samuri.co.uk

Bike: Chameleon
Distance: 40 miles

YAY! Mountain bike ride! I thought I should get a few in before I do Keilder 100 next weekend. I’m still worried about my back, even after this ride it was giving me quite a bit of pain.

Anyway, I set off and headed for Rivington, up to the tops where I met Matt, no doubt churning out a 50 at warp speed. His legs look like Chris Hoy’s whereas the rest of him is skinny. We chatted for a short while but I was cold and wanted to get going so we split and I headed up to Winter Hill. Very, very windy on the top there, properly hard work riding up to the mast.

Then I had a banana and some porn sweets.

Then I completed the smoothest and cleanest run I have ever done of San Marino. It was virtually flawless, I probably only touched the ground twice. Brilliant. Then I climbed back up to the top but forgot to check my time at the top, it wasn’t fast though. Over to the Hordern Stoops descent which is the only descent up Rivington where I would ever drop my saddle. However, bouyed up on my previous run and the relatively painless climb, I decided to leave it up. This would bite me.

Now I did the hard bit no problem, but then I reached the bridge at the bottom. Here’s the approach.

Nothing a riding god like me can’t handle, eh? Well there’s a drop that’s bigger than it looks followed by one of those slats on the bridge which caught my front wheel, all my weight was forwards so when the wheel flew sideways, I flew over the bars and landed head first in some of the oldest, stagnetest, stinky water I have ever come across.

My head was in the water where that wooden plank is on the top right! How the hell did I get that far? I was absolutely drenched in this stuff and spent a few minutes trying to wipe as much of it off as I could on the grass. URRGH!

Then I carried on riding, godlike, down the ICR, past the barns, past simon’s and matt’s houses and took the canal home to Hindley followed by MX trails to ours. Good ride but I’m properly bothered about my back. My camelbak was heavier than I thought it would be, I might try and forgoe it altogether for Keilder, fit a saddle bag and just carry my coat in my back pocket.