Mountain Biking - It'snow joking matter!
06 March 2006, 11:24 AM
#1
Scooby Senior
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Mountain Biking - It'snow joking matter!
So we arrange a weekend in Wales mountain biking - easy? No. 3 guys all with jobs and family commitments is not an easy thing to do. It took about 2 months to find a date we could all do and then a few more weeks running about making plans and booking the B&B. As the weekend finally comes around the whole of the UK is engulfed in icy blasts of air straight out of the Arctic circle and 8 inches of snow is dumped on the region we are planning to visit the day before we are due to go. A worried night watching the weather on telly was followed by a large cooked breakfast and more checking of TV weather, teletext and the web for whatever weather reports of the area we could glean.
In the end we roll off at about 11am and strike out for the Marin trail near Betws-y-coed. Arriving at about 1pm we were glad to see that we were not the only nutters out in the snow with a fair few other hooligans already out and about it made the riding a little easier. Easy? HAH! I don't think so! 25km took us 5 hours to complete although the scenery was spectacular it was one hell of a slog. Seated climbs were the only option as the moment you stood there was no weight on the back wheel. The moment you went off-line you were slowed down and slid around making quick steering adjustments nigh-on impossible. Downhill was downright scary for the same off-line reasons. I went over the bars at least twice although landing in 8 inches of snow on top of a gorse bush is fun when you don't feel it!
Early on the ride we reached what I felt was the most soul destroying point of the ride - the point at which the trail crosses itself. Having just completed a very tough climb of about 2km (felt more like 20km!) you see marker 1.0?, the trail coming across at that point is marker 7.1 to give you a nice warm feeling that there is a hell of a lot of extra trail out there you have to cover! About 10km into the ride and as I finish a section of single track I find Mark and Chris in the middle of nowhere chatting to some Aussie guy carrying a snowboard. “Are there any hills around here mate? I’ve been walking for two hours!”
Walking? “Err, no mate but there’s a couple of mountains over there” pointing towards Snowdon. Each time we hit a gritted tarmaced road the sheer joy of being able to ride on a smooth surface with traction was akin to the first pint on Friday night! Coming off the end of "Dragons Tail" was a particularly painful memory as I lost control and caught the old "Joy-department" on the headstock of the bike. Painfully we pushed on around the trail towards the crossover again and I can only describe the final descent in snow as terrifying! I was cold, tired, light was failing and scared witless by the point I got to the top of the descent. On plunging down I just held on and wished the whole thing was over! We got back to the car and loaded up as the last rays of light left us and we got in and then went nowhere. the wheels were spinning furiously and the car was stuck... 10 minutes of backwards and forwards, pushing and bouncing and we finally got the car moving and made haste to the B&B and then the pub!
It wasn't so much the ride in the woods we had hoped for and more a war of attrition of man and bike verses the elements. Man and bike won this day but man definitely came away wounded, bike was fine after a little TLC and man was fine after 3 pints and a 16oz steak in the pub.
To be fair, this is an excellent trail and we were ambushed by the weather. We will be coming back in a few months time when the weather is a little more clement and I know that we will be a lot faster around the course and get much more out of it.
Some pix of Snowdonia at it's best - (I only took my mobile out on the trail so the pix are a bit poor - sorry)
View from the car coming off the ***:
My baby - 2006 Trek 8000zr:
Chris & Mark decide to take a break:
Same spot turned 90 degrees to the left:
Same spot turned 180 degrees around:
In the end we roll off at about 11am and strike out for the Marin trail near Betws-y-coed. Arriving at about 1pm we were glad to see that we were not the only nutters out in the snow with a fair few other hooligans already out and about it made the riding a little easier. Easy? HAH! I don't think so! 25km took us 5 hours to complete although the scenery was spectacular it was one hell of a slog. Seated climbs were the only option as the moment you stood there was no weight on the back wheel. The moment you went off-line you were slowed down and slid around making quick steering adjustments nigh-on impossible. Downhill was downright scary for the same off-line reasons. I went over the bars at least twice although landing in 8 inches of snow on top of a gorse bush is fun when you don't feel it!
Early on the ride we reached what I felt was the most soul destroying point of the ride - the point at which the trail crosses itself. Having just completed a very tough climb of about 2km (felt more like 20km!) you see marker 1.0?, the trail coming across at that point is marker 7.1 to give you a nice warm feeling that there is a hell of a lot of extra trail out there you have to cover! About 10km into the ride and as I finish a section of single track I find Mark and Chris in the middle of nowhere chatting to some Aussie guy carrying a snowboard. “Are there any hills around here mate? I’ve been walking for two hours!”
Walking? “Err, no mate but there’s a couple of mountains over there” pointing towards Snowdon. Each time we hit a gritted tarmaced road the sheer joy of being able to ride on a smooth surface with traction was akin to the first pint on Friday night! Coming off the end of "Dragons Tail" was a particularly painful memory as I lost control and caught the old "Joy-department" on the headstock of the bike. Painfully we pushed on around the trail towards the crossover again and I can only describe the final descent in snow as terrifying! I was cold, tired, light was failing and scared witless by the point I got to the top of the descent. On plunging down I just held on and wished the whole thing was over! We got back to the car and loaded up as the last rays of light left us and we got in and then went nowhere. the wheels were spinning furiously and the car was stuck... 10 minutes of backwards and forwards, pushing and bouncing and we finally got the car moving and made haste to the B&B and then the pub!It wasn't so much the ride in the woods we had hoped for and more a war of attrition of man and bike verses the elements. Man and bike won this day but man definitely came away wounded, bike was fine after a little TLC and man was fine after 3 pints and a 16oz steak in the pub.
To be fair, this is an excellent trail and we were ambushed by the weather. We will be coming back in a few months time when the weather is a little more clement and I know that we will be a lot faster around the course and get much more out of it.
Some pix of Snowdonia at it's best - (I only took my mobile out on the trail so the pix are a bit poor - sorry)
View from the car coming off the ***:
My baby - 2006 Trek 8000zr:
Chris & Mark decide to take a break:
Same spot turned 90 degrees to the left:
Same spot turned 180 degrees around:
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