Minchmoor Loop – Ride Report

I’ve done this ride a couple of times before but always on my own so I’ve been wanting to share this amazing route with folks from GMBC and this weekend was the chance to do just that!  And what an amazing day it turned out to be………9 of us (Gav, Alex, Robin, Stuart, Barry, Barry’s mate Colin, Ieva, Ryszard and myself) met up at Innerleithen and we were starting the unrelenting climb by 10:40.  For this ride both Barry & Alex had shiny new bikes to play with too – they wouldn’t be shiny for too long as the recent rain meant the trails were greasy.  The climb out of Innerleithen is a pretty tough warm up but it’s a quick way to gain height and a chance for those with a trail centre bug to get their fix before we headed out into the hills to start the ride proper!

We stopped for a quick refuel up at the trig point on Minchmoor before fiddling with knobs and dropping seatposts to blast down the trail.  That would be the last time we saw groomed trail centre tracks for a good few hours as we turned on to the natural trails for some even better riding.  The route then undulated (code language for some down but plenty of up too) over Minchmoor.  There was one cracking long descent which proved that fun downhills aren’t the preserve of trail centres and even wheels-belong-on-the-ground Ryszard managed to get some “phat air”.  En route to our next food stop Robin somehow managed to lose a bolt holding on his rear brake caliper and almost lost the 2nd one too; a lucky spare bolt got him going safely again (NB: old pinch bolts from Shimano Hollowtech cranks also fit disc brake mounts!).

After enjoying the views over to the Eildons at our 2nd food stop we began the first of our amazing natural singletrack descents.  It started off on a muddy, slippery rutted path before turning into narrow, heather-lined singletrack with the occasional rock and then becomes a bermy, rocky trail back down to fireroad – at which point Gav realised his rear brake had seized on – cue replacing of pads and much swearing and hitting the bike.  It wasn’t long into a chunk of fireroad before Alex had a torn sidewall on his new Lapierre to add to his earlier snapped brake lever clamp and Gav seized (no pun intended) the opportunity to swap the more worn front pads for the fresh rear pads in an effort to ease the brake rub.  It worked, a bit, but would give Gav one heck of a workout as we were only about half way round.

The next fun section of singletrack saw us turn off the fireroad into cleared forest and some steep, narrow trails over roots and a nasty, off camber right-hander then a short blast down a fireroad – through a deep water splash for a near-complete soaking and then off the fireroad into the highlight of the day – more twisty, narrow, rooty singletrack through trees, over a broken wall before swooping down into a beautiful forest with dappled sunlight, pine needles and perfect natural jumps.  At the bottom everyone had a buzz and couldn’t believe the quality of trails they were riding.

At this point some folks were starting to run out of water and food (it’s a long ride and needs plenty of supplies as there are no food stops like on the Mountain Marathon course).  After a trundle along the cycle route we reached a decision point – head up for a killer switchback climb and a potentially very muddy descent or continue along the road to do the final fireroad climb and Cadon Bank descent and get to the pub for refreshments.  Time was against us so the quick route to the pub won out.  We still had a long draggy fireroad climb ahead but spirits lifted at the sight of Innerleithen and the final descent of the day.  Glad to say we had no casualties on the final run down except a couple of punctures near the top.  And for some folks this was the first time at Innerleithen too.

It was a bit of an epic ride; big climbs, a long distance (40k – and we missed out a section of it!), big views, great weather, big descents and top class singletrack.  It all made for a great ride and given the enjoyment factor I reckon it won’t be too long before we put it back on the calendar.  So, if you missed out this time you wont have long to wait!

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