It’s easy to call a ride great when you ride Great Hill near Chorley in Lancashire. The weather has been amazing. Dry with cloudless skies. This time last year we were enjoying the coldest of springs. I think it broke records. The problem with the weather in northern England is that we often have theContinue reading “A great ride.”
Finding new challenges.
Having done a hard day’s work on Saturday I decided to wait until Monday to do my next ride. I didn’t feel on top form, still recovering from working on a long garden fence but I still wanted my ride to have a purpose. It has been quite breezy today and I thought it mightContinue reading “Finding new challenges.”
Trying a fast lap.
If you’ve read my blogs before you’ll have noticed that I ride Healey Nab a lot. It’s only 15 minutes ride away and has a series of man made MTB trails as well as some good natural riding. Last year I rode the red route in 11 minutes 12 seconds and one of this year’sContinue reading “Trying a fast lap.”
Clear blue skies.
Today we’ve had fantastic weather. Not a cloud in the sky all day. Despite the popular term “April showers” it’s not unusual for us to have a good, dry month in April. Before the vegetation grows too high it can be some of the best mountain biking of the year. Today I returned to theContinue reading “Clear blue skies.”
Mountain bike paradise.
Within a reasonable riding distance of my house, most riders would say that the closest to an MTB paradise is the area around Winter Hill, which is often referred to as Rivington, after the small village at the foot of the hill. To the north of Winter Hill you can do a high level route toContinue reading “Mountain bike paradise.”
Riding back 5,500 years.
My last ride was covered in my post “The World’s longest second”. It was a frantic and successful attempt to ride a segment in less than 22 minutes and 20 seconds. I beat the time by one second. I thought today that I should do something completely different where time wasn’t important. I decided toContinue reading “Riding back 5,500 years.”
The World’s longest second.
There are 60 seconds in a minute but I’ll explain later why one second of today’s ride became massively significant. I’ve done 3 days gardening this week so I might not have been in the best condition to set any records but I felt driven. Last year I rode up Great Hill and my timeContinue reading “The World’s longest second.”
Horses for courses.
Just as you need the right horse to perform best on a particular race course you need the right mountain bike. Today I wanted to push myself on 2 different pieces of trail. The first is a climb which takes over 2 minutes, so is equivalent to an 800m running race on a track. TheContinue reading “Horses for courses.”
A short ride in the sunshine.
The weather has been lovely today, but not especially warm. I would have waited until tomorrow to ride but I’ve been asked to do a days work. I can take the dog along, so that’s alright. He’s never been out with me for a day of gardening and is not the kind of dog who couldContinue reading “A short ride in the sunshine.”
Failed again.
Yesterday I did a days work. It happens occasionally. I was helping a friend who is a professional gardener so it was mainly grass cutting and weeding. It’s fairly physical but I wasn’t tired this morning so I did a not too hard ride. We’ve had no rain for a few days but some windContinue reading “Failed again.”
Mountainbiker 