Reluctantly not riding!

Well to cut a long story short, I've not been riding since my last Time Trial on the 29th May, which I didn't finish!

What I though was a stomach bug that plagued me the week before the Aberystwyth came back with a vengeance, what followed was a 2 week nightmare that resulted on the 10th June to me being admitted to hospital crying in pain and the next day operated on to remove a rather large growth in my abdomen.  So strictly no riding for 6 weeks, and a load of drugs.  I'm now 4 weeks post operation and slowly recovering, though not as fast as I'd like.

So what does an active person do when they are told to do nothing.

Well on Saturday I accompanied Darrel to attend a Dean Trail Volunteers (DTV) Dig Day.  We'd been intending to help out at a dig day for over a year, but our schedule and races tended to clash so we'd never made it.  However Darrel had brought a new frame of one of the guys and with me laid up there was no missing this one.

I was going in a supervisory capacity, as unable to do much to help.  So here's what happens at a dig day.

Meeting time is a relaxed 9-9:30 in front of the cafe, Alan Grist Chairman of the DTV was there as we pulled up and introduced us to the other guys digging.  After a relaxed chat, it was time to head into the woods.

The plan was to work on a skills section of the free-miners trail, this section would have balance beams and skinnys on it with trail linking the obstacles together. Picking up our tools we were given brief instruction on how to dig the trail and then let loose.  Darrel worked one way with another Alan digging in the opposite direction.  Me, I watched for a bit but not being one to sit still I helped with what little I could do and took pictures.  The atmosphere was cheerful, and the more experienced diggers gave tips and as well as the physical work there was a healthy banter.

We talked about the boar and my disappointment that I've never seen one in the flesh, of course there was bike talk, and we even stopped to watch the bikers riding the wooden drops to the side of us.  The banter kept coming ad the trail grew, and at last it was ready for DTV Alan to start adding some rocks from one of the pits in the forest to form the base of the new track.

Those that know me will know that Darrel is a plumber and used to manual work, so it was odd to see him sweating as he dug away, it wasn't easy and was physical but a great work out for those look for an alternative to a gym session.

Once the trail was dug the soil needed to be removed from the side of the track as the Boar have a habit of refilling the trails if topsoil is left to the side :) As Darrel's strength started to fade, Alan came over to let us know it was finish time.  the 2.5 hours had flown by and looking back I was impressed at how much track had been dug.  Digging it however is only the start, it would then need filling with rock, gravel added onto the top and then 'whacker plated' down.  All this work is done by hand!

As we packed up tools and headed back to the centre for a well earned cuppa, I looked back over what the small group had done and felt a massive sense of achievement.

After a drink and chat at the centre, Darrel went off to ride and I placed myself at the edge of the DH tracks to watch.  As I walked up I heard a couple of guys on AM bikes moaning at the state of the bottom of one of the trails, I bit my lip as I walked past (normally I would of said something but still feel vulnerable).  If the 2 guys had come to help this morning the difference those extra hand would of made would of been finishing the whole section and getting it filled with rocks. OK the dig this morning wasn't on the DH tracks, but the sooner the sections on the Freeminers are finished the soon the guys can start work on the DH trails.

The dig day was really good fun, we were made to feel welcome and no-one moaned about me not being able to do much.  It truly is a case of any little help you can offer will be gratefully accepted.  In the future, before you go and pay for a gym session why not save the pennies and pop down to your nearest trail dig day.  You'll learn a new respect for the trails you ride, you'll appreciate the work that goes into developing and maintaining them and you'll have a great workout.

With the DTV volunteering doesn't come without it's perks, anyone who digs on the day will get a free drink at the centre, if you attend 10 dig days you will get a free parking pass for the year.  By helping out you get to talk to the people designing the trails and give your input into the developments of the centre.  You also get to meet new people and make new friends.

I'm hoping to be attending the next dig day, why don't you give it a try, miss a mornings ride in return to build trails that last years.

So if you are inspired to give Trail Digging a go the next Forest of Dean dig day (which just happens to be DH trail maintenance) is on the 19th July at 9am

The DTV can also be found on facebook here

Bike Park Wales - My Review

This Sunday I had my first chance to ride Bike Park Wales, so I thought I'd pass on my thoughts and experience.
There has been a lot of buzz over this development, from rumours of ski lifts, a European Style Bike Park within the UK,  to stories of the Old Dragon DH days, one thing was obvious a lot of people were waiting for this new centre to open.
As Darrel and I drove to Cardiff we could look up on the hill and see the tracks start to weave their way down.  As I've just made the change to  DH having a facility like Bike Park Wales only 1 hour from home was really exciting, it would be somewhere I could go and practice after work.  As although based slap bang in the middle of Wales, there aren't many open DH tracks near us.
My impression from the internet hype was that Bike Park Wales was going to be a DH centre, and yes all the tracks do go Downhill and there is an uplift.  But that's were the similarities end.  I'm gutted I'd never read this article prior to going.
http://www.chopmtb.com/2013/01/14/check-out-the-plans-for-bikepark-wales-its-like-a-whistler-for-trail-riders/
It's basically a trail Centre were the emphasis is on going down, not up. 
Not having read this information prior to going, we packed the DH bikes, Full face lids and body armour (mistake 1).  I was hoping for trails that would test my nerve, with tricky sections I could practice technique on and really push myself to my limits.  So as we loaded the bikes on to the uplift we decided to start on the Red and warm up before hitting the Expert level Blacks.  The red we choose was Wibbly Wobbly, a lovely track which in the open had some great rock steps to practice dropping off and, the section in the woods was pretty much straight forward surfaced trail.  Fun but not the heart stopping red I had been expecting.  We hit the first forestry road crossing decided to push up for another run down one of the blacks.
This is were we hit mistake 2, Bike Park Wales is really not designed for pushing up, it was a killer for me.  My shoulder is still not fully healed so pushing on steep slippery ground was hard work at best, with no push up trail it was a case of up the edge of the live tracks. 
Once up top I was keen to try the Black trail called Dai Hard, again I set off slowly to scope the track out, with each pedal stroke I looked for where the track was going to start to plummet down only to see it gently glide down the hill, then the hard-core surface stopped and so did most of the riders up ahead, the track was slippy mud and many of the people on XC bikes seemed to lose direction.  Now the track wasn't difficult just slippy and on my run I ended up stopping and finding it hard to get going but nothing a second run wouldn't have sorted out, but that was my problem.  At no point did I feel the stomach clenching fear, my heart didn't jump into my mouth and my body didn't go ridged with fear.  I just slipped my way down, even missing the chicken line around the 'road gap' and rolling this feature instead.  This was not my idea of a DH black and this is were I wish I had read the above article.  We followed the red 'rim dinger' back down to the uplift stop, and yet again a fun but XC/trail centre trail, I felt very much over biked on the old Super 8. 
After a stop for lunch it was back to the uplift, as we were just paying by run, we had to wait 30mins for an available bus, and luckily got one just be for the rain hit, and the shower had pretty much passed for our run down the other black graded 'Enter the Dragon' this had to be my favourite trail of the day, we even pushed back up for a 2nd run, big berms and a nice gradient down, my only concern was a wall drop, definitely not roll able but with no warning, a poor trail rider had met his demise there, this was obvious from the abandoned trail bikes at the feature and the ambulance at the end of the trail. After our second run, I couldn't cope with any more pushing so we took one of the other blacks back down, yet again a nice trail but definitely overkill on a DH bike.  Back at the van we changed and loaded up our bikes feeling disappointed.
Here is why.
My only experience of Bike Parks is the likes of Les Gets and Chatel, these are designed for DH bikes, I'd assumed Bike Park Wales was as well.  I'd selectively and subconsciously  read articles that re-enforced this assumption, quotes like ' in 2018 we'll have a facility that can run a world cup event', and the fact that the Welsh National DH Championships are running there to me gave me the impression that it would be DH orientated, especially as the BDS is running there next year and their other tracks scare me.  Bike Park Wales isn't a DH centre, it's a trail centre, designed to give trail riders the DH experience.   
It's a great centre and an amazing facility, but it's not the DH centre I had wished for.  I will definitely be going back, I'm sure at some point the pure DH tracks will appear, and the trails there are fun but not the heart stopping fear inducing trails I'm starting to love.  BPW will be a great venue for fitness training, as 8min DH tracks with uplift are rare in Wales, and for improving my speed I think the place will rock.  But for improving my technical ability I will be returning to Hopton, it's free and the roots scare the hell out of me.