A surprisingly fine evening awaited those brave enough to risk the dodgy weather forecast this Thursday, 10th April 2008. It wasn't long before North Tyneside's Finest, the Traffic Warden, appeared outside Gollum's Cave hoping to grab a few new registration numbers for his diary as car after car pulled up outside to unload a mountain of mountain bikes.

Can't remember the exact order of arrival but in attendance were:

Craig, Arthur, Chris, Terry H, Steve B, Ian A, and Chris' mate Matthew on his first ride out with the NMBC/MAC Mob. After a bit of the usual tyre pressure adjustment and a fiddle with Ian's gears we were off to the Wheatsheaf Corner to meet returnee Keith, down on Tyneside for a short break and a bit of de-radiation therapy. I make that nine runners and riders to do battle with the traffic on the Holystone Bypass. Strangely enough it was local bod Golly who was almost taken out by a car just a few hundred metres from home shortly after 7:00pm!.

Here's new man Matthew - with yet another bl@@dy Specialized! Quite nice, the new Pitch.

Just to make certain we hit the hot spots in the dark, Gollum led the swarm eastwards from the Farm to The Swallows and down an extremely muddy and deep grass path to B&Q. That sure tested the legs early, with Keith in particular being thrilled with the start, after being off the bike for a month or more. It also got the nice clean bikes used to what was coming later.

From there we crossed through battle Hill before dropping down to the Coast Road for the Burn Bash along a very greasy valley edge. terry, who followed closely behind Gollum's lead bike, commented how slow it was compared to our previous runs in the dark. I had to agree, because being able to see what you could easily fall in to definitely slowed me down!

Next item on the agenda were those perilous steps. Tonight they claimed one victim, poor Arthur, who would perhaps have made it OK with his seat lowered, but didn't and so didn't, IYSWIM! He was very fortunate to be the only one (?) as you'll understand when you see Stevie W in his video below!

 

Burn Steps Videeowz:         Matthew       Terry&Chris        Ian&Keith        STEVIE W        Craig&Arthur 

PLEASE! right-click and Save target As to get these and other videos from this site. ta.

If you study the top of the steps in the last two you may just spy Arthur dropping it after Flight One, unless you're slightly distracted by the foreground activity!

Once we'd all stopped chuckling at Steve's incandescent descent (cor, good, eh?) it was time to climb out of the Burn up Crow bank, and then ease down to the riverside C2C path. A gentle glide along the river followed until we got to St Peter's Marina, and the wheels fell off. Or so it appeared by the time Ian and Golly had caught up with the others as both Chris and Terry were busy pumping hard. No big deal, just a pair of softies. Well, that's what we thought, but by the time we reached our turn-off at Byker, Terry had developed a proper flattie. Never mind, lovely night for holy inner tubes. It was fixed in  minutes with the usual ruthless efficiency and assisted by Golly's new toy, a £3.99 pufta from LIDL which actually works very well.

Craig and Terry led the charge up the almost vertical climb to the Bridge and the rest eventually caught them up on Heaton Park Road. But after a short while, and a lull in the discussion of the forthcoming Wild Boar 24 Hour Race at Grizedale, it seemed we weren't all there. Nowt to do with Golly's brain activity, or his reluctance to participate in this stupid race thing, merely the fact that Keith and Ian were missing, and we could see no lights in the distance. So off shot the Old Thing back across the Municipal Stadium in search of the duo. he reached them, lurking in the darkness, and his suspicions were aroused. Maybe not just his suspicions. After all, Keith had been away from people who didn't wear anti-radiation suits for some time.

But no, it's too easy to jump to incorrect conclusions. Ian's chain had snapped following a recent bout of gear selection problems, so Golly pushed him back over to where the troupe was assembled to shed a bit of light on the job. We got it fixed in double-quick time and following more chat about 24 hour racing and team selection we were off towards the Ouse Burn. Golly led down the tarmac drop and over the water, heading for the new stretch of singletrack we discovered on Sunday. That took us up under Armstrong Bridge, from where we entered the Dene and Ian took over at the front for the run through.

Plenty of darkness ensured the usual interest as we made our way upriver, with a couple of unexpected dismounts to keep us alert. When we emerged from the depths at around 9:15pm, Terry took the opportunity to branch off east for home, as he'd once more been the victim of some horrible bug for the last fortnight and didn't want to push his luck. The rest of us dropped to South Gosforth and on to the other new trail through Bluebell Woods.

Gollum led through this as he was the only one that knew it's route (but only after Ian and Steve pointed out the start to him), and just as we expected on Sunday it provided plenty of entertainment, especially so after all the rain and snow since the weekend. Golly came close to sliding into the stream on three or four occasions, with the chuckles of Steve, hard on his tail, ringing in his ears. Almost everyone else had similar experiences. Can't wait for this to dry out for a real hard blast along, either in daylight or darkness.

We regrouped at the little stone bridge on the edge of the golf course and talk once more turned to the Wild Boar and preparations for it. This theme continued up through Melton Park all the way to the Gosforth Park Hotel, with Craig in particular anxious to get some planning done. We'd arrived at Fortress Speedian once more, and he took the point as usual for this stint in the undergrowth. Keith and Arthur decided to follow the smooth bridleway route through, and we only saw them once more as our paths crossed after Section One.

The fun continued for the remaining six as we tried to figure out Ian's moves and stay with him, but he's like a cat in here. Unless he falls off, of course, which he obliged us with the pleasure of, not once, but twice! What an entertainer. We popped out through the gap in the wall at the Caravan Centre, with a good few tired legs amongst us. Craig, Ian, Steve and Golly got the drop on Chris and Matthew at the last trailhead and got round the tight right hander half a mile further on before the other two caught up. Unfortunately Chris isn't that familiar with the turf in here and led Matthew away from the others! They realised their mistake after a few minutes and did get back on track to meet u8s at the wooden bridge when they spotted our lights.

Only one short blast left now, but it was more like a trawl as most of the legs just gave up and stopped working before reaching the tarmac drive. We arrived back at the start around 10:15 pm and after hosing down a few bikes, Craig once more got back to his task as Team Trainer, attempting to organise the squads for the 24 Hour. We'll be offering some tips here very soon - watch the front page closely!

AFTERSHOCK - here's a snap of poor Arthur's elbow after unhinging on the Burn Steps! Said he felt nowt!!!

Keep watching and if you fancy a ride out with us, drop us a line here: bailout@midaircrisis.org.uk