Today’s mountain bike ride was never going to be a big training ride, I just needed to get out after 6 days without riding. We’ve had another cold, frosty period but the smattering of snow has disappeared. The road outside our house never gets salted and was so treacherous that I turned onto the main road to cut across the edge of town. This reminded me of how dangerous road riding can be with motorists who show no care for your safety passing far too close. I was soon off road and the ground was mainly frozen solid which is good news and bad. In places the ice was deadly!
I was soon up to Healey Nab where the trail was fully rideable, though I had to take it easy on the slippery descents. The worst parts were where water had run across the surface then refrozen, offering no grip whatsoever. On a part which wasn’t frozen the leaf mould was thick and it grabbed my front wheel. I rolled against a banking onto my knee but didn’t lose contact with the bike. Another crash I don’t need to have with no discomfort. I only rode 2 laps of the hill, mainly because it simply wasn’t as much fun as in better trail conditions. With 824 feet of climbing over eight and a half miles it was reasonable exercise but I’ll certainly be looking forwards to a little more warmth. The forecast, unfortunately, is for another week of cold nights and daytime temperatures in single figures Celcius. This is the first winter when I’ve thought that some form of indoor training would be useful. Fortunately we are unlikely to see any rain and the trails will hopefully unfreeze so I’m hoping for a better week. One compensation was the view of tempting hills under crystal clear blue skies.
Mountainbiker 