Wharncliffe

From Wharncliffe Woods

Slightly hungover, well, actually, very hungover, the technical XC Red route through Wharncliffe can be a little difficult in places.

It started with phone calls trying to work out what time we'd arranged to meet whilst in the pub the night before. Never a good idea to arrange times whilst late at night and drinking. At least the team name for Wild Boar 24 got sorted whilst in the pub; Pies, Pies, Pies!

So, we finally got to Wharncliffe after a trip to McDonalds to top up on carbs. Can you believe no fries before 11am? or cheeseburgers for that matter? has the world gone mad.

Matt has the demo rig of the Trek Ex-8, which was in the root beer colour. A good looking bike. The trail starts out pretty twisty and good singletrack followed by a couple of sections of rocky singletrack, which is pretty difficult to negotiate first time through without putting your feet out. The trail hops back and forth onto the forest fire-road but the hills are reasonably long, up is long and hard but also means the downhills are also fairly long. Matt enjoyed the Ex-8 although gears needed a bit of set-up bcse it was so new. Photos of the ride can be found here. Plus small video.

We were glad of the XC trail length not being too long, hangovers wearing over everyone, but next time through will be easier, as we know the route and there are plenty of extra side routes to find and explore to add extra distance onto the trail.

We'll probably not do nights out before riding too often in future.

Next Week: Bank Holiday Monday ride.
Wild Boar 3 weeks away

Lake District Easter 09

The Lake District offers plenty of technical riding, it can sometimes get a little tricky, which we found out again this weekend as Nick and I flew up Irton Pike and Irton Fell.

We started at the campsite and followed the forest road up to the base of the Pike which was a little lung busting, maps and GPS tell me a change in height of 200 metres in less than a mile. We did it without stopping but mostly bcse it felt like it would be too steep to easily get re-started. Once we got the top of the Pike, we came down the very steep rocky front face, which in places was un-rideable, particularly when hanging off the back of the seat and you stop abruptly by hitting a log, full force of the seat ping backwards and taking one in the credentials! Not much fun having the walk the bike downwards in some places so wouldn't do that route again.

Irton Fell was more difficult in getting to the top, the bridleway proved extremely soaked and flooded through Mitterdale forest, so opting for the fireroad helped. Once at the top, through the top forest section, the fell opened up in front of us. A great view and we took photos. The fell was covered in soft waterlogged bogs. I found this out first hand as I tried to cross one soft patch, but found the handlebars just drop away below me. With the wheel still going downwards, now buried below the top of the disc brake, I flew over the handlebars (luckily a soft landing in a bog!). This was easily the funniest moment on a bike since we were in the snow (or Alisdair falling off in the car park) :-)

After dragging the bike out of the bog, which took some effort - feeling like quick sand as it sucked the bike back in! - We followed the forest road back down the side of Irton Pike which we'd come up the day before, with a minute or two of downhill, good for the fun factor although the technical rocky parts of the routes can be quite hairy if you don't pick your line right. It might help if I felt I wasn't running out of brake pads.

More pads needed ASAP.

Even keeping the riding to these two loops (we also covered a little of Wast Water lakeside too) was good fun.

I can't publish the TrailGuru link bcse the TrailGuru site has crashed at time of writing (apparently due to a power failure but is now being repaired).

Next Week: Local for a 16 mile loop; Dambuster
Countdown to WildBoar24 Race: 4 weeks + 1 day

Day in Dalby Forest Trail Centre

It started with a few pranks whilst setting up, but finished with the extremely welcome site of the car park, 25 miles later!

What a brilliant day. The trails were really good, our first outing into Dalby Forest and it was really enjoyable, up to around 20 mile mark. After that, most of us were tired and it was a bit of a slog getting back home. We even managed to get Nick and Matt tired, this is some achievement.

The trail itself rode well, full suspension was probably the choice set-up as the rocky sections were likely to have added fatigue and some of the arm-shaking flat and downhill sections felt tough even on FS. The route started with a leg warming uphill out of the visitor centre car park, followed by sections of flowing down and up sections. We did notice that for each of the short down sections they were invariably followed by a similar up section, and towards the end this did add some leg burn to get home. We might have preferred a longer up so we could have longer downs, but of course this is terrain dependant. Some of the roots and felled trees strategically placed in the single track made for some pretty good air, they were really enjoyable.

We didn't use the Purple Mountain Bike Centre, but it was there at the end (or start) if we would have needed.

I didn't even try the TrailGuru application, we were out for about 5h 30mins with rests and food stops, the iPhone battery would definitely not even got us half way, so sacked it off altogether.

At Dixons hollow we stopped for a bit of a play on the swooping 4X track and the table-tops, although one guy not with us had managed to crack his ribs on the handle bars and was in a bad way. Not much first aid we could offer other to get him comfy whilst one of his mates was off for the car. Breathing was a good sign and he wasn't alone, but I hope he was okay.

In the end we all had a good day, well worth it fro the experience and I'm looking forward to the next Trail Centre we try. It should also have given us good fitness test for the Wild Boar 24 in May. Basically, we all need more fitness.

Alisdair had to claim the funniest moment though, clipping into his pedals and then promptly falling off his bike whilst stood still, before we'd even started.

Photos are online here from my camera.

Next Week: Easter break in the Lakes.