I’ve been away for a week without my road bike and have found that really hard - definitely some separation anxiety on my part… I wonder if my bike missed me?
It’s been somewhat an emotional week that started with a family gathering to scatter my fathers ashes and ended with a crash on my MTB that has put my out of action
For those not from the UK I can recommend the Lake District as a place to visit should you come to the UK… BUT make sure you pack your waterproofs and if you plan on riding also pack an extra pair of climbing legs as the terrain is brutal.
The 3 summits MTB challenge was supposed to be a 3 day event, each day tackling a different mountain. However, the weather was really stormy so we weren’t able to summit but did still manage nearly 3,500 ft of climbing over 25 miles in torrential rain.
This was mountain biking like I’ve never experienced before; some sections were so steep and rocky we had to ‘hike the bike’ and some of the descents were narrow rocky paths with a sheer drop… staying loose and relaxed on the bike was a challenge! But with the encouragement of the guide I managed to descend some sections that I didn’t think I would ever be able to get down and I actually enjoyed it. And then disaster struck at the very bottom of the final descent, a large patch of large tree roots - I got half way across and then caught my front wheel, before I knew what had happened I was over the handlebars and laying on my side with my bike wrapped around me. I fell on the shoulder I’ve previously had two lots of surgery on… and then had to cycle the final hilly 5 miles back to the meet point. I’m hoping it’s just bruising and sore muscles/ligaments. But it has meant no more riding for me - Hannah gave up her chance to ride without me and we got to spend days 2 and 3 of the event exploring the area - so not a total bust.
I’m going to try to take the positive out of this experience, I conquered terrain I never thought was possible… and I positively detest tree roots!!!’