Spring took a cruel twist this week, with limited time to ride, yesterday I found myself staring at a winter landscape once more, I could have wept having made the effort to get up early to squeeze a ride out of a weekday. So what's a guy to do? I had to man the fuck up and get on with it. As time was of the essence I choose an on/off route and took the cross bike (March and the cross bike still isn't hung up!) the first thing that struck me as I climbed away from the house was that it wasn't as cold, this was good, the winter was harsh to say the least but this was much fresher, I'm guessing around zero degrees at most. The snowy roads looked like they were going to be a liability but the Maxxis Raze tyres seemed to cut through the white stuff and find black stuff to hang onto, so my confidence grew. The first tarmac descent started gingerly but then having switched off the "safety first" button, I eased off the anchors and cranked up the gears, brilliant. The sound of the cross tyres cutting through the snow at an ever increasing speed had already made the ride worthwhile.
Off road was a different proposition, the lack of real low temperatures had left the fire roads soft but white, like semolina, where you can't see the lumps until your eating them, that was hard work but hard work as we all know has its rewards and again once pointing the bike downwards despite the minimal braking induced face aching smiles. More tarmac and this time deeper snow but with only a couple of minor slips I was really starting to enjoy myself. Most of the singletrack is protected by trees so it all rode sublimely with the occasional snow pocket around the corner to catch me out. Once home I found it hard not to keep smiling to myself for the rest of the day. This little ride turned into probably my most enjoyable ride of the year, so glad to have mad the effort.
brakes were worked hard
tarmac not pictured
heavenly singletrack
it was a day for happy glasses
No comments:
Post a Comment