Here we go for another weekend in the lakes. It was serious stuff; The Team was in town! I arrived about 7 ish to meet Rob and Clive in Sienna's for a bite to eat. Thing is, I'd had a long hot day in the office... so the first pint didn't touch the sides. And erm, neither did the 2nd, 3rd, 4th ... To cut a long story short, it was a late finish...
Up at the crack of oh, ten ish, we drove through to Ambleside area and set off over Claiffe Heights. Nice rolling descent down to Hawkshead and then over to Knipe fold; some fun rock slabs to skitter across with the back drop of some great scenery. We then headed through Hodge Close, batted through 'Machine Gun Alley' and headed over past Tilberthwaite; it wasn't the first time I was impressed by Clive's technical climbing skill. (Well, I suppose it is just DH in reverse!) We then headed back round on the road to Ambleside and called it a day.
Dave pulled up in Keswick around seven, we had a good dose of my dad's chilli, Clive headed off for an evening in Manchester, and we headed (back) to the pub. Again the occasion got the better of us and we all ended the night fully hydrated... (well, we had to drink Josh's share as he was at home 'doing homework' apparently!)
Day two; the classic Skiddaw loop. The weather was perfect, the trail is a classic that I never get bored of. We headed up Dash Falls, past Skiddaw House and then hugged the right hand side of the valley. Once again Clive showed how great bike handling skills can apply to the ups as well as the downs by clearing the maze of rocks up the right side of the valley. We turned left at the Skiddaw car park, dropped through the ruts to the East of Lattrig and then headed back across the face of the hill on some fun woodland singletrack.
Plenty of tea and apple pie later (no really!) we went our seperate ways. The next 'training camp' is in two weeks... let's just keep it away from any pubs shall we?
In my backyard
- Rich Rothwell
- Hi Y'All. My name is Rich and I’m from The North. No silly, not that North; The other North. The one just under Scotland. Even though The North is still in the grip of an ice age it’s actually a great place to ride. The Lakes, Dales and Scottish borders are all a stone’s throw away and there are some quality trails squirreled away in Northumberland. Long distance is where it’s at for me. Way before I thought about racing, the desire to disappear deep into the mountains and woods burned bright. Thousands of wilderness miles later I entered my first solo endurance race. And loved it. But the silent lure of the backcountry is the real flame for this moth. Over the coming seasons I will be at Endurance Races Near You; come and say Hi. But I will also be very far away; diving down isolated valleys and slipping silently across the fells while others sleep. I want to share the fun, pain, passion, frustration, excitement, joy, anger, lunacy, frivolity and sincerity of long distance biking through this blog. Riding, racing, commuting, training, tinkering, plotting, planning and exploring. The consuming rhythm of an activity that transcends the label ‘sport’.
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