Dene, thanks for your post suggesting a club ride at Glentress! Great idea! Really sorry you couldn’t make it along because of your snowboarding injury. But Dene, if you’re reading this, it was a terrible day out; nobody enjoyed it, the trails were grim, the bikes were terrible, the weather was just awful. Now, for everyone else, here’s what you really missed…..
WHAT A FANTASTIC DAY OUT!! We turned up (in a slightly disorganised fashion) and stepped out of warm cars/van to be greeted by a chilly -2 degree, frosty day. With any headwind it would feel even colder. 3 of us had organised demo bikes courtesy of club membership and Alpine’s support so once bikes were collected and fettled we started the climb from the new Peel Centre with a vague notion of doing the Black route but seeing how people felt by the time we reached the Buzzard’s Nest car park.
Turns out we all kinda felt like the Black route was the best choice on a cold, bright, sunny day where the trails were frozen hard but bone dry. Despite the climbing, spirits were high, especially Sam who seemed to be enjoying her demo Trek full suss and was climbing really well! By the end of the first good piece of black singletrack (Soor Plums) Stuart was hooked on the Santa Cruz Blur LT he’d rented – his first ride on a full suss! And he was a demon rider on it too!
We regrouped at the top of the climb at Shieldgreen Kipps to refuel and enjoy the wintery view out across the Tweed valley but didn’t stop for long because of the bitter cold. More hooning descents and a climb got us to the mast at Dunslair Heights where I noticed a slowish puncture on my demo Heckler. Pumping in a bit more air I decided to see how far I could get before replacing the tube – about half way along the boundary trail descent as it turned out. Tube replaced we continued with the Black route descent and by the bottom of Leithen Door we were all agreed that the trails were in great condition with tons of grip and we were all downhill gods – big smiles all around!
The beauty of Glentress is that it caters for whatever you feel like riding so at the top of Deliverance we split into 3 groups – Stuart & John continuing with the Black route, Sam and Simon opting to join the lower sections of Red and myself and Kev heading up to take in Spooky Wood. It was basically more of the same; grinding out the climbs in the slowly fading light and nailing the dry, fast descents and getting a big buzz from it with my favourites of the day being Super G and Magic Mushroom.
Shortly before 4pm we’d all regrouped back at the new cafe for hot drinks and a bite to eat. Despite the queues the food seemed to be coming out pretty quickly so the new folks seem to be getting on top of the business. Plenty of good post-ride chat had at the table and a totally fantastic day out for all who were able to make it. (hope your back is better soon Dene!)
Wintery Glentress, minus Dene
Sad I missed it due to work stuff, but it sounds ace. Got me in the mood to get out on my bike again.
Good report, sounds awesome, makes me wish I’d made it (although Dawn and I had a cracking sub-zero road ride on the lanes around EK on the CX bikes :~) ).
Yeah, spoke to Kev yesterday and he said it was a top day! Sorry to have missed it. I guess my body’s trying to tell me something……
I’ll be back out there soon enough though and great to hear you had a good time, GT never fails.
On a different note Kev and I are doing GT7 and I’ll also do the enduro. You should get your name down soon! Definitely puts a focus on your riding when you have a race looming!
D
sounds cracking indeed. 2 of us did the Ardgaran loop – lovely and crispy and frosty, not a drop of mud anywhere. Quite challenging on the cx bike though…..
The Trek Lush was a dream to ride and climb!! I think I’ll be selling my Trek “The Tank” Fuel. Great day out though, and was good to have some company again. Its been too long… bring on many more good rides in 2012.