iBikeRide.com

Great day at Aston Hill today (which re-opened today for the Demo day and onwards). Had an hour and a half to play with and was still pretty under the weather with flu so sessioned a few of my favourite runs down. Kinda wakes you up that place

Got more time tomorrow so heading back for a full day to play on them all. Blogg is here
http://ibikeride.com/MyBlog/Aston-Hill-is-Back.-Long-Live-The- Hill.html

Also made some good contacts with some of the bike manufacturers especially the folks at Saracen.

Laters

Had my second race on Saturday; the Vigne-a-Vigne at Lourensford estate. Signed up for the 21 km, which was a very nice race. A few hills, some nice river crossings and straight along the vineyards and apple orchards. Unfortunately no single track, but all in all a nice race. The major attraction was as well to witness the finish of the Cape Epic, an 8 day stage race! Those guys are awesome, but not a race I ever want to do

I went for my 1st 'proper' ride thurs, meaning i boarded a train & actually left greater london!

I went to saunderton (chilterns)with about 5hrs to play with. Having no real route planned, and armed only with a handful of OS maps (no compass) i had a vague ambition of maybe reaching christmas common (which id read good things about) via stokenchurch + a couple of nice looking hills and an off-road racetrack id spotted on the aerial photos.

I found the 'racetrack' - obviously intended for motorbikes and in very poor condition, couple of ok looking jumps but way too risky + secluded to think about doing much with (alone/no mobile signal).

Didnt even get as far as stokenchurch before getting lost in a forest & realising i had to turn round to get the train back. Now i understand why published routes have such a lot of tarmac - its to avoid pushing up ploughed field 'footpaths' & clambering over stiles every 5 mins. Ill know next time

All in all an encouraging 1st day - couple of pleasingly scary moments and one bail out on a DH section that looked deceptively mild on the map. And i was spared any punctures - very welcome as i only had the shock-pump to repair them with

"Respect!" for breaking out of the big smoke psych!
It is frustrating making a new route work especially if you dont know the area.
Keep up the good work.
Your frustration about the open routes is felt by many of us and is one of the reasons why we should all support the IMBA.
Later
Buster.

Still busy trying to get my fitness back up to an acceptable standard but had a nice ride around Richmond park yesterday, found some nice little downhill'ish sections which was fun.

Starting tomorrow I am commuting to work on my bike so the fitness should be back to normal soon.