Monday, January 31, 2011

January Southwest Downhill Trip



Three days, seven riders and some of the best DH the southwest of England has to offer. Even a nonchalantly absent porter and a wrong turning leading to a detour through the steepest roads in Dartmoor couldn't dampen our spirits as we headed down to Devon to ride the tracks at Tavistock Woodlands. The weather was cold but dry, giving some of the best riding conditions you could reasonably expect in January. Crash of the day goes to Pete for landing on his head off a two metre drop.

Day two saw us joined at Gawton by Bill and friends in his well-travelled camper van, complete with generator powered cheese toastie machine in the back. The tracks at Gawton were a good as ever, and we treated all three to repeated runs. No signs of the rumoured forth track spotted yet though...

Finally we headed up to Triscombe for the much delayed Round 2 of the UK Bike Park winter series. Well done to Pete, Callum and Rob who spread themselves throughout the Senior Men's field and Ant who tackled the course in the hardtail category (http://www.rootsandrain.co.uk/race282/2011-jan-30-10-ukbp-winter-2-triscombe/). The rest of us had fun sessioning some of the other tracks to be found in the area and watching the race runs.

So, there we go. What did we learn? That sometimes my minibus driving leaves something to be desired? Yup... That Saltash Waitrose shuts at 7pm not 8pm? Yup... That three consecutive days of pushing up and riding back down is pretty tiring? Yup. Bring on the next uplift day :)

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