We recently organised a long week Club Trip to the Forest of Dean for our Club Members.
Friday
Six of us journeyed to our cottage, located slap bang in the middle of the forest and just a couple of hundred yards from the Cycle Centre.
We met in the early evening, unloaded our bikes into the house for safe storage and then ordered in a curry for evening meal. All of us looking forward excitedly to the riding which lay ahead.
Saturday
We rode the short distance to the cycle centre, being one of the first to arrive. We commenced riding the Blue rated Verderers trail. Whilst fairly tame at first, the latter stages of the trail are extremely fast and flowy, with some high berms and fast rollers to negotiate. Graham B suffered a puncture in his tubed tubeless rear and had difficulty sealing the replacement tube in his tubeless tyre. Martin J was also experiencing repeated chain jumps off his chainwheel. It was decided Martin J and Ian R would ride ahead to the on-site mechanic for a repair. Due to the high speeds attained on the trail, we caught up with a rider taking his dog down the trail. Trail etiquette states to move aside to allow faster riders through but this dog owner firmly believed his dog was king of trail and flatly refused to let us through, even when we had reached a fire road break in the trail. I guess it gives a new perspective to the phrase “I’m on your (dogs) tail”!
After the Blue we tackled the Red rated Freeminer trail. This trail is an extremely rooty trail with drop offs, tight turns and a section on raised boardwalks. And after a heavy cloudburst mid-trail it became wet and slippery. We negotiated our way along the trail and were relieved to return to the trail centre for lunch.
After lunch we headed for the Downhill trails. After the long climb to the trailhead we started off on the extremely fast Countdown trail. With roller after roller coming at you care needs to be taken when to get airborne or to keep the bike down. The finish at the fireroad is also the start Launchpad trail, another fast trail with highsided berms to maintain speeds.
We then rode Sheepskull trail, the next level of difficulty in the grading. This trail mainly consisted of steep technical rooty sections with multiple drops and ditches. We finished the day riding Countdown and Launchpad trails again, to see if we could ride them faster.
In the evening we ate at the Rising Sun pub, stocking a good range of beer and lagers, and serving up some good food.
Sunday
We rode a circular cross county route through the Forest, starting and finishing at our cottage. We followed the disused railway track to Cannop Ponds, a nice open space in the middle of the forest. We them rode a steady climb finishing up on a steep embankment which our trail route indicated we had to find a way down off it. After negotiating fallen trees, craters and gouges in the hill side, we eventually threaded our way to the bottom of the embankment. We stopped of at Mallards Pike lake café for some refreshment. We then picked up the track bed of the old Forest of Dean railway and then various forest trails and tracks eventually finishing up at the Cycle Centre for lunch.
After lunch a couple of us opted to ride the Blue trail again, this time absolutely blasting it at speed.
Evening meal was Chinese takeaway from nearby Coleford.
Monday
We left the forest and drove over to Bikepark 417 for some more exhilarating Downhill riding. The trails here are extremely steep and fast, even the blue trails have multiple jumps and rollers, and fast berms. The Red trails are steep, rocky and technical with some steep drops.
Many thanks to Graham B, Lester K, Steve A, Harry F and Ian R for helping making this a memorable weekend.
Report by Martin J
