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A cold New Years Day on board The first day of a new year and a new decade... What better day to get out riding and start the year how you mean to go on! Incidentally, over the road is Aston Hill Mountainbike Park that has plenty to offer mountainboarders (NoSno held a comp here back in 2001) if you don't mind paying a few quid for your day's riding. Being in the Chiltern Hills, on the way i pass plenty of places that would be great for riding but on through pretty Wendover... The frozen ground made for a good hard riding surface as we gleefully carved up one of the longest runs in the wood. It's wide, flowing and fun. Up again, down again, tackling some drops on the way, and session the bottom area where two runs finish at an ancient monument (that's actually just a mound) before rolling out to flat. Ride, chill, drop, sanger, ride, chat, Rog checks out the tree, chill, drop, play... Ascending to another area to session for an hour or 2, we pick off lines off through the trees, to drop (occasionally wiping out in huge leaf drifts), to sweet roll-out with root-jump. Everyone generally has a laugh doing a bit of what they fancy, no constraints or pressures, just fun. With Xmas chocolates keeping us going we hike more, round past a beautiful view-point to the Fitness trail, a monster run for round these parts clocking in at about 3/4 of-a-km. This track is real nice n wide so we can ride past people coming up and put a smile on their faces by saying 'happy new year' as we roll on past. It's a long ride, sublime to carve, easy to speedcheck on and takes in the full descent of the hill. The winter sun is low and starting to set, the legs have become jelly-lead, but we just can't resist another go... A great, inspiring first day of 2010. Fun and challenging riding, with plenty of chat, smiling and laughing, in a beautiful spot, and that's what it's all about. See you out there :) words by Wilz, pix by Wilz & Kerry Whitford. |
