Category: Mountain Biking

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Please vote for Chase Trails !

Please see the message from Chase Trails below, The Cannock Chase singletracks don’t build themselves so please give them your vote.

I’m writing on behalf of the volunteer trail building group Chase Trails. We’re delighted to announced that we have reached the semi-finals of the National Lottery awards.
 
For over 8 years Chase Trails volunteers have worked to design, build, maintenance mountain bike trails on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire. Over 100,000 people have now ridden the network of cycling trails built in partnership with  the Forestry Commission.
 
The trails continue to grow thanks to our efforts building trails every Sunday morning.   

I konw you have used the trails at Cannock in the past and I writing to ask if you would support our project by helping us promote this news and encouraging people to vote for us. By supporting Chase Trails you’ll be showing your support for the trails and the work the volunteers do to build and maintain them. We’d encourage all of the mountain bike community to get behind us and show their support for trail development and the future of sustainable mountain biking in the UK.
 
People can vote online www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards/best-sport-project/141/ or by calling 0844 836 9721 (voting closes at midday on 20 June so vote today)

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Sweden World Cup / World Masters Preview

Thurs 16th June will see a large team of Brits flying to Sweden to compete in the 2nd round of the 2011 MTBO World Cup and World Masters Championships. Sweden although being one of the top nations in the world in foot orienteering is relatively new to MTBO and it is hoped that hosting a World Cup round will increase participation in the country.

Full details at www.mtbosweden.se

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Dark and White #5 – Monsal Trail

Heavy showers punctuated the afternoon as I travelled up to the 5th round of the Dark and White Summer series 2011, centred on the newly finished Monsal Trail, complete with old lit railway tunnels. Another feature of the Monsal trail is that it nestles in a huge valley with outrageous climbs out to the north and south meaning that route choice would be very important.

I headed out south hoovering up controls but was a little hesitant with the navigation through Brushfield though noticed a few people steaming past me obviously knowing exactly where the correct trails lay from previous knowledge. We then had a seemingly unending series of farm gates to negotiate.

The decent to Monsal head viaduct was a little hairy and I enjoyed the stopping power of some new SLX brakes I have acquired to get me through the season whilst Avid look at my Elixirs under warranty.

It was a fairly straightforward route until Tideswell, where with time running out it was a matter of taking controlled risks as I was never going to complete the circuit through Wormhill in the time available.

I got it about right though steaming down into the finish just over 2 mins late.

Looking back I probably should have left the number 1 – 10 pointer which would probably have given me the time to complete the Wormhill loop.

The newly opened tunnels on the Monsal trail were great and make this a fantastic place to ride for all ages and abilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monsal_Trail

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Devon

Combining a long ride with a trip home in the car can be a good way of munching up the training miles without impacting too much on family time, cycling to where we are off to, or getting dropped off 3 hours from home!

So, at the end of our Cornwall holiday I found myself dropped off  just off the A30 south west of Exeter, on a lonely lane, with an 80-odd kilometre to ride back to my parents house near Taunton.

Last year I rode from Exeter Services via the A38, which was very boring, so this time I picked a more interesting route via Crediton and Tiverton through lots of back lanes and rural roads.

After a quick warm up on a more major road I dived left into a warren of little lanes, twisting and turning towards Credition, past curious little villages, old farmhouses and a patchwork of fields.

The road rolled over a seemingly never-ending series of short climbs and descents, before a fast drop into the market town of Credition. The last time there was about 20 years ago for the 100 th run of Kirton Hash  (set up by a couple of pals from the South West Junior Orienteering Squad), one of the many Devon Hash House Harriers groups now running. In fact I think it is now possible to hash every night of the week in the county (for those not in the know a description of Hashing can be found here).

From Credition I had a long slow climb up in to more typical Devon rolling countryside, with hills and dells sprinkled with farm houses, small woods and very little traffic. It was simply sublime as the sun slowly dipped towards the horizon.

Unfortunately, from Tiverton I had a 20 minute section on a very busy dual carriage-way, which was very unpleasant, before rejoining more familiar roads through Wellington and on to Taunton.

Parts of North Devon are just so far off the beaten track that time seems to have stood still and remind me of the area around Taunton 25 years ago. I look forward to a more relaxing ride through this beautiful area one day.

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Memory Lane

church, cheddon fitzpaineI’ve had a couple of weekends down at my parents in Taunton recently and have spent a few hours training in the lanes and old villages, soaking up the memories and enjoying fine views over the Vale in the May sunshine.

Quantock Orienteer’s were holding a‘JOG’ (Junior Orienteering Training event) one Saturday afternoon, organised by Judy Craddock who with her husband Roger introduced me to Orienteering in 1982. I thought I would drop in and say hello and after a natter ended up scuttling around a sprint score event in my cycling shoes skidding around the corners on my cleats, trying to beat 12 mins, as well as helping out a bit before continuing my training ride up into the Blackdowns.

Queens College was a great little map and the planning caught me out forcing me to retrace my steps for one control I could not get too because of uncrossable walls and fences. It was good to see lots of old faces and I will try to make a few more QO events in the future when I am down in Somreset.

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Dark & White Summer #3

The third round of this summers Dark and White evening series was a little closer to home South of Buxton near Longnor. I even managed to nav my way through some tiny lanes to avoid Ashborune’s rush hour (a sly route Julie P had suggested) and got there for a fairly early start.

There was a stiff wind blowing from the South and I had a feeling this would be an issue out on the course affecting route choice as the area is very exposed.

I decided that the valleys to the West would be fairly sheltered so headed off anticlockwise with the wind behind me. I completely cocked up my first checkpoint with a right schoolboy error. I always carry my control descriptions stuffed up my shorts, only resorting to them if I can’t see a checkpoint when I get to the centre of the circle but this time I paid for it, standing on top of an old railway bridge looking down to my first control on the cyclepath far below. Muppet! I should have known the organisers wouldn’t have put the control on a main road !

I had no choice but to leave it and cut my losses but I’d just thrown away 10 points !

I rode fairly well, and missed out a few controls not on my route, knowing there was no way anyone would clear up on this bigger than average map and finished strongly up the old railway line to the finish 4 mins late.

Those 10 points cost me 2nd place and I ended up 6th – Doh!