Probably the best line to have come out of this weeks ride*
A ride from work this week with Mad Shaun.. a great lad who, despite being old enough to know better still likes to throw himself off waterfalls in a small boat in the wildest areas of the world**
His suggestion for a ride was due to our constant talking about bikes and all things trail for the last few months and also his surgeon phoning him up at the start of the week to say he was going in for a shoulder rebuild that would see him lifting nothing heavier than a espresso cup for 12 weeks.
Riding through town we played in the traffic, racing red lights and buses through Sheffield city centre before heading into the parks and then up slowly towards the Peaks.
Reaching the bottom of what can only be called a wall, Shaun changed down to granny and told me knock myself out and he'd see me at the top. What he could of added was that this was going to be the baby climb of the night...
When we finally made it up to the top of the Peaks the wind was absolutely howling.. so much so that conversation was impossible.
We turned off the lights and stood appreciating the amazing view of the cityscape. This is something that I've not yet gotten used to. Being able to stand at height and overlook hundreds of lights far below is completely removed from FOD riding where you see trees and an occasional view of more trees only if you can get to a high level.
From the windswept peak the only way was down and although not massively technical, the skittery stones kept my concentration levels high.
Back onto the road for a short time we headed into another piece of woodland for a few more swoopy little sections before dropping yet again onto road for the final blast to our finish point.
Again, we made like spitfire pilots from The Battle of Britain, swooping through traffic, ducking in an out of slow moving traffic.
5 miles of exhillirating fun, as much fun as could be had on a moutain bike whilst on the road anyway
The ride wasn't the quickest, nor the most focussed.. but hell, it was fun. It's made me question just why I've not been riding much at present and given me one hell of a desire to get out and rectify that..
* Apart from "Oi ya c*** you nearly had me off then"!
** The last time he did it was in the middle of Iceland and ended up dislocating his shoulder - something he's due to have pinned(!?)
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