A nice bit of Winter sun this morning to give us another short sleeved single layer Winter ride as we hit the regular trails around Leith Hill.

I don't know if it was the sun that bought everyone out today or the fact that I had promised to bring along a young lady from my office but eleven riders set off from the Starveall car park bang on 9-30 a.m.

Unfortunately said young lady got a better offer than meeting a bunch of middle aged men in the woods so we had to put up with young Steve freshly arrived from his 18 months travelling the world. He looked well but the time off the bike meant that his legs were shot within about 20 minutes and despite making a good effort he had to bail out after a couple of hours. Welcome back Steve!

It's Movember and there was a lot of facial hair on show. As well as Alan's beard, Dave and Rob M's usual goatees and Rob's permanent 3-day growth Tim and I are both growing moustaches and Adam hadn't shaved for a few days either making us look a very hirsute bunch.

Rob also showed us the occasionally ridden and oft-missed entrance to the 'Snow Trail' also well-named as the Secret Garden and it was so good that we rode it twice as we circled around the admittedly squelchy trails.

But a good time was had by all and roll on next weekend.

A strange bit of weather today. Fog-lights required on the drive to the meeting point at Holmbury YHA but once we gained height we climbed out of the fog and were in a lovely bit of Winter sun all morning. The trails were also nice and dry and the firmest that we have seen this month with even the off-camber rooty Secret Squirrel trail being nice and grippy; all except for one root of course that took my front wheel away leading to an inelegant dismount.

Over the last 12 months or so we have tended to miss out Holmbury and head straight over to Pitch Hill but we took more time today to cover the network of singletrack trails that criss-cross this part of the country and were rewarded with some great riding.

After a couple of months away from cycle commuting Rob has been struggling to hang onto the back of the group on recent rides but he has been back on the treadmill again over the last few weeks and the jump in his fitness and stamina was noticeable; keep it up Rob!

And after a previous night's entertaining for me that included copious beers, red wine and half a bottle of port my mind wasn't quite as clear as it should have been although I always find that the best treatment when I'm hanging is to get out on the bike even if I was having to stop to pee more regularly than a middle-aged man with prostate trouble (I meet at least one of those criteria already).

We eventually headed over to Pitch Hill where we discovered yet another new line and bumped into Steven who has had his beloved Marin nicked out of his garage last week. But he has made up for it with another purchase, a nice looking Whyte E120 in striking white. We rode the Evian trail which also goes by another better known name and the builders have been busy reshaping some of the corners here and it was riding really sweetly when only 3 weeks ago it was absolutely treacherous.

More singletrack trails and we head back to Holmbury without even stopping at Peaslake Stores and are back in the cars with a nice 27km in our legs.

Pics first and ride report to follow but key points for me were:

Great to meet Gavin from Evolution Bikes in Lanzarote and what a great rider he was too

Nice to see Cas out for his first MTB ride with us this year on the day I was supposed to break 10,000km but missed it by 4 measly kilometres.

a long, long three hills ride. Only 25 miles but 4 hours 18 minutes to complete.

Great fun but characterised by mechanicals and losing riders

Mark having trouble with his front brake and riding from the top of Leith Hill less than an hour into the ride with only a working back brake. This was before he spotted that his rear wheel wasn't correctly located in the dropouts causing him terrible chainline issues and he was lucky he didn't come off in a bike and body breaking crash

Me asking that other bloke from MBR if he was Paul Burrell. No he wasn't but he does feature in MBR; I knew I recognised him

Spotting Yoghurt Girl yet again.

3,732 feet of vertical ascent (and of course descent too).