Ride report: 28 January 2012 – Pitch and Holmbury
Cold. Very, very cold but, thankfully, fine and dry. That was the weather today down in deepest, darkest Surrey where the moles gathered for some riding around Pitch and Holmbury Hills. Thanks to a clear skies overnight the temperature was hovering around 2° at the Walking Bottom car park where we met for the morning’s ride.
I think I’ll end the weather report there as there’s not a lot else to say. Basically it was perfect for mountain biking, with the brisk chill making sure we kept moving. By the time we’d sorted out Jez’s puncture we had a group consisting of DaveC, Big Al, JonH, JohnR, PaulM, Keith, Karl and myself, making 9 in total.
Amazingly I haven’t ridden the area for a long time so I was feeling a bit more excited than usual at the prospect of some Peaslake trails after some gloopy Ranmore rides recently. After a late night faffage session last night I felt I had my shock pressures near right, as well as new pads in my front brake and the old ones rotated to my rear brake. The rear lever felt a bit spongy but it seemed to work!
So Big Al led us out of the car park, with several of us glowing in our new Muddymoles shirts. Yes, they’re very green but at least they are distinctive!
There followed the obligatory long climb up Pitch Hill. Immediately the sandy surface showed itself to be fairly dry but there were definitely puddles of water to contend with too. Near the top we turned left and headed for the start of Roller Coaster. Within a few hundred yards though I could feel that back brake was a bit suspect as compared to the front it needed such a long throw to work. Ah well, what can you do?
Roller Coaster was fast typical of much to today’s ride – the surface was good for some fast riding but wet roots and peaty puddles were everywhere to it was very much a case of brake in a straight line and try not to steer on the roots. I was soon enjoying putting the hammer down on the Five which – despite needing a bit of TLC; see brakes and gear cables – is basically a very well dialled bike. In particular it felt as though I’d tweaked the fork pressures just right after an alarming ride on Wednesday on less testing terrain.
Back on the fireroad there was plenty more winching to be done with the slightest incline giving JohnR the chance to scamper off ahead but pretty soon we were back into the trees again on T-0 and T-1 all the way down to the triangular green. Phew!, hard work, especially chasing Jez’s tail who remained just that fraction faster than me all the way.
After regrouping and catching our breath it was off to Death Star, Dave’s favourite I think although it’s not even on my list of fun trails. I find it a bit intimidating whereas Dave loves the challenge I think. So I was giving myself plenty of space to Karl ahead and carefully picking a clean line down the deeply walled gulley when Karl took a minor tumble as so often happens down here. He fortunately managed to spring back up before I reached him as I would have been forced to stop which meant I managed it all dab free.
As the trail opens out I headed for the left, coming close to a couple of slow speed crashes but somehow geting away with it, avoiding the magnetic tree stump in the middle of the descent and managing to avoid Dave’s front mudguard which had popped out of the fork crown on the way down!
After crossing the road JohnR took off up the Barry Knows Best climb while the rest of us made our way up. By the first turn things were getting a bit congested so I pushed forward and settled into a rythmn for the remainder of this sapping climb. By the time I reached the Reservoir John was well-rested (an astonishing 4 minutes 4 seconds recorded on Strava) while I was best of the losers at 5:18. The rest were some way back which was some consolation considering I hadn’t really pushed it but John’s result will be untroubled for a long time.
All together again we climbed up to the start of Reservoir Dogs but soon veered away on a long, long trail, some of which might have been Surfa Rosa. In any case Big Al was flying, stringing three sections of trail together to give a really hard but superfast workout. That was my favourite of the day as the Five at times just seemed to dig down into the turns and accelerate away with so much smoothness and grip. I was buzzing at the bottom and exhausted from a really intense ride.
Next it was back up Holmbury, a brutal climb and then the long middle way up the trail that parallels Telegraph Road to pick up Yoghurt Pots. I don’t think I’ve ridden the top section of Yoghurt Pots so well as today where I managed to hook up the sequence of sandstone berms with some committed effort in the process of reeling in Dave and Keith ahead. The mid-section of Yoghurt Pots was nothing special though as tiredness started to show over those meh! roots and ridges while in the final section I had caught Keith, Dave, Big Al and Jon (who peeled off for a go at a big roll-in).
Listening to that, ‘who am I kidding?’ I ask myself. Yes it’s a buzz to push yourself but there are far better riders than me out there and some are in our riding group!
Another blast followed down Secret Squirrel and onto Telegraph Road where I followed various riders all the way down to the car park. Karl was on it and I tagged onto him at the end as he disappeared away from me down the trail at a high rate of knots.
It’s unusual for us to ride Telegraph during the course of a morning’s effort as it’s normally the last thing we do back to the cars but this time we still had a lot to do. We worked our way round some techy gulleys before a long pull across the Hill toward – ultimately – the start of Barry Knows Best again.
The Friends of the Hurtwood volunteers were out in force maintaining the start of Barrys, making us feel rightly guilty about our own lack of contribution to the trail maintenance. One of the volunteers was Louis (Uncle Riotous) who has been in touch with us in the past so it was great to stop and say Hi. Then it was off to Barrys!
As always it was fast and gnarly but we all pinned it on the way down. Well what else can you do on the way to Peaslake for some cheese straws?
The rest was welcome after what had been some hard miles so far. I’d had a fast run on the singlespeed the day before so it had taken a while for my legs to get going today but they seemed to eventually. But I needed the break. On a separate note it was great to see how many riders were out on what is after all a bitterly cold day in late January, and roadies too. Thankfully we all seem to disperse nicely once we get out of the car park and onto the Hill.
Back up on Pitch Hill for the final few miles we said goodbye to first Jez and then JohnR before slogging on toward the Windmill and Two Headed Dog which after Lloyd’s nasty dislocated shoulder recently we took plenty of care on (Karl!). After that, it was the testing MBR trail (aka Evian I think). Whatever, it is pretty technical with a lot to catch out tired riders, including a massive drop in which comes as quite a surprise.
These sort of tricky trails were still causing me a bit of concern over the rear brake which didn’t inspire a great deal of trust, never more so than on Switchbacks, the next section of trail where I was pulling the rear lever so far my fingers were getting trapped under it! I led to a couple of very near misses but I got away with it on those noodly turns.
The end was looming by now with many of us starting to feel the pace after a lot of hard riding. Ewoks came and went at speed and then it was a run across Bentley Copse and the final long bermy run down to the car park to end with a sense of relieved exhaustion.
A cracking morning of riding with a huge thanks to Big Al for stringing it all together for us and to Dave for driving me over in the first place. Great to see everyone on such fine form.
About the author
Matt is one of the founding Molefathers of the Muddymoles, and is the designer and main administrator of the website.
Having ridden a 2007 Orange Five for many years then a 2016 YT Industries Jeffsy 29er, he now rocks a Bird Aether 9 and a Pace RC-627.
An early On-One Inbred still lurks in the back of the stable as a reminder of how things have moved on. You can even find him on road bikes - currently a 2019 Cannondale Topstone 105 SE, a much-used 2011 Specialized Secteur and very niche belt drive Trek District 1.
If you've ever wondered how we got into mountain biking and how the MuddyMoles started, well wonder no more.
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James says:
Can I draw your attention to the niche piece of kit in the fore ground of your photo. I was having a cuppa near the end of my ride when you guys arrived.
I was chatting to the rider while stopping for a cuppa and cake fuel up.
Its a trials frame, with rigid fork. Old school magura front rim brake, fixed wheel (using a road wheel on the back, so like a reverse Trek 69er). I chatted to the rider who had just ridden BKB on a fixed wheel and taken some air, imagine arriving at any of the jumps, you’d want best foot forward but the fixed wheel times the arrival with say your worst foot at the top of the pedal stroke. Do you pedal in the air ready for landing – who knows?
All I could say was respect for developing a new niche that makes single speeders look main stream.
Fixed wheel, rigid trials bike riding is the next new thing in the surrey hills!
Good to see some photos back to support your blog, recently the site has lacked photos to accompany the articles, can I suggest some more “action” type shots to give better interest to the write up and show more of what the Surrey Hills looks like.
Your tops can’t be missed can they!
Great read, as always.
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 8:50 am
MuddyDave says:
Hi James, we had a chat to the owner as well (he actually took the photo!). Very interesting niche but he did also say he was taking it home to dismantle it! I did spend some time talking to him about singlespeed gear ratios but the rest of the moles started to fall asleep!
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 10:07 am
Matt says:
Yes, full kudos to the guy for trying it but that’s definitely a niche of one for me.
Would terrify me trying to ride fixie off-road, especially trying to do berms and turns and pedalling at the same time. Scary.
Would love to get more photos onto the site to illustrate our lovely trails but it needs someone to actually interupt their ride to do so!
I’ve tried it and found it a bit frustrating at times, especially when the adrenalin is pumping it can be hard to set up a shot and hold the camera steady. So it’s always welcome when someone (in this case John) takes the trouble.
A few riders are experimenting with Go Pro HDs and the like and I’m hoping a still or two from their footage might be usable.
As for the tops, they have grown on me. They are surprisingly effective in the woods when you are trying to see where people have gone and will be equally visible on the road. Plus, everyone can tell who we are!!
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 10:26 am
StevenD says:
Matt, good point on using stills – it never occurred to me. +1 yet again on the tops, out in the Chilterns on Saturday and walkers were actually getting out of the way because I could be seen (and heard :lol:). I guess I never realised how easy we could disappear in the trees, like deer do. 😉
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 10:40 am
Guacamole says:
Having left my knee and elbow pads back at home I thought that this might be the day for a tumble or two. With the trails in reasonable condition bar the odd wet roots it turned out to be a really great day. The rear shocked had been serviced and with Mud X tyres installed the Orange 5 was a lot more sure footed than the last time out on the Nobby Nics.
Great route Al
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 8:53 am
John R says:
A really enjoyable Sunday morning – thanks Al for stringing that all together.
Matt, it was humbling to follow you into the start of Yoghurt Pots – after just the first couple of turns you had totally disappeared.
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 9:19 am
Big al says:
Great write up Matt , It was a good mornings riding .
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 12:47 pm
James says:
Glad you also spoke to the rider with the rigid fixed wheel (in the photo) he was riding solo so know doubt appreciated the social nature of stopping at Peaslake.
Good point made about the tops making you more visable – it is all to easy to loose one another on night rides in the Surrey Hills.
I’ll aim to capture some action shots from a ride and do you a ride report to see if I can offer something different. Will come back to you in near future.
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Matt says:
Sounds great James! Thanks, always appreciated…
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 2:55 pm
Karl says:
Great route Al tons of variety, and great write up Matt.. thank you.
1st time I’ve been tempted to have suss, as some of those trails are a bit brutal at speed on an HT!
Smashing company as usual..
Am loving the top and buff.. despite neon glow..
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Jem says:
Papa Smurf has got the wrong colour hat on!!
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 6:53 pm
Jez says:
Good ride that was. Note to self: remember Camelbak… ahem.
Anyhow, maybe we should get with the shovels one weekend for some karma points.
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 8:22 pm
Lloyd Brown says:
Is Karl wearing the special heated version of the mole top, otherwise how to explain the shorts, short sleeve top and no hat?
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 8:49 pm
Karl says:
Cos I’m full of hot air..!
Hope your shoulder is healing well..
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Posted on January 31, 2012 at 8:39 am
PaulM says:
Oh yes! a superb morning and reminder of what full-suss is for. Big-grin trails all well connected up – Nice job Al!
Thanks for arriving with a puncture to sort Jez! you made me feel early 🙂
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 8:50 pm
JR says:
Paul – turning up on time is the new early!
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Posted on January 30, 2012 at 10:36 pm
Dandy says:
Sounds like a great ride, chaps. Shame I had to miss it, though the pace sounded a bit too brutal for my current state of fitness 🙁
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Posted on January 31, 2012 at 8:41 pm
JonH says:
Nice one al. Definitely one of the best day’s mountain biking for some time, with the right balance between fun technical and grinding miles.
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Posted on February 1, 2012 at 2:52 pm