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Sunday 19th June 2005 - Terry was outside David's house at 07:25 and knocked on the door. A moment later he flapped the letterbox and whistled into it. No response, all quiet within. Another knock then he sat in the car and waited until 7.35 then left, suspecting the worst after David's Cricket Club shindig the night before, and now having some experience of the young un's performances after a drinking spree. On to Jason's just down the road where the man himself and his mate Andy were waiting with Jay's Coiler and Specialized weapons. We loaded up and were off by about 7.45.

Glentress Red Route was once more the target, a fairly tough initiation for Andy who, although an accomplished road racer, time triallist and Iron Man Triathlete had never sampled the delights of headbutting a tree or climbing off-road 1-in-4s. We got over there without incident and commenced the ride around 10.30 in 20 degrees with low cloud cover, high humidity and no wind. Here's Jason getting drugged-up just before the off.

After letting Andy sample the minute-long Freeride trail as a taster we began the not unreasonable climb to the first singletrack section. Slowly does it for Andy, with a few words of encouragement and advice from the other two. On a bit further to the next bit and more of the same, and a bit about style correction ("sit well back on the descents") to the new man. A bit more climbing and we were approaching the more interesting sections.    Andy was showing plenty of hill climbing ability on the fireroad climbs, and then translating that into more of the same on the singletrack and upward hairpin climbs, so power was never going to be an issue. It was hot. We were hot. Of course the trip wouldn't be complete without the now customary puncture for Jason - but when he got this one we were glad of the rest after the long winding walk uphill to the edge of the forest before Spooky Wood.

We paused at the start of the Spooky Wood run to point out to Andy the type of hazard to expect on the way down this amazing trail, and he watched some fellow riders tackle the first few rock drop-offs and berms. Terry went down first and stopped half way down to try and capture some action from the other two. See videos below. This rapid descent always wears us out, how does anyone else find it? Although this time Jason was taking it easy in front of Andy. However, the pleasure seems to increase every time we tackle it. Wish it was every weekend!

A bit further on Andy had his first taste of the undergrowth, slipping off the edge of a shallow berm and collapsing into the weeds under his bike - no real injury though, just a laugh and some knowledge gained.  Except for the dreaded Pedal-Bite. 

The forecast thunderstorms and rain never materialised, although there were black skies around some of the tops as we left. Unbelievably we didn't see a midge! Another fantastic day away from the traffic thingies. And no stupid pedestrians - we need more of these ->   Roll on next time.

Jason half way down Spooky Wood (leisurely) 5MB .wmv vid.

Andy initiated 7MB .wmv vid.

Saturday 29th October 2005

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