Redlands Trails

Richmond Park.

Not having trails straight out of the door like those on the Surrey hills, the only place I can go for a ride (of sorts) is Richmond park. Usually I get to the park via Wimbledon common(Voted the place with the highest quota of Dog mess in the UK), battle over the A3 at robin hood gate (or take the footbridge)and into the park.

Clockwise or anti clockwise around the track? Depends on whether I want short sharp climbs or slightly drawn out climbs. The uphill bits are short and few and far between. So off to the melee with walkers, dog walkers, runners, cyclists, cars and the occasional dear too. It's pretty good in the evenings traffic wise. Also you can play the game of "spot the inappropriate bike sold by the lbs (you know who they are)to some soul who only rides around the park."

So there you go. 7.6miles per lap. So I did a couple of laps.

It was dull.

On a better note if you can call it that, It looks like i'm going to do the Marin Dusk till Dawn in a pair. I'm trying to convince myself I haven't gone completely mad.

Aidan Wray

I read about this on Chocolate Foot: Ride Central's obit for Aidan Wray. Brave kid. Take a bit of time to read it.

afan trip 14.08.06

This Sunday Most of the staff at Cycleworks (the trail riding guys, Nick, Rob, Matt and myself) and a mate Clive went to Afan. We rode out of the Glyncorrwg ponds centre at 10am after an early start, leaving Surrey at 7am.

We were smiling all the way up the long first climb safe in the knowledge that it was pissing down at home. In Wales, for once, the weather was a lot better than home. As we left the car park we bumped into Neil, a customer of ours who lives in Guildford. We then convinced him to accompany us for the ride. He was a little apprehensive when we told him that we wanted to get around Skyline in under three and a half hours, leaving us enough time for lunch, then a quick lap of Whytes level.

  With a little relaxing and chilling out at the start of the ride, we soon realised that we would have to really haul to make our objective.

If you have ever ridden the Skyline trail, you will know that it has a fair bit fo fireroad as well as some pretty rough singletrack. Almost as if the trailbuilders couldn't quite be bothered to finish the trail surface off as well as the other trails at Afan. Or is it because the trail doesn't get as much traffic on it? Either way, you really know whether your saddle is comfortable or not at the end of it.

The last descent is worth it all though, 6km of flowing singletrack.

Objective met 3 hours 20 minutes for Clive and Rob. 3 hours 30 minutes for Nick, Neil, Matt and myself as we stopped to fix a puncture on the last descent.

Next objective, EAT.

Then try riding the climb up to Whytes again on full stomach. A lot slower this time, stoppping for a rest at the top.

At the top of Whytes the trail gives you the option of riding the new Black run section of trail. In my opinion a pretty crap bit of trail with no flow and lots of rocks in silly places. Then a big climb back to where you started. But the rest of Whytes is awesome, really flowing big ring all the way. Fifteen minutes later you are down the bottom of the valley and outside the cafe again ready for a pint of tea.

Time for a shower, load up the car and make our way back. Then starts another adventure and the longest trip back from Wales ever. 6 hours in the back of an estate car cuddled up to Rob and Matt is not my idea of fun!!!!!!!!  Courtesy of football at Cardiff, and in Surrey, floods in the Lightwater area. Getting cramp at hourly intervals was not appreciated also.

Wales, we'll be back, but will check the goings on at the stadium in Cardiff first!

What's that stuff falling from the sky?

After  riding on Saturday and realising I'd left my climbing legs in the car, I headed out today with some of my group who haven't been out riding for most of the Summer, leaving me to my own devices. They could have picked any sunny weekend, but decided to pick the first wet one of the Summer it seemed. But riding in the rain is fun. It dampened down the dusty corners, giving you more grip, but of course the roots were slippy, keeping you on your toes. As I was leading, I couldn't see what was going on behind me as a couple of the group were slipping about on the roots, causing near collisions with trees and there were a few small crashes.

There's a special riding position within the group called "the hollywood seat". It's where you ride behind the rider you think will most likely crash in the hope that said rider will stack in front of you. Cruel, yes, funny, definately.

Very early on in the ride I realised that my climbing legs never got out of bed.

Tuesday Evening ride

Every Tuesday without fail we head out around the Surrey Hills, we aim to fit in as much singletrack as possible and to ride a different route each week. The ride has become so popular now that getting twenty plus people turn up is not unusual.

Last night was one such evening. We met at Gomshall station car park, when I arrived there was about 15 people milling around, by 7pm the count was 24!!! Within a couple of minutes one guys tyre had already gone down in the carpark and his mates and him decided to stay and fix it and told us that they would catch us up. We were down to 20, thankfully we ended the ride with the same amount. The four guys who stayed to fix the puncture never found us.

We wound our way through the fields to Peaslake, entering Holmbury Forest and climbing up on fireroads to keep the group together soon realised that every one was of pretty similar ability and the ride was moving at a good pace. Climbing on fireroads and descending on singletrack was the game during the ride.

The trails are dusty dry and fast as hell at the moment, really easy to over cook corners, and with a good layer of dust on some corners you never quite know how much grip, you've got.

We got back to the cars at 8.45 ish, everyone smiling, safe and with a good layer of dust on their faces and bikes. As I was driving out of the car park the guys who had the puncture at the start were just coming back, smiles on their faces just visible through the layer of dust. At least they had a good ride too.

Writing this today I have a day off, so am going for a nice long peaceful ride by myself. There was a lttle rain last night, the trails should be even better today.

Full Moon this Wednesday

This Wednesday is a full moon, so just a reminder to get those lights charged up and plan your trip out in the moonlight...