After a well earned sleep the alarm went off at 6:30am for breakfast, all were up in good time apart from Zanussi who's cycle must have been over running...
All packed and on the road by 7:45 heading to Llandegla. The clouds had rolled in over night and by the time we had got to the trail centre there was a bit of a breeze and drizzle in the air from the low level cloud cover.
Heading out of the trail centre on a trail called "The Somme" seemed fitting for the conditions, a recently harvested, barren forest across the top of a hill with low cloud and drizzle falling. After 3 miles of this we started the first part of the red trail proper. The difference between riding it in the wet and now the dry was amazing, lots more speed and grip! A mixture of switch backs, board walks, fast descents and a few jumps thrown in took our minds off the weather but before we knew it the weather had cleared and the sun was out, although this didn't help Richie with his sweet box helmet on!
We got to the first black section in good time. Starting with a drop off the black runs down one side of the mountain with numerous switch backs, jumps, doubles and berms. Unfortunately after this first serious descent the hard climb back up began, this didn't go down well with Zanussi who claimed we had totally lied about the climbs.... obviously we hadn't.....
More fast descents and slow climbs later we got to a diversion due to logging. Heading the wrong way back up a red we got to the start of a raised board walk section.
Dan dropping off to start the board walk section
After the board walk came a fast descent followed by another steep short climb. Dan managed to stay mounted this time down, unlike has last descent in the rain. Martin was getting to grips with his new bike and lowered seat post.
After a few more climbs we accepted that Llandegla might have been a bit more hilly then we remembered. However I still knew we had "Cardiac Arrest" climb just after a switch back, though I kept this hush hush from Rob.
The last trail was "Final Assault" which took us back to the centre. Everyone was keen to do another lap but not the black so we decided to take the short blue. It splits from the black just after "The Somme" heading back to the centre. A few small jumps but nice flat trails saw use all back in the centre by lunch. We decided to stop and have a little play on the pump track which we didn't exactly master. Moving onto the free-ride section me, Dan, Richie and Martin decided to do the tight board walk section. This also didn't end too well with Dan getting a puncher and Richie and Martin falling off.
Once back in the centre we loaded up and headed home.
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| Richie testing out the passenger seat |
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