It was a chilly morning to meet up on Whiteleaf Hill but a frosty start to a great corker of a club members ride from Whiteleaf Monument out to Wendover Woods and back, taking in trails around Cadsden, Chequers, Coombe, Dunsmore and Wendover. Tradition was kept with tea and cake once at Wendover Woods before taking in a further singletrack route back to the start. A very hard going twenty miles (that felt more like 40!) with areas of bad churned up mud once the kind morning frost had worn off! Just the three of us causing chaos, but a big thank you to everyone who came and to Mike for planning and leading a great loop.
We normally have a traditional Boxing Day ride which wasn't to be this year, but MikeD kindly organised a club members ride on the Boxing Day Bank Holiday Tuesday instead! The club members only ride started at Wendover Woods Cafe with the route taking in a couple of loops of Wendover Woods trails then around to Coombe Hill, Chequers and back to Wendover via Dunsmoore and The Hale.
A cold foggy start to the day but It didn't put anybody off; we had a great turn out including a couple of club members turn as well. It was quite muddy on the course but hardly anybody else about on the trails which was really good. The group stopped off at the Bluebell Cafe for a well deserved coffee and cake after a puncture repair before making our way back through the Ashridge Estate to Invinghoe Beacon. Thanks to Steve for letting the guys and gals use his washer to clean their muddy bikes. A big thank you to everyone who attended and thanks to Darren and Dave who planned and lead the group ride.
Today's Club Members ride wasn't as boggy as we thought it would be, but it was still slippery in places. Four Club Members turned up for the fifteen mile circular route which ended at the Hellfire Caves Cafe for coffee in the sunshine.
A fantastic turn out of twenty-one people in total (including leaders) for today's open group ride at Wendover Woods, including a really nice mix of riders of different ages and abilities. We would have had a slightly larger group but sadly a couple of people dropped out with the dreaded flu. Everyone started out as one group, but later on broke into two smaller groups; Seamus led a longer route than originally planned, whilst MarkP stuck to plan A and continued to make it back to the cafe in good time for hot chocolates all round! Was it the perfect weather for a good ride out? We thought so! Cold enough to keep you moving, damp enough to make sure you're muddy! Great day and we hope we get many more open rides like it. A big thank you to our ride leaders and to everyone who attended and supported our ride!
A small turn out club members ride on Saturday 30th October. Absolutely amazing dry trail conditions all in and around Wendover, Ivinghoe and Ashridge. A fun route with lots of singletrack and amazing scones!
What utterly amazing trail conditions for October; hard-packed, fast and flowing with the gorgeous autumnal colours in all directions. A small team of three headed out for today's club ride, club member Richard unfortunately dropped out with the vicious man flu! The loop started at Coombe Hill main monument and routed out towards Chequers, Cadsden, Whiteleaf and Great Hampden before looping back in a return. A couple of tough climbs, only the odd sticky bit and some fun singletrack. Great to see club member Jez out and about on the bike too, even if it he was going the wrong way! More club member rides to be published online shortly.
Another great open ride this month with six newcomers to the club in attendance. Unfortunately two of our newcomers had to turn around pretty early on due to an unrepairable mechanicals, but the rest of the group got on with the task at hand, conquered Ivinghoe Beacon and pushed on at a good pace along the canal and then back into the Ashridge Estate. The earlier than usual start was a shrewd move as towards the end of the ride the weather came in and there were five very wet but very happy riders rolling back into the car park.
The return of our infamous Golden Ball Run Route. Just two people braved this c25 mile route in the heat, but DarrenC and MarkP reported back that it was great ride and a great route. Darren's enthusiasm (or Mark's poor directions) led to an extra 10k being added onto the route, but that was little hardship on such a great sunny day and it made the ice creams at the finish line that bit more tasty. The route flowed really well and only a couple of sharp climbs to get through over the whole distance. We were all surprised on the low turn out as this is normally a super popular route, so it would be great to get a larger group on this next time. This will definitely end up a regular route for future ride outs.
Mark Baylis and I (Darren Chappell) attended the Scott MTB Marathon series at Wantage at the weekend. It was a mostly dry day so the 45 mile route was dry and fast. The route was well sign posted with plenty of support to hand. Some of the sections were technical. Overall it was an excellent day and I would recommend to anyone looking for a fun well supported event.
