Reading Off Road Route Conditions

After all the rain last night and it still raining when we turned up this morning I don't think any of us were looking forward to going out to mark out the mountain bike route today. However, once you get over the initial "eurgh, I'm getting wet" it's no where near as bad as I was expecting.

As for the course conditions, guess what... it's wet and muddy. The good news is that it's still surprisingly rideable. I rode the second half of the medium loop and the long route extension and don't think I found anything that really needed you to get off and push. I think we've had so much rain in such a short period that it's mostly resting on the surface as standing water rather than soaking in to form that kind of unrideable, sticky mud that we had at the Cliddesden event.

There are some slippery roots to watch out for on some of the sections through the woods and as Dean said in his earlier post, walk down the steps, they might look pretty straight forward from the top but they get worse as you go down. They're tricky enough in the dry and have a bit of a reputation for injuring local mountain bikers.

Remember, it's mountain biking, it's autumn and we're in England, you've gotta expect a bit of mud so make use of the free demo Gore Bike Wear clothing and go out and play in the puddles. See you tomorrow.