We arrived just after 8am to find a large number of early bird riders already kitting up to get riding. The format of the day was simply 3 different routes to ride, short, standard and long routes - you could pre book or enter on the day. Kris and I had signed up for the 24 mile standard route whereas Mark decided to brave the Long Route which was 32miles on the day. Now the Trail Rides aren't an official race, they are just what they say on the tin, a social trail ride all way marked. You can however compare your ride time at the end to set TrailBreak standards to get awarded Gold, Silver, Bronze or Pub Award 'Medals' - although there are no prizes the trail rides give a good basis for both practice for XC racers as well as just for the majority of people getting out and riding for the day.

With the sun shinning the weather was at least on our side for the trail ride, but after several wet days recently there was a certain inevitability about the quantity of mud that loomed ahead. Much of the route had been kept to hard track routes and minor roads to avoid the horrific muddy tracks. The trails did not disappoint, even if they were slippery as, and much of the ride was hard going through the mud - however when there was a break in the mud we were greeted with some fast and flowing tracks. The way marked route would make a great ride in the summer months when you could really flow through the single track. As it was on the day, the ride served as a good training ride and chance to get some miles in the legs.

The loop took in a range of tracks from quiet country road to fast singletrack. With the large quantities of mud it was welcome to find that many of the toughest climbs had been routed on the roads, that by no means detracted from the route being superb. The highlights being the single track alongside the river, and the unexpected of finding a set of steps in the trail. The ride was also very well organized and the route was easy to follow

Kris and Mark finished both with very respectable times and respectively got Gold in the standard and Gold in the long route - great results for them. My day on the other hand didn't go to plan and had one hell of a tough day....

Due to the large amount of mud straight from the off I was suffering with lots of ghost shifting on the rear mech and cassette, that throughout the first 10miles gradually got worse until I was suffering continuous chain suck. This chain suck problem gradually got worse until I ended up with a major incident of chain suck resulting in 10 crushed and bent chain links!!! Having removed these I managed to continue for a couple of miles until the chain gave up and snapped - I ended up with more bent links and ended up not even having enough length of chain to run a singlespeed - my day was finished. Having to walk about 8miles back to the car park/start wasn't the day I had really wanted, and I have to say I was particularly disappointed to be let down by the bike components that put an early end to my day. Sadly that's the way the cookie crumbles as they say and the bike is off to be fixed ready to be running sweet again for another day...

A big shout of thanks to all the TrailBreak and Evans Cycles Guys and girls that helped out and made the event a success and to all the people that attended that made the day great fun. On a personal note, I wish to thank the kind gentleman that kindly donated me a new power link for my chain after he realized I was really struggling with replacing the pins.... many thanks!!!!

Riding times and results available online trailbreak.co.uk

See you at the next Trail Ride in April....

Scott
bucksmtb.co.uk