Ride report: Wednesday 11 January – boil in the bag?
5 Moles met at the Highlands garage this week. MarkyMark, Poncho Danny, Kevin, JonH and myself. It was a windless and almost barmy night, warmer that a summer evening on Ben Nevis DH track Jon assured me. With an all round “slopey shoulder moments” it was down to me to decide where to go.
Well, with the trails having dried out amazingly well since our mudfest last wednesday (not a good night to lose your mudguard) I thought that the best way to take advantage of the unseasonal weather was to ride a “summer evening route”.
As soon as we set off through Wiggly wood it was obvious that the trails were in unfeasibly good condition for January and by god I was overdressed. At the end of Wiggly woods people were already stripping off clothling. Looking at the weather data after the ride it was 11C! I was dressed for 1C not 11C. Definitely a boil in the bad moment.
Heading down from Wiggly woods to Crabtree lane, the bridleway had turned from last week’s quagmire to a fine trail again and the singletrack had a great flow. Then turning left onto “Jem’s favourite” it was fast with only a few small patches of mud remaining that drifted the bike and bumped up the heart rate.
Regrouping at the Norbury park end we headed to Mickleham, over the A24 and up the slog of Staine Street to Mickleham gallops (no I didn’t have a flat tyre just the weight of the rider!) . At the end of the gallops, chainbreaker was quite tricky with fast dry sections that built up speed and loose muddy sections that were sketchy, especially going in too fast.
High Ashurst was a C1 (copyright MarkyMark) although Danny made it look easy. He could have been on his CHIPS Harley. Sadly for most of us it was a pleasurable stroll.
Across the Boxhill Road, we headed down Bat out of Hell. It seemed grippy before we hit the rutted sections near the bottom where the chalk was still extremely slippy and front wheels were bouncing off one side of the ruts to the other. Everyone had the same story “I almost lost it”. “I thought I was off there”.
Everyone was fine and we regrouped at Brockham before spinning along the A25 to the Minefield climb, where Danny showed us how to do it. Was he going for a Strava time? I almost stacked it at the steps but made it to the Smith and Western in one piece.
As part of the “Summer evening” route, China pig, Danny’s nemesis was a must. Danny seemed confident not to repeat his family planning accident of last year but almost stacked it on the first bend with a log sticking out on the trail. However after that he put the afterburners on and was gone. I do think though that it should be renamed from China Pig to Limbo. Some of the trees that had recently come down were really low across the track.
A quick blast across to Norbury park and we split up either heading off either back to Highlands garage or home.
Looking back already (Friday) it seemed like a freak evening. So damn warm that it could have been well into spring with dry grippy trails. It was definitely a evening to make the effort to get out.
There are 3 comments on ‘Ride report: Wednesday 11 January – boil in the bag?’
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KevS says:
Well it was almost a surreal night ride for January given the temps, one of those nights when whatever you decided to wear would have been wrong.
The early pace up and over Fetcham Downs was blistering and had me wondering if an early bale out was on the cards.
Luckily the pace calmed down a bit after hauling ourselves up Stane Street.
I think Danny must have been running on pure adrenalin because he was beasting every climb with MarkyMark not far behind him. Definitely some friendly competition going on there.
As ever, I really enjoyed the High Ashurst C1 climb, NOT, and was derailed as usual by those ‘effin routes and steps half way up!
All in all though a great night to be out with a good group that moved along at a lung bursting pace!
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Posted on January 14, 2012 at 8:21 pm
Markymark says:
It was a superb night to be out and delivered massive grin factor! Thanks Tony for the suggested route.
Danny’s on form and providing a good ‘pull’ these days.
Someone had been clearing the mines up minefield as it was incredibly clear (and no sign of the belted brays either).
Bat-out-of-Hell showed signs of still being sketchy right at the top and i definitely had a few moments on the first section but thankfully we all made it unscathed.
Good times…
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Posted on January 15, 2012 at 10:38 am
Markymark says:
Regarding the lack of belted braes up ‘minefield’… so that’s where they’ve disappeared to…
http://www.minibeltie.org/semen_sale.htm
We’ll have to rename it. Any suggestions?
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Posted on January 19, 2012 at 1:39 pm