Viernes con Kandani

Today was the warmest day so far. We met kandani at 3.30 ,it was still very warm and they teased Jane for having bare legs and arms because for them it was still muy frio :) .We set out in a very steady, even slow manner. We assumed it was tranquilo because there is a race at Can Trull on Sunday. But as soon as we hit the off - road, the pace jumped way up.

Werner was leading again, and was very excited because he’d discovered a new climb - Casa Rojo. Werner has an amazing knowledge of la isla’s trails, so for him to find a new one is astounding. I rode alongside him and he turned to me very excited and said in his excellent German spanglish “Ya, ya I find nuevo climb, mucho subida, mas duro mas strong, si, si…20 percents! ….ya”

The climb of Casa Rojo turned out to be one of the many utility access roads. One of the companies like telephonica or the electricity build something on top of the hills and cut a rough access road up one side and often down the other side. The rain and baking sun soon turn these into very rough tracks with nice loose gravely hairpins. Me and Jane crest in the front group and we wait for the others. Once regrouped someone shouts “attaque, attaque!” and we disappear in a cloud of dust down the other side, sliding and giggling on the loose bends :)After a hard blast through twisty rocky caminos we get to Can Trull (pron.troy)

Can Trull is restaurant and banqueting hall set up by Art, a nice chap we met a few months ago. He does all sorts of functons and weddings here. But, also his sons are bikers and he’s a bike fanatic! So, he has built and crammed a five km mtb course into the grounds :) It’s fantastic, it twists and turns, lots of steep drop ins and the best and scariest bits are the wooden ramps. These are like decking but are built to cross ditches and some run through trees……..excellent I meet Art out on the course and he tells me that they hosted a round of the Copa Catalana ,their version of the national series, last October.

kandani ride

This afternoon we rode over to Santa Eularia to go out with the guys from Kandani on their Wednesday afternoon mtb training ride. Ten of us set out through the deserted siesta time streets of  Santa Eularia, up to the rotunda and down the ‘Roman Singletrack’ -  the romans were busy here some time ago and built a beautiful harbour and bridge. Not much has been done to it since they left, so it makes good rocky mtb riding J. 

Everyone was a bit frisky tonight and we were flying through the singletrack. Werner had some special neuvo caminos for us. He’d been out earlier in the day cutting back bushes and branches on some excellent steep, rocky  hanging off the back of the saddle stuff……big grins and muy biens all around…..yay!p 

After about an hour and a half of  ups and downs and ins and outs of the trees, the pace picked up for the blast back toward home.  This was excellent, lined out like a road race on rutted, pot holed tracks. It’s times like this when you learn that loose gravel has so much more grip than you think  :-o

On the road into Santa Eularia people gradually pulled off the group and at the shop Pascual asked if we were up for more on Friday.  Cool!

Jane's new shoes

On Saturday we went to Run to Live to get Jane some off road running shoes. She has been running off road some Thursday nights with her running group. She had towalk and then run for a  time on the treadmill and then was given a gait analysis on video by the very nice Alan.

She bought some lovely red and grey Asics :) 

Sunday Ride

After the heavy snows of earlier in the week, we didn't know what to expect on the trails this weekend. Joining us today for his first ride since his disastrous attempt at the Trans Wales last year is Parky! - The SWRC's blog meister.

Heading off-road the slippery snow from earlier in the week had been replaced by the more usual slippery mud :)

As we progressed across the Roughs some areas were, strangely, still covered in several inches of crunchy snow which was fun. It took the others a little while to adapt to the snow riding,but they soon got it.

At Abinger I made a mistake and turned right. So to get back on track we had to ride up Rad Lane. Rad lane is a bridleway and is often tricky to ride because of a couple of muddy sections. Because of the melting snow the mud section was much longer and extremely challenging. I dabbed at least five times! :)

Up over Holmbury the trails were pretty clear, at the top we met with Jason and Gary out with the Moose Cycles ride. Their Wales trip to Cwmcarn had been called off because of ice dropping onto vehicles from the rigging of the Severn Bridge.
We did a couple of loops of Holmbury taking in Telegraph row. Alan liked this trail so much that he logged it's position on his gps. :)

We headed back across the Roughs attacking each other repeatedly until Jane finally gapped Alan, I came around him and almost caught her before we got to the icy wet 'truce' area :) On Hole Hill Alan and Paul rode away, I was stuffed I've only got a couple of hours in me at the moment.

Great fun :)

Tuesday mtb

We set out a bit later today because of the minus 5 in the night was still hanging on to the morning:)

Roger arrived in brilliant sunshine at about 11 ish, it had taken him tw0 hours to ride the 15 miles that normally takes him about an hour. 

Once we were off road it was beautiful deep and soft squeaky snow. At first it was quite tricky to ride and I couldn't stay with Roger at all ( after all he'd had 2 hours more practice than me :)

Across the roughs the snow was very deep and a couple of time we had to push the bikes to a shallower bit.

Once over White Down the going got bit easier and the girly squeals lessened as the font wheels slipped less :)

From here we crossed the A25 at Abinger, then took the bridleway around the back of Shere. After a loop to Albury and back we headed into Shere for tea and toast.

Sitting at the back of the cafe were Gary and Eric! After some gossip and toast we headed back over the Roughs.


At White down me and Roger elected to ride up the road hill, while Gary and Eric carried on off road. The on road was much more difficult than off, as the snow was compressed solid. I dabbed twice, it was that slippery! Once over the top we cruised steadily down the hill until we came out into the sunshine where the ice had softened. Suddenly Roger's front wheel slipped and in slow motion he slid to the ground in front of me. I could do nothing and landed on top of him, a surprisingly soft landing! We lay in the floor tangled up like a game of twister and giggled for a while. No physical damage done maybe some ego bruising though :-)

Box Hill

No biking today, we have 180mm of snow......hurrah!

Unable to buy a sledge me and Jane went to Box Hill where there were loads of people boarding, skiing and sledging. On the way back I found an old skate board with no wheels......excellent!! 

..it hasn't rained for at least three days and it's been below zero and windy. This means dry, fast trails, it also means that we freeze :)

The Santa Cruz is in Greg's to have lots of stuff fixed - bushings, headset, fork service and maybe a BB. So I get the Marin out of the attic.  I bought it as a complete bike to do la ruta de los conquistadores on a few years ago with my bonus from André when I worked for him during Wimbledon.  I hated this bike with a passion, it was uncomfortable and handled like a pig. When I got back from la ruta, I switched all of the bits to a hand job frame and chucked André in the attic. Recently I rebuilt it with a new magura Durin 80mm fork, didn't like the look of it and chucked it back in the attic. Today I had no choice, I nothing else to ride! 

Me, Paul and Jane did a fantastic three hour ride around Shere, Albury and the North Downs on hard packed trails. The bike was fantastic! It was light, flickable accelerated incredibly quickly and just felt great. It's amazing what a good fork can do................ I like it now :)

I've just gone into the garden to weigh it and it's covered in snow!!  Hurrah!!! Snow riding with Roger on Tuesday