Today's Ride

You need lateral space to keep the bike under you too, especially if you're being knocked around by loose stones, and the faster you're going, the more space you need.

Last time I did this I ended up tumbling down the trail head over heel everyone (else) was laughing but I only damaged my clothes🙄

..an element of 'familiarity breeds contempt' too.. i ride this trail most weekends, i've been going to Burbage for most of my life so i know exactly what's coming.. alas, i just pushed it a little too hard yesterday.

The younger me would have been fine, i would have just hopped up onto the ledge with ease but more than that, i think your brain has a better ability to compute quickly incoming trail info when you're younger and give you those crucial miliseconds you need to figure out what you're going to do. 😁
 
The weather was so nice after all the rain over the weekend, so I went for a lunchbreak ride on the red I-still-don't-know-what-it-is-but-I-ride-it-anyways and it felt mostly great.
On roadbikes I'm always afraid that I'll get a puncture but nothing happened today.
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I made it up the first hill, the hill in the distance on the left will be next...
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Yay! From here back to the office it's only downhill.
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I really like this frame.
And now it's time for a coffee and some cookies 🤤
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almost made to the top! :cool: the pics do make it looks much less steep than it is (as usual, of course :D ). the soil is slippery when wet, when dry, so today was almost perfect a few days after the last rain. also, at the 'entrance' timing of the pedals are crucial, easy to lose the balance.

so, I was very happy almost conquering this section!

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only a few meters left. :)

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Confessions, it has been one month since my last ride (due to injury though I might add).

I planned on doing a small 3 mile loop that starts with bloomin climbs and then takes a turn off down a great fairly fast section back home. However once I reached the turn off I still felt good so carried on, there are no more routes home for a good few miles unless you turn back around so kind of committed. What can change in just a month, a new bloomin gate that's what making you dismount and putting a few railway sleepers into he ground as speed bumps on another section where I'm used to just rolling at speed. Very nice ride, stopped to take a couple of pictures which was most welcome.

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Slow and steady FTW

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you can nail it if you stay on these sections.. but if you go too fast.. your brain can't figure out your route in time for you to react.. o_O

I was thinking about your incident as I headed towards a rocky ledge with a drop of a couple of feet off the end, I turned off at the last moment and just went down the nice slope at the side of it instead. I was trying to make my mind up whether to do it or not all the way up to it and kept thinking "the bike is capable" but then I decided I didn't want more weeks injured and or damage to the bike.

Maybe next time
 
Stressy couple of work days this week, but today was so nice and sunny, if chilly, that I took time out to do a quick MTB ride on my easy-to-access 'Badlands' route.

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After rain, gale-force winds and zero-degree nights, it seemed like all of nature was out enjoying the sunshine: saw rabbits, a ginger possum, a large family of roos, and numerous birds, including the rare (for here) Rose Robin. I never see one of those when I have the right lens on my camera!

The usual route has been comprehensively churned up by forestry trucks, with large, deep puddles right across the track in places. Misjudged one and had to put a foot down in the icy water -- with frozen toes resulting.

Stopped on the way back to take a photo, propping the bike up with my helmet, then rode off wondering why my head felt cold -- after a km realised I had left the helmet behind and had to go back for it. Sometimes I do worry about cognitive decline . . .

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Came home via the local 'fitness trail' which the council built about five years ago with periodic exercise spots boasting pull-up bars, etc., but which has since become boggy and overgrown. Managed to coat myself and bike in a spray of noxious mud, no doubt containing all manner of contaminants from possum poo to artificial fertiliser. Short ride at 19km with 778 feet climbing, but so much better than stressing at my desk.

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Maybe as epic as @Betsy's recent off but not as serious as @Frankenorange' s crashes, I'll add to the tales of woe 🤣

Round 4 and the regional SWXC back at Newnham a few weeks ago. Glorious conditions and another amazing course, even better than the previous rounds. This was more technical and the climbs were a little less agressive. Mega dry, mega hot, it was set-up for a belter. My engine felt good and I was holding the very rear of my wave of riders, I'd even passed a few mid-lap 1 which is a big step up.

I'm deeply conscious that I don't want to ruin anyones race, so I perhaps, overly pay too much attention to faster riders behind me. I made the rookie mistake of letting one past on a technical A line decent when I should have waited 20 seconds or so to a safe passing place. The result was, off line I rode straight into a rock at lower speed and toppled over rolling down a very steep ravine.

There's nothing like that feeling of thinking, hmmm, I might stop rolling in a minute 🤣

After finally stopping, I managed to clamber back up, dust off the bike and continue down the descent, cursing my stupidity and trying to reduce my adrenaline levels. I'd lost over 5 minutes and was weighing up how to approach the rest of the race. I seriously contemplated giving up but the ego, and to be fair the experience of riding on a great course, out weighed the negativity, so I decided to get my breath back, cruise a bit and see how things would pan out.

Starting the second lap I realised my phone had dropped out of my pocket and was probably sitting somewhere in the ravine. I'd caught up with the last wave of riders, so I rode with them a bit and only then, did I check if I was in one piece. I was, but cut up all over the place, with a great looking bloody hand on my race number "Wilson"-esque 👌

So this time I safely dismounted and clambered back down and thankfully saw my phone face up, with the sun reflecting off the screen. I lost another 3 or 4 minutes and feeling a little better, I carried on, just about making the cut for a 4th lap. Somehow I'd only been lapped once. Passing more riders, I realised I might not be last and indeed, I placed 15/17 in the vets. Had I stayed upright, it would have been an even better but less spectacular story 😉

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This is near the end of the first lap, broken and mentally scambled. This simple rocky section felt like something out of Whistler.

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2 laps later and back on it... and some front wheel air!! 🤣

Chatting with control at the finish, I heard it'd be carnage with spills all over the place. I heard one go over in the same spot as me, a rider I'd passed just before that section.

Round 5 is back at Wheal Velocity, and the remaining rounds are west of Plymouth, so a bit easier for me to get to. I hope the positive, incremental gains I've seen continue, and I can finish the series "strong"; in my terms, I'm absolutely nowhere near the leaders who are a different breed.
 
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