! And of course tea at the bus shelter at the bottom and cake AGAIN!

40km done, 6.5 hrs out, moving for 4.5 hrs (so lots of chat and tea breaks going on!)

Back at Pete's Is had cooked a Vegan meal for us and Lockey came round so it was good to catch up after a few years absence!