Hills 1 : Dave 0

A lakes ride and as per usual the rollers do things a little differently, meet point was wilf's cafe for a fry up, then on to Windermere, park up gear up and set off to...the ferry, good job really, wheeled out my hemlock still covered in Spanish dust and as it turns out not built properly, ferry ride gave me a chance to put my bars on straight. First climb was a biggy up belt ash coppice, was feeling good despite not having ridden figured with no Simon behind me I wouldn't have anyone breathing down my neck, wrong! Ian's lad Alex turned out to be a fit bugger, I was doing ok but ran into trouble, I could hear Alex behind me so I didn't want to stall and mess up his line, kept going til I pretty much collapsed chest heaving and air rasping my throat. Awesome ****ed myself up on the first climb, everyone passed me and I pushed and struggled up at the back. By the top I was feeling well rough, throat red raw and a bit nauseous. Oops. We rode across Claife heights and did colthouse descent, lovely but wet but he hit it pretty quick Colin fist ride out on his Bronson nearly came unstuck in front of me but we all made it down. Over to hawkshead and up vicarage climb I realised I'd have the chance to clean this for the first time as there were riders ahead to open the gate, no chance I was trying it today tho, I was just nursing myself around this ride. So as I followed mike through the gate and kept going cursing my stupidity, wasn't too bad as it turned out. North face trail is in a mess, loads of fallen trees only got to ride some of it, I showed the lads suicide drop which everyone liked.

Cafe stop, big cream tea and a chinwag, we were a bit chilly as we geared up again but soon warmed up on the boat opposite the visitors centre, I don't really rate this as a down, steep, babies head rocks and slippy slabs, so as you can guess I didn't appreciate going up it, ah well suck it up buttercup. Photo op at the fox and then down the trail named after it, nice! A 4x4 track, a bit wiggly, a bit rocky a few drops, nice. The usual road climb to near sawrey and on to far sawrey a bit of fire road climbing got us to the top of the first climb, this is more like, rooty, off camber and steep to start gradient easing off and speed increased, watching out for the slippery slab, I only spotted it as it appeared around a corner me going too quick. eek! slam on for half a second before I was on it, smooth thoughts no braking or turning, phew, over it, shout a warning to those behind and keep on. A second slab further down nearly had me but I kept it together and big smiles all round at the bottom. Ferry back across and an easy ride back to the car for a Christmas cake refuel (courtesy of my sister) A bit damp, a bit cold and my body not really working properly but not a bad way to start the years riding.