Of the thirteen riders there were various regulars and some new faces, including some new faces from the local MTB Berkhamsted Club. Along with this we had two of us bucksmtb riders leading the ride for the day. A big thank you has to go out to everyone who made the effort and came out to support our group ride, we hope to see you all again at future rides!

The route on the day saw us take in a lot of singletrack, more so than many of our previous rides, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the multiple line singletrack sections that graced us in the Ashridge area. We used a few road sections to link trails together, and the worst of the climbs of the day were on the road which really helped out as certain tracks had suffered badly from the rain that fell the previous evening. Generally the trails were riding really well and were quite fast in certain areas. The worst trails were the steep infamous "Chiltern Chalk" sections that had suffered from the past few weeks of rain. All in all we had quite  traditional Autumn trail conditions. Special care needs to be taken for low flying golf balls as a couple of sections of this route did cross through the grounds of local golf courses.

The return route to Ashridge was different than the route outbound - this route took in more bridleways, byways and short road sections that helped rack up the miles. A lot of this route included flatter sections which helped everyone with the respite before the climbing started to get back up to Ashridge.

We had a group of mixed fitness levels, and everyone found the route good fun and everyone got round and finished with a smile on their face. For several riders this was the longest ride they had ever done on  a mountain bike, and we are proud to have shown them the way round and introduced them to some new trails too! The aim of our group rides has been and always will be to promote the social side of riding and get everyone out riding and introduce them to new tracks and trails.

We were very lucky to have a fantastic bunch or guys and gals again for this ride, we have to thank them all for making the ride a great success, and we were super happy to see that everyone enjoyed the ride and the route.

The ride was finished with a huge round of tea and cakes in the Brownlow Cafe (Ashridge Monument main car park) - sorry to all if they are sold out of scones - we did eat a fair few!

Thanks to all who helped support the ride, we hope to see you all again in November! Details of our November group ride are to follow shortly...

Best Wishes!

Scott & Mike
On behalf of the whole bucksmtb team

Galleries:

Visit our online Gallery of the day: Click here

Visit our Facebook Page Gallery of the day: Click here (please feel free to 'tag' yourself in these pictures)