Waking up to the pic below from Nicky finally shook me out of my riding malaise.
I didn’t have an offroad bike in a useable state but a few minutes attacking the ‘cross bike with allen keys, a pointy stick, a tyre lever and a pump soon had it ready to go. In this time it had started snowing quite heavily. OK, there was no chance of the perfect winter wonderland conditions seen above but it would surely be a million times better than ploughing through sticky mud!
A few hundred yards from the house I pedalled past a car accident. Lots of damage to both cars, everyone seemed fine though so I carried on upwards. The reason I needed a tyre lever earlier was to fit my studded tyres. These are ace and I had plenty of traction, even overtaking a couple of cars on the descent between the reservoirs 
Heading offroad, traction became a bit less predictable. Underneath the inch or so of fresh powdery snow was sheet ice on top of uneven rocks – it wasn’t going to be an easy ride. Managed to get up to the pike (pushing a bit, mainly riding though) but coming down wasn’t going to be as straightforward. Had about 10 crashes, during one of which I managed to smash my ribs into a rock which brought tears to my eyes. Georges Lane was more of the same although I mainly remained upright.
Heading up the Winter Hill access road the weather suddenly closed in. Soon I was in a whiteout and then there was a bright flash followed very shortly by a loud clap of thunder. Eek! Decided it was probably wise to start heading downhill rather than carrying on over the top and down into Belmont.
Back down to Georges Lane, down Jon’s 200 yards (great fun, gaining speed despite brakes being fully on, lots of sliding but no crashing) then back home via a few more snowy trails.
Good to be back riding again, but currently full of painkillers which unfortunately aren’t really stopping much rib pain.
Comments
Leave a comment Trackback