After the big annual trip riding down hill in foreign lands it was back to pedalling the hardtail on familiar trails on Saturday....
Seven of us were just leaving the pub car park when doc and his daughter Alex arrived a few minutes late so we turned round and continued talking up the holiday while they got the bikes out of the car and got ready.
We initially headed towards Calverton but hadn't gone a mile before we were standing around waiting for Doc and Simon to pump up tyres. Doc had fitted some sort of bodged tubeless system to his xc bike despite problems with the same on his down hill bike while we were on holiday. Those of us who are firmly in the "do tubeless properly with UST" camp obviously took the opportunity to dish out the banter! Another mile or so on we were waiting again for Simon to pump a bit more. This time the slime worked and sealed whatever holes he had.
After 3 weeks of no XC riding I was immediately going backwards in the pack as we climbed the little hill on the bridleway through the golf course. It's amazing how quickly you get off the pace! Once we had skirted the game of cricket in Woodborough the ride got up to a decent pace with Baz leading a route around the Trent valley taking us eventually and inevitably to The Vol for a couple of pints before the sprint back.
I managed most of the ride ok but died on the sprint and rolled in to the car park last. I need to get some miles in and get some fitness back!
