A day in the downs

It doesn't seem long ago since i last posted on here, but i guess quite a lot had happened in a short period of time. After a week spent gently pedalling to and from work, with the occasional attempt at hopping thrown in of an evening, it came time for my first hard session back after Margam at a local evening TT run by the Cambridge Cycling Club. I rode to work on my nice bike, and then Rachel swung by in the evening to pick me up and drive me out to the Sawston course for the TT itself. Last time we tried this manoeuvre was my birthday, and things didn't really go to plan. When i say things didn't really go to plan, they went fine for me - i was a bit tired from having done the local chaingang ride (and been dropped repeatedly) a couple of days earlier, and i didn't exactly do the fastest "10" of my life (25 minutes something on normal drop bars), but it was a good threshold training session, which was what i was after. And as a bonus, the big dark cloud that had been threatening us all stayed away until after the race finished It was only after i got back to the HQ that it became clear that things hadn't been quite so rosy for Rachel - i knew that things had gone ok to the turn where i passed her, but sometime after that her pedal had fallen off. And flown off into the bushes at the side of the road where it was totally impossible to find. D'oh. To make matters worse, when i'd picked her up, we totally forgot to collect her windproof from the start, and ended up driving back out to the course from home and missing the reservation for my birthday meal. So, really, things could only improve from there.

The TT course itself is quite a fast one, even by the flat standards of the Cambridgeshire roads, there's barely an incline bigger than a slip road in the whole thing, and there were some guys out for a good time before the national 25 on their swanky TT bikes. So turning up in a slightly natty skinsuit on a normal drop-barred bike perhaps marked me out as a non-tester as much as the peak on my helmet! Nevertheless, i went, raced, put in a good steady effort up to where i thought the finish was (i was wrong - i started soft-pedalling about 300yds too early - d'oh! That said, i did go a minute quicker than last time), and what's better, Rachel finished incident free for her first 10m TT under 30m (26:22 i'm reliably informed!). Result!

Today, we decided we fancied a bit of a change from our local trails, so we headed off to the North Downs for a bit of a spin from the picturesque little village of Sheer. We were set on following a route from the guide book for riding in the North and South Downs, with the possibility of adding in an extra loop over to Box Hill if we had time.



A bit of heavy traffic on the M25, and a late start later and we didn't get to the start of our route until 2pm; not really the ideal time to start out, and what's worse it had started to rain as well! We put our bikes together by a lovely little stream in the centre of Sheer, surrounded by loads of white ducks, and then set out onto our planned route. First up was a long, steepish middle-ring climb up a rutted track popular with 4*4s, which kind of set the tone for the day. Whilst the riding wasn't super-technical, there were plenty of rough tracks and rooty sections to keep us interested, at least interested enough to check the map all the time to find out where we were going...



As we went on, there was only one section the really stuck in my head as being less than perfect "mint sauce"-riding, where the nettles were crowding heavily into the trail, and Rachel and I had to stop to put our leg warmers on for what little protection they would afford us! A bit of on-the-trail shuffling, and we were through the worst of it, and back onto a nice wide trail with the occasional root to hop or hip-jump to fly off - nice. Muddied and happy, we headed back to the car in the village in the hope of tea and cake...



Sadly, we missed the tea shop, probably through a series of misadventures and minor disagreements (ahem!) about which way to go, and also through Rachel's back tyre mysteriously deciding to go flat about half way into the ride (in spite of tubelessness and sealant gunk!). But it was a great day out, and to be totally honest, it was nice to ride somewhere a bit less predictable than the usual "play park"-styled trail centres. Maybe i'm just getting old and beardy in my sentiments, but the whole joy of our hobby to be is getting out there into the big wide world on our bikes, not just bombing around a by-the-numbers rollercoaster (although i do admit that has a place too!).

Up-coming excitements include, but are not limited to the next round of the Midlands series run very ably by Nadine Spearing and James Hampshire - i was sorry to only do one of their races last year (at Sherwood - not my favourite venue as you might already have picked up!); an error i'm keen to try to rectify this year. I like the sound of the course at Hanchurch; although given that it's designed by Martin Brookes, i don't fancy my chances of making it through the lap without having to dab! The weekend after that, i'm keen to get out to one of the FNSS races; we'll have to see if i can escape from work early enough! And then it's crow hill - my oh my, not a moment to draw breath! But now, to bed to be ready for my big day out on the bike tomorrow...