Free-Country-Ride.

A new Riding type was brought to our attention today Albeit a little tongue in cheek, a mix of XC and freeride, hence the "Free-country-ride" title.
But for me, thats just a Nirvana Ride, and thats what we love about it.

What a fantastic day for a few reasons. Firstly the weather was amazing, the world is a better place when the sun is shining thats for sure, new skills had been learnt, new bikes were being ridden, and everyone was on the money riding wise today.

Andy, Martin, Mario, Adrian, Dave, Nick, Giles, Simon, and myself were the riders out today.

We set off towards Leith. Heading down the first Descent we came across a group of Walkers, luckily they were a little quicker on their feet than many we come across, and let us pass without to much slowing down or grief. But why do they always ask why you don't have a Bell? As if i'm going to fit a bell to a 2.5 grand custom build mountain bike... Get a grip.

Down Soul-mining FAST and over to Golden Birdies, This like many of the trails we rode today was riding Super Good. But with mixed results through the switchbacks, some of the guys need to let it hang out a little more on the singletrack...
From here we rode straight up to Proper Beau. I think Simon wanted to test his new pupils skills on the practice jumps, with a view to hitting the real Gap on Proper [which is not so much of a gap now].

Andy was on fire today, putting to good use all the skills he had learnt with Simon on the Saturday Freeride session, He has gone from doing no Jumps to really attacking any kind of obstacle in his way, Well done Andy and Simon.

Proper Beau like GB is riding so Good now, the work that's been put into those small berms over the winter months are really paying off now the trails are dry, i just love that trail, if only it was 5 times longer... with a see-saw?

So the Gap [was a gap] Andy "on a mission", Martin, and Mario were all having a go and enjoying that jump. Down T2 Flowing and fast just like it should be, and into Peaslake for another type of T.

After an alternative route to going all the way up the Mother, we Hit the Quarry. All were up for having a go on the jumps here, even Nick was hitting the left hand jump with great results. What a surprise, there must have been something in the air today.

This was the day that i finally exercised a demon and did the main jump. After a pretty nasty crash that put me out of action for 4 months, it was very satisfying to finally have done this jump. YEE-HAA for sure.
Mario was really going for it hear, Simon was hitting it faster each time, and Andy was pulling strange faces on take off...

Down Deliverance, always Fun. Then over to Heads Roll for some more jumps, is this meant to be an XC ride??
We sessioned the double jumps for a while, Simon really sending it on the final attempt. Then the door came out to hit the new step down, Mario, Giles and Simon all clearing this one.

A fast ride down the road towards the shop, with a quick rip through the woods to finish what as another great ride.