6th February 2005 - Richard - Belmont Downs

I'm on my Jack Jones today so head over to Belmont for the first time in a couple of years to stretch my legs.

It's a mild morning and the trails are surprisingly hardpacked and dry as this area can get boggy at this time of the year.

I retrace some of our old trails finishing with a blast down Track 40 which is still just as much fun as it always was.

 

13th February 2005 - Richard and Sam - Swinley Forest

What's better than going out mountain biking? Taking your teenage son with you as well and watching him clean some of the trails!

Sam and I hook up with Mike, Gary, Matt and Vaughan for a spot of jumping combined with some XC.

It's an opportunity for me to wear the Roach armour I bought back in September last year for the first time. More to follow but here's the best of the pictures for the meantime

Vaughan gets some air in an extremely sticky gully

Matt before he landed heavily on his saddle breaking one of the rails

Sam rolls the gully

Some Video Clips

Vaughan getting air (right click and save target as) 483kb Movie file

Mike getting air (right click and save target as) 1.07mb Movie file

Richard on the smaller drop (right click and save target as) 1.6mb Movie file

Bike train off the smaller drop (right click and save target as) 2.2mb Movie file

Mike and Matt jump the root (right click and save target as) 3.1mb Movie file

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17th February 2005 Richard Terreinfietsroute, Kempenland

Also known as 'Mountain biking in mountainless Belgium' or 'Prince Albert returns to Belgium' or 'Failing to Get High in Holland'. That's enough of the bad puns, I'm on a Center Parcs holiday in De Vossemeren, Belgium and decide to take the PA along in case there is any spare time. I ask a couple of the Parc staff where the best riding is and they point me down the road to some purpose built trails which actually turn out to be in Holland (luckily for me we are only 750 metres from the border).

Terreinfietsroute, Kempenland is contained within a large area of coniferous forest and features four purpose built trails ranging from 21km up to 44km.

That's the good news. The bad news is that as expected, in featureless Holland the trails are perfectly flat which means constant pedaling. This rendered my Hope M4 disc brakes, most of my gears and my Fox Vanilla 130R's redundant but it was great to get out on the bike and put in some good mileage (or a good few klicks for our European friends).

There are plenty of signs indicating the route to follow although there is not much differentiation between the separate routes which caused me some confusion. I did get a little concerned at one stage as I realised I was in the middle of an unknown forest in Holland having covered at least 25 km and not really knowing how to get out except by following the route signs. Luckily, I continued to follow the signs and half an hour later recognised an area I had been in earlier and dead reckoned my way out by following a fire road out to the tarmac road.

Still, don't let that put you off. If you are in the area, take your bike and head over there for some good old XC trails.

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Routes on Epsom Downs

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Fox Vanilla 130R Forx

27th February 2005 Richard and Alan - Leith Hill and Holmbury Hill

It's forecast for minus 7 overnight and it's bloody freezing as Alan and I wait in the car park for Gary who never did show up. We eventually give up and head up Regurgitator and along Summer Lightning for a tour across two of The Surrey Hills 3 main heights.

The wind is bitingly cold and the weeks snow has turned large sections of the trails into a boggy mush.

The weather is freakish, bright winter sun, followed by a heavy snowstorm, mist and then sun again as we struggle across the hills.

Barry Knows Best is a disappointment after all the work put in a few weeks ago. Large sections of the trail still seems as bad as ever although a few sections towards the end have held up okay.

But never mind I think, the weather will provide some great photo opportunities. Even this thought is dashed when I pull out the camera and realise I have forgotten to pack the battery which is sitting at home on the re-charger.

Oh well, here are a few pictures of those warm summer days to remind us of what we are missing.

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