GOTTA BE IN IT TO WHIN IT

"....Skinned our hearts ,and skinned our knees..." *

Me ,Andy ,Stu and Steve in the van ,met up with Gareth ,Dave ,Phil + Tom ,and Rick.

ME AT WHINLATTER. FIRST BIT. RIZE CARBON


STU ON HIS SPECIALIZED DEMO8


ANDY AND STU. FIRST REST STOP. GREAT VIEW OF THE COUNTRYSIDE PARTIALLY OBSCURED* BY SID AND EDDIE.


PHIL.CLIMBING .WOODLAND SINGLETRACK.

ANDY AND GARETH


Tired today . Late bed ,early up ,times 3 . Doesnt compute. Still.
Picked up the team van last night from Alan. Early start . Meet at Stu's just after 7 . Load up. 4 in the van + bikes/kit. Plenty room.
About 2 hrs up to Whinlatter . Keswick area . Bit farther up than you think . Not too many there when we arrive ,9ish. No problem parking up etc . Nice place. Fairly typical forest visitor centre type of place. Pay and display ,4 quid , bikes out , faff ,more faff ,and away.
I'll spare the gory details ,but , literally 30 seconds in ,I'm off. Stupid SPD moment on a skinny balance about 50 yds in. Dave's in front of me and he's kinda decked it too ,landing on his dodgy knee he doesnt like to talk about ,and 'stiff legging it'. This is shaping up. I'm leaking claret all over the gaff,and Daves hobbling about . If we looked back we'd probably still see the cars.
I've lowered my saddle for this play sesh ,so ,my thinking is ,if I put it up I wont be lured into this silliness in future. So I put it up and we set off.
Another 100 yards along theres a bit of a lumpy bit ahead. All the lads are through ,waiting ,for blood ? I dunno ,anyway , I can't say what happened ,but it involved a severely steep line with no transition ,an impending rock face and a handful of super grabby Avid Elixir CRs. The front one , I suppose,and I nail it but can't get my weight back,seat up,see? The end result is I'm doing a fairly good impression of a praying mantis looking for a contact lens. More claret . Other leg ,oh ,and a bit out of the left arm.'O' neg. The bike is 'parked' upside down ,which is a feature I believe Cannondale design in......
So , now I'm paying attention and wish I'd had an early night.

DAVE ON ONE OF THE MANY SWITCHBACK DHs
It's easy to say all the trail centres these days are formatted and follow a pattern of bog standardness. Whinlatter is most definitely a trail centre that's up there with the best . OK ,I've not done loads ,but ,this is pretty good compared to the ones I have. In all throughout the day there's something for everyone. The climbing's far from easy, and the downhills ,whilst all rideable ,with a bit of speed dont half keep you focused. The surface ,pretty much everywhere, is loose ,sharp ,skittery stones. It's a right laugh,but I wouldnt want to have a proper 'off'. In the trees ,sawn off branches also vie for attention. It's good ,just dont take your eyes off the ball.

RICK. INTO A SWITCHBACK. LOOSE STONES

ANDY GRIMACES AT HIS CHOICE OF BIKE FOR THE UPHILL SECTIONS.

TYPICAL PLAY AREA. LOOKS BIGGER IN REAL LIFE.

The first loop ,with a few stops ,it's red hot by the way,takes probably a few hours . Who's counting? We chill out in the rest / picnic area. Quite busy now,and after some much needed re-fuelling ,and tales of derring do,we set off for round two,the other loop ,south loop? Whatever.

All a bit more of the same . Tree lined singletrack punctuating more open hillside /view elements. It's very warm and bone dry ,but it's hard to find grip on the skatey stones. I've just spoke to Alan . He went up there earlier on in the year on a Cannondale Rush ( more towards lighter XC ) with super skinny 1.5 tyres on. It was wet through . Imagine the rest. Dodgy.

I nearly overcook it over a bermed corner ,but dont , again focuses the mind. The Rize works well here . Some of the guys are on 'bigger' bikes,flying on the downhills they pay for on the slogs uphill.

The Rize is probably more of a balanced ride. There's enough suss to open it up ,yet it's still very efficient uphill too. Open it up I did ,and there was one point near the finish I ran out of balls before the bike did. And I wasnt hanging about. Big ring and about 3 up at the back,chucking it into the corners,steering with my feet ,y'know?.Flying.It's good.'Rewards bravery' I said last week. Bravado ,stupidity ,recklessness ,call it what you will . It's fun. I occasionally pinch myself that it has come to this. Who'd have thought?

Back at the van ,and later on in the pub, we're all buzzing off it. Very quicky I go off the boil and need coffee. It was either that or another lap.

It's addictive.

I gotta score man ,I'm hurting bad......

Good turnout today ,good company ,good riding ,good weather ,good food ,good good good.

More.

* Seasons in the Sun . I dont normally do requests.

* Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.