This year, I’ve been lucky enough to have sufficient time off from work to ride my bike in an unusually large number (for me) of different parts of the world: Spain, South Africa, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, and the US, in that order. Enjoyable as it all was, one thing it has reinforced in my mind is the pleasure to be had from getting back on home turf.
Those familiar trails which I’ve been riding for years. Enough years to know every bump and root on some sections. And also enough years that if I get out enough for a sustained period, I can begin to get slightly – dare I say it – bored. Ride elsewhere for a while though, and when you come back it’s a bit like seeing an old friend again.
In between Alpine and Rocky Mountains jaunts this summer, I had half a day back in London. As well as washing kit and repacking different bags, I managed to meet marathonmtb.com teammate Mike Blewitt for a spin in the Surrey Hills, 45 minutes drive from south-west London. In the two months we were on the same continent during his Euro 2011 summer, this was the one occasion when we both managed to meet up to ride.
What a ride though. No map-reading or route planning – I hesitate to say “like the back of my hand”, but I do know these particular trails pretty well. Just two of us, so minimal faff. And we’ve ridden together enough to know each other’s riding foibles and preferences. On a late afternoon in August, with dust on the ground, horizon-to-horizon blue in the sky, and dappled sunlight through the trees, suffice to say that we both had a preference for going FAST.
Cue four hours of either me ragging myself trying to keep up with Mike to keep him in shot on my headcam, or me ahead of Mike ragging myself trying to keep him from snapping at my heels.
All the Surrey classics were in there: Barry Knows Best (of course), Yoghurt Pots, Summer Lightning, Telegraph Row, Deliverance, that really good one with the holly bushes, Christmas Pudding, T1-5, Frank’s Wild Years, and the rest.
All your Alpine and Rockies trails were pretty fantastic, but that ride was still one of the rides of the summer for me. Hopefully the video gives a bit of a flavour of it.