Thursday 16 September 2010

Annual llandegla trip

Weather was looking grim so me and Johnnie headed for a trail centre, not been for a while and they've added quite a bit of stuff. The skills bit at the start is OK, had a go on the drops then the little jumps. 1st go on the big jumps was ok but 2nd time I fluffed the first and landed well out of shape, ahem, back to trail riding for now. Did the original red/black run as far as Offa's Dyke, good laugh, nice and fast singletrack downs, knees still sore so was pushing quite a few of the fire road climbs. Up Offa's for another run, this time we did parallel universe a jumpy section where we were warned "crash landing is dangerous" good to know. You also needed jumping skills AND landing skills, well useful to have both skills I guess, body armour also required - damn, I fail. I recklessly gave it a go anyway, loadsa fun, not so much jumps as launch pads, no jumping skills neccessary (good job as I have none) just hit it fast and you are catapulted into the air, wahey. Tabletops, step up and downs and some tame (ie you won't die if you come up short) doubles. We pushed straight back up and had another go at that, I tried to squash the jumps a bit so I wasn't overshooting the landings. Johnnie wasn't feeling quite so comfortable, some setup/getting used to new bike issues I think but he still enjoyed it. Did the rest of the loop with a good play on the pump track, VERY tiring on a sqaushy FSer but just about doable (ie i could get round a few times sans pedalling, I couldn't jump at all).
A monster burger at the cafe before we left, a decent day out. Liking what they've done with the place, rain held off too, only dissapointments were the notshore bit has been dropped, a cpl of closed sections and the ridiculous amount a crap left by bikers, gels, cake wrappers, inner tubes, relentless/monster cans, pretty annoying.

3 comments:

lowey said...

Not been for a couple of years and as it was I wouldn't have bothered. Worth a trip would you say ?

Donk said...

Erm...probably. The loop includes a long sedate out and back, best bits are at the far end, possibly not worth it but if you use offas dyke to redo the good bits then yeah, worth a trip. Definitley good for a backup plan on a lousy day.

Anonymous said...

no there is no way of completing the new bits andvstaying on the ground so not for you.
Yes I did not get FS and jumping. I could not time the compression of bike and the jumps and was being sprung by the suspension at times. It was very forgiving on landing but if I had not been on it I would have not needed it. Really need to practice jumps on FS
Johnnie