It cannot have escaped anyone's notice that its been snowing lately! So the Wednesday's Old Blokes Ride from the shop was going to be a fun one. For those who haven't made it out to the North Downs while its been white here is a taste of what its like...
5 of us turned up, Simon, John, Ken, Brian and Claire and headed on up Rookery on some crunchy ice to start with - which (if you know the stepped bridleway climb) led to a lot of wheel spinning and eventually hike a bike!
Climbing up to Coldharbour called for some skilled pedaling- you have to keep your weight even on both wheels, pedal very smoothly and try not to turn the wheels too much or else you are fish tailing all over the place. The terrain quickly varies from slippery compacted ice to crunchy and very grippy snow. You can get speed up on the latter but beware because you can suddenly find your self back on the slippy stuff.
Once confident on the snow conditions Simon led us over some nice technical sections around Leith Tower, its amazing how different the trails look when covered in white stuff and it feels like riding new trails. Everyone had a go at playing over the technical drops and all stayed upright!
A quick coffee at the Plough in Coldharbour and warm up by the open fire and then we headed back out on the Summer Lightning downhill course which was a thrill then back via New soemthing Face trail (I must remember the trail names Simon tells me!) I was sweeping up the back while Simon and John were crashing and getting buried in the snow - it was like skittles watching them fall in front of me.
Well the trails are in excellent conditions to ride and the blue skies made it a perfect day, but beware the backroads on the way back- they are still compacted ice and it was like riding on an ice rink on the way back to the shop.
If you haven't been lucky enough to ride it yet, hope for more this weekend and come out and play!
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