Out in the Sticks

Time to get back out on the mountain bike (MtB) as there’s no point having it if I’m going to spend so much time riding on the road. That, and I have missed cross country (XC) riding since leaving Melbourne.

So, with the sun shining, I headed out to the TrailBreak riding event at Princes Risborough - a small village/town to the north east of London. TrailBreak organise trail rides through south-east England, and this one had three rides to do - short, medium and long. I chose medium, which was advertised as 3.5-5.5hrs to do, simply because I’d paid for the train trip there and felt the short ride wasn’t really worth the cost of train and entry.
I was soon to discover that XC in England was somewhat different to XC in Australia. There really wasn’t much technical singletrack trails like I was hoping for, as most of the ride was on walking trails or unsealed/gravel backlanes, with plenty of tarmac roads between them. Don’t get me wrong here, as it was an enjoyable ride through the English countryside and forests, but when I reached the finish in just under 2hrs20mins I was a little surprised to finish so quickly. I hadn’t really pushed things either as this was the first time back on the MtB (properly) in nearly 3 years - even spending some time faffing about on the bike to take the pic here.
There was a good friendly atmosphere for the day as well as plenty of kids out on the trails too. It was a good day out and good to start picking the skills back up after finding myself a tad rusty. And no falls, which is always a good thing.

With this in mind, I headed out to an Evans’ Ride It! event last Saturday. TrailBreak were also doing one, but theirs was a 6 mile ride from the train station versus just a 1 mile ride for the Evans one. If you’re thinking (like I did) that the 1 mile was going to be easy, well, here’s the data for it and this was just to get to the start!

Again, I chose the medium event, and this one, through the countryside near Reading, was a vast improvement upon the last. Far more forestry and trails through them. Still plenty of backlanes (both sealed and tarmac), but there are so many roads across England and I guess you do need to get from one trail to the next. There were also quite a few more horses out on the trails as well as hikers, and I have no problem sharing the trails with them. It’s just a matter of being able to ride where you can in these areas, and I do appreciate these groups like Evans Cycles and TrailBreak puting these events on with what they have.
A bit of light rain for this ride, which made the tree roots on the trails a little slippery and there was even some mud and puddles in places. It did keep me on my toes as I stayed upright for the duration. Some good trails and I can see the appeal of hiking through such a picturesque area near the Thames. Riding the ridge trails along a section of the Thames was a bit of a throwback to the trails along the Yarra in Melb - just way cooler... I got a little more bang-for-my-buck this time as the course was nearly 10kms longer - I did it in just under 2hrs40mins.

Both groups do well organised events, with the XC on the Saturday and the road riding (sportive) event on the Sundays. As much as I’d like to do both days, I do need to give the legs a day off after racking up over 150kms in commuting during the week...