Loved my ride!

My last ride was nothing special. To motivate myself today I went back to the type of riding I’ve always loved the best.

Instead of the berms of our mini trail centre I wanted flat corners. As I recently told one of the founders of mountain biking, Charlie Kelly, MTB nirvana for me is when you reach the limit and get it sliding.

It’s true, Charlie gave a talk in a bar in town during his recent UK tour, and I met him.

So today I went to Birkacre, the site of a cotton mill from the 18th century until 1939. I’ve lived in Chorley since 1989 and birkacre was one of the first places I rode. It has flat, not Bermed corners on a generally firm dirt surface. Probably something like the surface of the Repack trail where the first ever MTB race was held. There’s a great downhill on the way there where I’m determined to get a Strava King of the Mountains title soon. Today it was blocked by a van using sat nav. He would have struggled to get his van up the steps a bit later on!

I did a few superb trails at Birkacre and slid it around plenty of corners, without falling off.

That was more like it. I must have looked like the pictures of Charlie Kelly in his book, except I was wearing a helmet. We’ve got a couple of wet days coming up so my plans for my next ride are a bit uncertain. I’m trying to keep the exciting riding up but also trying to stay safe in the wetter conditions.