This morning didn't start particularly well. I got a text from Makster (Mark) crying off. (Think he had a big night last night 
)
I met up with Retroyetirigid (Chris) on the way to the ferry, and caught the 10 am ferry as planned. We saw Wookiee (Doug) and family in the car on the same ferry and met with Dezzi (Darius) on the other side. A quick call to Stocko (Paul) confirmed he was running late due to headwinds, and would meet us down the road.
We set off into a very strong headwind, and decided we'd do my "night" route, with extras. An easy spin along the road to the point our path heads through the heathland, and waited a couple of minutes before Paul came into view. He'd ridden 24 miles just to get to us, I'd done just over 6 at this point! We set off, and the trails were wet, but generally good, and it wasn't long before we had our first mechanical. Dezzi only finished his build on Friday, and was still experiencing settling in niggles.
We continued and had a gentle ride up to the bottom of Brenscombe little woods, or as Mark introduced it to me as, Mount Mother F***er. 0.4 miles, and 215' climb at average 10%. I admit at this point I went for it, and managed to get a Strava PR by just under a minute, which I was happy with.
Once on the ridge it was a very windy ride along and down into Corfe, and wasn't too muddy. We hit Juggasaurus cafe, and were served by the delightful girl with the massive... We chewed the fat had some cake and hot chocolate on the whole and had an enjoyable bit of banter. Once we decided to leave, we bid our farewells to Paul and Doug. Paul to ride home and Doug to be picked up to visit his parents and Sunday roast. Dezzi, Chris and I decided to head deeper into the Purbecks, as we didn't fancy climbing onto the ridgeway into the teeth of the wind, and had a pleasant ride uphill mostly towards Kingston, a lovely little village with views of Corfe from the beer garden of the Scott Arms, where we settled in for a swift pint.
There was a gravestone in the beer garden, so we assume this bloke liked his ale
but the views were stunning
We left after just the one, and continued uphill to a trail which had a very rocky downhill section, according to Chris. However, to get to it we had to traverse a mass of deep wet mud, that was unrideable, then a very narrow rideable strip on wet mud next to a barbed wire fence. Unfortunately I lost traction on this section, and hit a fence post with my shoulder / chest, and impaled my arm on the barbed wire. I only managed to get a picture of this cut on my shin, and I don't know how I got that
Chris just wanted to show a bit of thigh
We had to traverse more deep mud before the rocky section
Did I say it was really muddy?
We tackled the rocks, and it was treacherous. I think we all had spills, but no damage done, until we got to the bottom, and I punctured. At least it meant I could get a pic of the steam train as it went past
We then ended up riding along quiet roads mostly all the way back. Chris punctured just before we got to the main road from Swanage to the ferry, and I found I had lost a front brake block along the way so had only a poorly performing back brake for the rest of the ride.
We were out for 7 hours, I completed 32 miles, and climbed 2500', average speed of 8 mph. The weather held, and the wind dropped off as the day went on. Thoroughly enjoyable and I look forward to the next time
)I met up with Retroyetirigid (Chris) on the way to the ferry, and caught the 10 am ferry as planned. We saw Wookiee (Doug) and family in the car on the same ferry and met with Dezzi (Darius) on the other side. A quick call to Stocko (Paul) confirmed he was running late due to headwinds, and would meet us down the road.
We set off into a very strong headwind, and decided we'd do my "night" route, with extras. An easy spin along the road to the point our path heads through the heathland, and waited a couple of minutes before Paul came into view. He'd ridden 24 miles just to get to us, I'd done just over 6 at this point! We set off, and the trails were wet, but generally good, and it wasn't long before we had our first mechanical. Dezzi only finished his build on Friday, and was still experiencing settling in niggles.
We continued and had a gentle ride up to the bottom of Brenscombe little woods, or as Mark introduced it to me as, Mount Mother F***er. 0.4 miles, and 215' climb at average 10%. I admit at this point I went for it, and managed to get a Strava PR by just under a minute, which I was happy with.
Once on the ridge it was a very windy ride along and down into Corfe, and wasn't too muddy. We hit Juggasaurus cafe, and were served by the delightful girl with the massive... We chewed the fat had some cake and hot chocolate on the whole and had an enjoyable bit of banter. Once we decided to leave, we bid our farewells to Paul and Doug. Paul to ride home and Doug to be picked up to visit his parents and Sunday roast. Dezzi, Chris and I decided to head deeper into the Purbecks, as we didn't fancy climbing onto the ridgeway into the teeth of the wind, and had a pleasant ride uphill mostly towards Kingston, a lovely little village with views of Corfe from the beer garden of the Scott Arms, where we settled in for a swift pint.
There was a gravestone in the beer garden, so we assume this bloke liked his ale
but the views were stunning
We left after just the one, and continued uphill to a trail which had a very rocky downhill section, according to Chris. However, to get to it we had to traverse a mass of deep wet mud, that was unrideable, then a very narrow rideable strip on wet mud next to a barbed wire fence. Unfortunately I lost traction on this section, and hit a fence post with my shoulder / chest, and impaled my arm on the barbed wire. I only managed to get a picture of this cut on my shin, and I don't know how I got that
Chris just wanted to show a bit of thigh
We had to traverse more deep mud before the rocky section
Did I say it was really muddy?
We tackled the rocks, and it was treacherous. I think we all had spills, but no damage done, until we got to the bottom, and I punctured. At least it meant I could get a pic of the steam train as it went past
We then ended up riding along quiet roads mostly all the way back. Chris punctured just before we got to the main road from Swanage to the ferry, and I found I had lost a front brake block along the way so had only a poorly performing back brake for the rest of the ride.
We were out for 7 hours, I completed 32 miles, and climbed 2500', average speed of 8 mph. The weather held, and the wind dropped off as the day went on. Thoroughly enjoyable and I look forward to the next time
