Now that my legs have recovered enough to walk to the pc, I'll get a quick overview of yesterdays IOW ride up!
Four hearty souls met at Lymington for the 09:45 crossing to Yarmouth.
We'd been sat down for about 2 minutes before the conversation was onto celebrity fist idol (Heathy is always with us in spirit
).
With the tone set, we decided to be naughty and ride the part of the island which has been designated no cycling (shhhh).
We headed off for the fort that overlooks The Needles. This was a mix of nice singletrack and some short road hops.
We arrived at the fort wth me constantly moaning about my SPD's (I've admited defeat...I'm a toe clip man. Always have been, always will be!) to be met with the most amazing view of The Needles.
We stopped for some pics and then decended the 'helter skelter' down to the car park below.
We then joined the trail up the long (killer!) hill to the Tennyson monument.
With lungs bursting from our chests, we arrived at the monument and had enough time to rest (and perv at a very attractive walker!) before a nice long grassy decent. It was here that the strength of the wind hit us.
With eyes streaming and faces stinging (and not from my last nights lamb madras...this time!) we arrived at the bottom and had a short road hop to the bottom of the golf course with a huge climb ahead of us.
Those who have been will know that this isn't a nice climb, but yesterday it was into a head wind!
A short stop half way allowed us to catch our breath before we continued with the 'what goes up' nature of IOW riding.
After many more leg sapping climbs , the one after the chalk decent being murder (or murderz, for the benefit of Daddy Wu
) we were rewarded with an excellent long singletrack downhill through the woods.
With faces beaming, we had another long, winding climb before the next, slightly shorter, singletrack decent.
It was then time to explore a new route that Jonny had planned.
We started off up hill and into the woods through a mix of mud and frozen mud! After a while, we emerged near the top of the golf course so had the excellent chalky downhill to look forward too, then the short (but strangely knackering!) spin back to the ferry.
Here Jonny created a new food group involving flaming hot monster munch and the thinest (and most expensive!) chicken sandwich know to man
A great days riding that certainly took it out of the legs The hills, with added mud, of the IOW are an amazing days exercise.
Yes it was cold...yes it was windy...and yes, I've got a hardly used pair of crank bros pedals for sale now
If you've read this far then you deserve some pics....
Four hearty souls met at Lymington for the 09:45 crossing to Yarmouth.
We'd been sat down for about 2 minutes before the conversation was onto celebrity fist idol (Heathy is always with us in spirit
).With the tone set, we decided to be naughty and ride the part of the island which has been designated no cycling (shhhh).
We headed off for the fort that overlooks The Needles. This was a mix of nice singletrack and some short road hops.
We arrived at the fort wth me constantly moaning about my SPD's (I've admited defeat...I'm a toe clip man. Always have been, always will be!) to be met with the most amazing view of The Needles.
We stopped for some pics and then decended the 'helter skelter' down to the car park below.
We then joined the trail up the long (killer!) hill to the Tennyson monument.
With lungs bursting from our chests, we arrived at the monument and had enough time to rest (and perv at a very attractive walker!) before a nice long grassy decent. It was here that the strength of the wind hit us.
With eyes streaming and faces stinging (and not from my last nights lamb madras...this time!) we arrived at the bottom and had a short road hop to the bottom of the golf course with a huge climb ahead of us.
Those who have been will know that this isn't a nice climb, but yesterday it was into a head wind!
A short stop half way allowed us to catch our breath before we continued with the 'what goes up' nature of IOW riding.
After many more leg sapping climbs , the one after the chalk decent being murder (or murderz, for the benefit of Daddy Wu
) we were rewarded with an excellent long singletrack downhill through the woods.With faces beaming, we had another long, winding climb before the next, slightly shorter, singletrack decent.
It was then time to explore a new route that Jonny had planned.
We started off up hill and into the woods through a mix of mud and frozen mud! After a while, we emerged near the top of the golf course so had the excellent chalky downhill to look forward too, then the short (but strangely knackering!) spin back to the ferry.
Here Jonny created a new food group involving flaming hot monster munch and the thinest (and most expensive!) chicken sandwich know to man
A great days riding that certainly took it out of the legs The hills, with added mud, of the IOW are an amazing days exercise.
Yes it was cold...yes it was windy...and yes, I've got a hardly used pair of crank bros pedals for sale now
If you've read this far then you deserve some pics....
i have only just finally got round to posting as i left the IOW, got home got showered and then got piked up for a few beers in London! 
