Wednesday 24 June 2015

Four Cross

While it could be argued that four bikes are too many, there are some occasions when it feels like exactly the right number. Within the last four days I have ridden each, and each was right for what I was doing.

On Saturday I pre-empted a boozy afternoon with a ride. The plan was to explore a new bit of Hertfordshire, slightly further away and finding new bridleways and tracks to add into the repertoire. I’d even bought a map.

The ride from Wooton Under Stone headed north across some excellent stony tracks, some fields that would be impassable in the winter, with a quick visit to Cromer windmill then it turned East on an intriguing Roman road slicing across the map. This shot me dead straight for a few miles, with that strangely reassuring feeling of rolling along where people have travelled for thousands of years. After this I headed through Nasty (there’s got to be a joke in there) and hit some excellent spots of bridleway taking me back to Wooton Under Stone in the rain.


It was highly satisfying to do a new loop to add to the list. To extend my knowledge and explore. The ride was on the hardtail as it seemed suited to bridleway cruising, and I headed back avoiding the road closures for the Women’s Tour of Britain with arms burning from the nettles.

With one bike ridden the BMX was next up and Lordship Rec was the target to blast out a hangover and get some jumping in. This went entirely well, with another double nailed and the only issue a minor crash as I landed missing a pedal at one point, bringing the weekend injury total to a couple of scraped shins.


The third bike got some time with the usual ride to work, where I was able to investigate what I see as the issue with organised events on open bridleways by looking at the Strava fly-bys from my recent ride in Shropshire on the Long Mynd. Our route is in red and you can see us leaving from Marshbrook after the event has been going for a little while.


Draw your own conclusions.

One bike left to ride, so with a friend’s fencing finished I took a day off work and headed to meet him and introduce him to the fun to be had at Swinley Forest. I took the full susser to hit the jumps and get a bit of a sunny woodland big ring bash. We rode one full loop and another shortened one and it shows how much fun the tail can be, especially when you attack it with a friend and push each other a bit to go faster and bigger.



So four bikes in four days, you could almost argue that I need more…


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