Friday, 12 February 2016

Riding Lanes on the 29er

Tiredness.  Two early starts and standing around for hours doing nothing interesting whilst soil is being pulled from trial pits is surprisingly tiring.  Especially with a big gym session on Tuesday.  I don't know why I don't blog about the gym, it's one of my favourite times, which is why I continue to go, despite the fact is destroys my legs for the remainder of the working week. Even with 40 minutes of early evening sleep I was still tired.  There was no way a tough technical Wednesday ride was going to happen. 

Some steady spinning on the roadie though, that would be perfect.  Bike was ready to go (on an audax, still) and I got it out to the garden gate before I noticed the glitter fairies were here.  Finally, beautiful clear winter skies and frosts. 


However,  this year there will be no riding of road bikes in the ice. Quite frankly, it is stupid and dangerous and totally unnecessary when there are mountain bikes.  Roadie back in, kit into backpack, 29er out.  It is, however, much harder to stay steady on the MTB.  They just need more effort, even on tarmac.  With the cold coming in quickly, the extra effort wasn't all bad, and the work soon warmed my core and fingers. 

Colwall.  Typical West-of-Malvern village, with a green, phone box, post box, notice board, and a strong smell of hash and vegetarian food.


It was dark.  Moonless.  The light pollution from Malvern silhouetting the hills as rabbits hopped about trying to avoid the beam of the headtorch.



I rode up to Wellington Heath hoping to get a better outline of the hills on the way, but it was just too dark, so the best was a vague fuzzy haze and the twinkles of West Malvern.



There were badgers running, a brown owl in a tree and rabbits everywhere, but the only one I could get a photo of was this unfortunate furryfella, as I stopped to check he was dead and not just injured. What with traffic, badger baiters in Ledbury and the barbaric and pointless government cull just over the county border, badgers in our area have a hard time living a natural life.




No comments:

Post a Comment