Not been on in a while, been busy at home and work so not had chance. The snow was a mixed bag for me, did an STW ride up at rivi, we were supposed to be going lakes but the snow put paid to that. My mojo was severely depressed and I nearly didn't show. Was meeting at the black dog I was supposed to ride over but my ambivalence meant that by the time I'd decided to go there was no time so drove up. Bloody glad I did, graham and tony took us on a route I probably wouldn't have attempted. Up rivi rd, spittlers edge, great hill to white coppice then around the reservoirs to rivi, up to georges lane and up kennel descent to the mast, san marino to finish. Spittlers was no worse than your average summer (can't remember last time it dried out properly) some snow drifts on the slab section made for interesting handling. Great hill was taken a little gingerly, the middle dirt road bit was icy but we managed, rolled by some walkers as one of them was almost on all fours negotiating a big patch of ice. See all the open moorland right next to you? That might be easier for you. The climb up rivi was slippy and georges was very icy. Kennel wasn't as bad as I thought. I Was ahead by the time I got to the mast road, very windy so I decided to duck into an inviting ditch out off the wind, stepped forward and slid on the snow right to the bottom, which below the snow was full of foetid ditch water, argh! Eventually scrambled out with wet feet, good job we're close to home. San Marino was a barrel of laughs, really good fun, tamped down enough by walkers so as to be quick but not icy so plenty of grip. At the bottom there was talk about riding back up for another go but it didn't happen. Rejuvenated my riding anyway.
Tuesday me and Si went up again, climb up barrow wasn't too bad, 2 lads was fun fun fun, lots of sliding, don't think I crashed but a few close calls. Wildeswood started with me on a steep slope, off the back of the saddle in snow upto my fork crown unable to move, took a few thrutchy hops to get going. Back up the rake and climbed up hole in wall, didn't clean it but not a bad effort. San marino was just as much fun as at weekend both surprisingly made it down OK. Dropping through the quarry we both crashed at different points on the chute, had to happen sometime. Back home through smithills, this snow stuff is fun.
Snow is rubbish, back to commuting, slipping and sliding and falling about all over the shop. CX bike is trying to kill me, goads me into going fast the as soon as it goes a little out of shape I'm in trouble, no margin of error what so ever. Fortunately by the end of jan the snow was pretty much gone, I was just coming to the conclusion that tubeless had fixed my puncture woes when I ran over some piddling little rocks in drinkwater park and they ripped my rear tyre. Spaff everywhere, grrrrrrraaaarrrrrrgh! Sweary sweary swear swear ****ing swear. Look around to see if anyone heard me, nope it's dark and miserable course there's no one else out. Empty out the latex bung a tube in, set off. Quite angry now so put the power down, build up a lot of speed and suddenly there's ice all over the trail right infront of me, I rag doll, physically keep as loose and relaxed as possible while inside my head a lot of pressure builds up, safely over the ice I unleash a torrent of foul mouthed abuse that puts my previous effort to shame. bike trying to kill me again, up onto motorway bridge notice rear tyre bead is popping off the rim, really quite angry now. Pump up tyre, set off get fone out to ring mrs to let her know I'm gonna be late (she's supposed to be going out) with gloves on fone it trying to call everyone in my contacts except her, stop take gloves off try again, get wrong person again and won't disconnect the call, muchos swearies and very nearly launch the phone. For the rest of the ride it took an enormous mental effort to not unleash my pent up rage, break land speed records, tear the track to shreds and completely screw my legs for the rest of the week (trains are knackered so on bike all week). I tell you for short races athletes should consider getting good and angry at something, it gives you so much extra speed, just gotta be careful you don't crash your brains out or bonk bigtime and end up in a world of hurt.
Rest of week was a bit less eventful, no fun rides but commuting was ok and with tyres rock hard (50/60) no trouble so far and the ducktape fix for ripped rear tyre seems ok. Bike hasn't killed me yet so that's a plus. Not a great start to the year for fun rides but bloody brilliant mileage wise, 530 miles, pretty good for Jan.
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