Twenty two people had pre-registered for this event but sadly for various reasons people dropped out but we still had a nine man strong group that braved the cold, frost, (snow) and miserable Autumnal weather for a eighteen mile loop of the Chiltern Hills.

The route took us from our starting point at Coombe Hill down towards Wendover, taking in some of everybody's favourite singletrack descents. Once in Wendover we did a short loop before picking up the Ridgeway out towards Chesham taking in tracks in and around Kings Ash, St Leonards, Buckland Common, Braziers End and Ashenridge before heading towards Great Missenden using tracks in around places such as Chartridge, Lee Common and Ballinger Common. From Great Missenden we routed towards Coblers Hill to take in some more singletrack climbs and descents back towards the finishing spot back at Coombe Hill. The route in the end with a few minor changes on the day was around eighteen miles long.

Trail conditions were helped no end by the heavy frost over night, most areas of thick mud had been frozen solid and led to hard bumpy trails, even certain areas were fast rolling away from the frozen rutted ground. All in all very good conditions for November, but we were very thankful for the frost which meant a much more pleasant and faster ride than the poor track conditions presumed heavy mud that had been in place during the previous recce rides of the route.

A bucksmtb group ride wouldn't be the same without a good few tumbles (including at least three myself) however at least I didn't manage to crash in the car park - you know who you are!!!

As tradition dictates a bucksmtb group ride must always have some form of mechanical as well, today that joy struck me with a snapped chain - a couple of minutes later of juggling a power link with freezing cold hands and my bike was back together and we were back off again.

A map and GPS data of the route will be available online shortly, watch this space.

A big thank you has to go out to everyone who attended the ride and braved bitterly cold temperatures to join us for this ride. We were sorry to hear of a good number of people not being able to join us, we hope all is well and we hope to see all you riders (both present and not present) again next month! Details of our December ride(s) to be confirmed very soon. Thanks go out to everyone who has attended the ride again and thank you to the trail leaders that assisted on the day too.

We look forward to seeing you all in December...

Best wishes,
Scott
On behalf of The bucksmtb.co.uk Team