It seems that the cyclists of Facewest have been a bit of a curse this weekend, three of us got out riding and all three ended with injuries.
James played the most active role in causing the downfall of one of his co-riders. A few miles in to a tour of the western Pennines he clipped a wheel leaving his friend sprawling on the road with an injured shoulder. A quick trip to A&E had him patched up, luckily no bones were broken – the most serious casualty may have been his new iPhone.
Not to be outdone, Stu’s ride also ended up in casualty when someone misjudged the descent of Kidstones Pass in the Dales and ended up in a very nasty spill. Another badly damaged shoulder resulted, this time complete with broken bones and a very mangled bike.
For my part I was mountain biking around Peebles in southern Scotland on a trip largely characterised by mechanical malfunctions and unfortunately a friend went over the bars and caught a face full of grit resulting in a few wobbly teeth and a trip to the dentist.
Everyone here is hoping that all the above make full recoveries and get back on their bikes as soon as possible.
On a happier note I actually had a great weekend in spite of having a bit of a fight with my chainset on the first day. Glentress forest was the main attraction, esspecially it’s immensely popular Red Cricuit. On saturday we made quick work of this loop which combines some enjoyable, technical singletrack climbing with some of the most fun descents I’ve ever done on a bike. The Spooky Woods/Super-G combination takes you from fast flowing trails full of jumps and tabletops into technical, natural trails. As sone of the less fit members of the group it was quite good fun to get my own back for the roasting I’d been given on the climb up there. Sadly, just before the final singletrack descent, Falla Brae, I managed to snap my chain so I had to coast one of the most enjoyable singletrack sections in the forest.
Sunday was a bit of a disaster in some ways but still great fun. Added to the above accident Abby managed to lock her keys in her car, resulting in a hour and a half long wait for the recovery driver to drive over from Galashiels and Rick managed to puncture a tire on a hire bike with a fixed rear wheel a quarter of the way into our day’s riding. As we couldn’t get the back wheel off to fix the flat we had to return to the hire centre at Glentress so spent a happy afternoon charging up and down the freeride park and scaring ourselves silly on some of the larger tabletops.
All that with beautiful sunshine, barbeques and a few drinks made for a great way to spend a weekend.