I’ve had a good year with no injuries. I’ve got my 3 bikes into good order. I’m not just riding around on any of them with known faults. For my last ride of the year I rode from home to Rivington. It’s a big area and has always been popular with mountain bikers. I did 16 miles and 1700 feet of climbing reaching 1000 feet above sea level on 2 occasions. It was wet and slippy but I still managed a few decent segments. On one particular segment it took me 2min 25 sec taking it fairly easy. The best time on Strava is 1 min 54. I probably went a few seconds quicker in 1997/8 on my Marin Rift Zone but am unlikely to ride it often enough or take enough risks to beat that now.
It would have seemed inconceivable 20 years ago that I would ride a segment like this without trying to do it as fast as possible. Is getting older a good thing? I was happy enough with my time today but will probably have a go at beating it next summer.
What really stopped me from racing down this segment and trying to achieve personal bests was that I knew I was causing danger to others. A rider was bucked off a horse because my time mattered too much to me. I’ll spare you the details and avoid possible prosecution by just saying that I also ended up on the bonnet of a car belonging to an innocent victim. I made no offer to repair the knee sized dent. This would never happen now (?????) so there must be some advantages to getting older after all!
Here is the Strava log of today’s ride.
Mountainbiker 