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More like it, on the summit cairn high point to catch the breeze.
Coffee at dawn, packed and away for 07:25, home on the train for lunch...
Cloud and tree cover... I'll do better next time.
I rode a local(ish) routes yesterday - one of my favourites as it has a bit of everything. Starting from St John's Chapel in Weardale, over the permissive path on Ireshope Moor and across to Cow Green, then over Maize Beck to join the bridelway over Cronkley Fell:
Off the other side of Cronkley Fell back towards Teesdale, nice fast singletrack heading off to the right.
Stop at the visitors centre cafe in Bowlees for some much needed refreshment and ice cream before heading back over Swinhope Head to Weardale.
Lifting stills from this new fandangled camera is more challenging than I thought. Attempt 2, from today's ride.
Swim and a pint tonight.
Weds. Have been battling with the laws of gravity a lot recently! Only got up this once on first try, so mostly losing.
First ride on the hardtail since June. Probably should have charged the headlight before setting off before dawn but made it to the gravel safely anyway. 7 degrees and 91% humidity but clear skies for a birthday 45km lap before work.
Colsnaur and Dumyat - S 
unsets, 30km and 1000m of climbing on a Thursday night. Tired now.
The "Collarbone Club" Rehab Ride #1. My mate Simon broke his CB one week after me. He's had his plated, mine is still a natural bump (or possibly a second nose based on the size of it!). Neither have a fully healed bone post last x-rays so the whole hill is a no-crash zone!
Gradually getting back into riding proper trails tho. Quite slowly and very cautiously but 100% better than turbo and about 75% than road riding! We went back to the scene of Simon's crash. It's a little tabletop (which subsequently appears to have been squashed).H still has no idea what happened other than taking off with the bike and landing without it!
Birthday ride for me this weekend. At least I'll be able to ride a few of my favourite trails as shoulder feels fine. Just don't want to crash on it. Also first post night ride pint for 12 weeks! I appear to have missed the summer tho as it was getting quite dark! 
Be careful, a mate of mine went back to early and crashed again on the same shoulder (probably because he didn't have full control). He's never been able to mtb again 😩
I got out for a couple of hours this morning. It still counts as midweek because I did some work this afternoon. No stunning views, I'm afraid. Just some woods, a trail and a bike.
Shoulder feels pretty strong, it's been nearly 3 months. Mentally tho, feels like I'm learning to ride again!
You'll have lost all the local muscle control and proprioception from ripped nerves. Build up slowly with positional exercises.
I started physio three weeks post accident. At around 8 weeks moved from stabilising to strengthening. But yeah I'm not going from nothing to riding full on trails. Next ride I plan to ride just a few short easy trails with the rest of the ride being mostly fire-road.
Gravel lap after work on Thursday.
Everything baked dry and reservoir very low.
Saw a gang of surrons getting chased by the police.
Nice 17 mile loop around the local forest after work las night.
Lots of fallen trees after the recent storm.
Chilled ride round whitelee this morning
South Shropshire definitely needs some rain, I’ve never ridden anything as dusty as some of the trails today. Pretty exciting though, especially when doing gap jumps with a strong whiff of hospital about the short, dusty and zero traction landing that heads into a steep sandy corner 🤣 😆 super fun, I think I did a fair few miles sideways today! Sad lack of pictures, all the best bits weren’t places to pause.
Some lovely trails near Morgins today, and on into the Portes du Soleil. Lots of simply wonderful singletrack.
https://flic.kr/p/2rosCU1
https://flic.kr/p/2rosHqS
https://flic.kr/p/2rosHqX
For the first time in what seems like an age I didn't feel the need to put sunscreen on!
Lost the view as we approached the summit of our local hill last night. 5mins before this we still had a lovely clear view!
Then, quite a pleasant easy bimble around the local area on the dropbar this morning before breakfast:
Burnt out vehicles and steep and loose hills on tonight’s ride.
Marsden lane's been resurfaced, no excuses for not getting up it now!
Baitings res will be reforested at this rate...
up above Oxenhope today. Can see huge distances and found another of the Stanza Stones
Another Rehab Ride. A few more trails ticked off but still nothing too tech or too steep. Had my old mate H out tonight as well so that definitely was worth a lovely post ride pint!
I'd never ridden Helvellyn and it was one of my targets for this year. On Tuesday I went up with my eldest (having been planned for a while) with the intention of getting some views and enjoying the return leg. The plan was to go up Keppel, up Long Man to the summit, then back down Sticks. The clouds were down to just over 800 metres and it was blowing quite a gale at the top, so it was really quite cold. In the end I didn't see the point in going much further than the bottom of Long Man in those conditions. He compared the visibility in the clouds to Minecraft where the world hadn't loaded, which I thought was quite amusing.
He loved the descent though!
I went back today (he was too tired after a day riding in the woods yesterday with his mates).
We're currently holidaying in south Devon. Strava heatmaps shows zero MTB activity, and the reality on the ground agrees really. As you'd expect, lots of narrow lanes with high banks and hedges, steep b***ard climbs, but interspersed with a few lovely sections of green lanes, unmetalled roads & bridleways. The HT with fast XC/gravelly tyres has been pretty much the perfect bike.
Riding like absolute crap at the moment... still, it was nice to get out. 👍
Going through another drawn out COVID recovery period. Low energy but motivated by new bike parts.
Managed to get out before work a couple of times this week.
Definitely made some difficult days at work less difficult
Aberfoyle gravel running nicely this morning
The heather is looking magnificent at the moment
Out in the Peak for a long weekend before we go on our next European trip.
Trails are as dry as I've ever seen them. Running fast and fun chasing each other.
Managed an over the bars on the Beast so a bit battered and bruised. Looped back later in the ride and nailed it.
Not many out and about today
Monmouthshire looking more like Tuscany in the background it is so dry.... Floh enjoyed the loop around the Blorenge though.
It felt very autumnal on this morning's pre-work ride; heather and gorse in full flower, but the berries are mostly done and there was that certain quality to the light, a harbinger of cool days and nights drawing in. My favourite season incoming.
Testing my new ejector seat at BPW:
It works well, save that somehow I lost a shoe despite being clipped-in. Still looking for the root cause. 🤔
Regular Tuesday ride with a new mate. He was on an eeb and is 10 years younger than me so it was good that he took it easy on me 😂
Cruised 
through some forest that was recently burnt off for fire hazard reduction and regeneration purposes.
First ride of autumn, bridleway bashing in perfect conditions.
Kids went back to school today, so we're back to biking mid week.
On holiday on the isle of gigha this week, managed a bimble round the island,
Superb place to go, turquoise seas and white sands and only 1 road
Couple of gravel rides this week ...
Quickie on Monday evening just before sundown:
Then a 50km ride this morning before the forecast rain (not appeared yet)
Not posted any pics for weeks now as I've been going through a can't be arsed to take and post any phase.
Normal conditions have returned to the local and summer is definitely over.
Oh well carry on as usual. 
I don't get out much. This direction was easy, going the other direction much more difficult but got it eventually.
This picture makes it look dry yesterday, it wasn’t, it was just very windy and dries well on the ridge! Mudguards back on for the first time in ages and we had a hilarious, slippy, slidy ride, it was like riding new trails. With no brakes 🤣 I’ve added a cheeky pic from last weeks Degla ride!
Sleepy Somerset the Land Of The Summer People ♥️
Set off on our last trip of this year. 5 weeks of hitting the trails, some old and some new.
Managed to get an early tunnel but lost a hour with road closures near Paris.
First stop of the trip is Ainsa. Can't wait to hit the trails again. It's been too long since our last visit
Late posting - busy week! In search of a longer ride on Thursday I did a loop from Wolsingham via Doctors Gate into Hamsterley, then Route 666/Odd Sox/2 Wheels and a Troll, before heading up to Dangerous Descent:
Then out of Hamsterley on the road to Parkhead via Stanhope and Crawleyside:
After refreshments at Parkhead, back to Wolsingham via the Waskerley Way and Wolsingham North Moor. Good riding, especially after the rain the previous night made most places just wet enough to be grippy.
I'd heard talk of a new trail in the valley that was supposed to be a loamy fun rut track.
So after it pissed it down last night I thought today would be the ideal day to go and find it...
Blimey I've not had to tripod down that much of a trail in a long time .🤣
Recon it'll be great once it gets bedded in a little and some bench cuts on the more off camber bits.
First ride in Ainsa today. When we were here in 2018 for the EWS we always rated it in our top three of European riding spots and were determined to return
Today confirmed that and had an amazing time out in the hills.
Rocks, rocks and more rocks both on the ups and downs made it a great technical ride.
Just got back before the thunderstorm
Lots of fiddly, nadgery and steep stuff around Strathearn today. The local trail-builder(s) do a lovely line in tight, sinuous, rootsy and sometimes exposed singletrack which is precisely the stuff I like best, despite being slightly ill-equipped with a 100mm 29er with Mezcals and arse-high saddle.
Sadly the same builder also does a line in un-rollable little take-offs over fallen trees and metre high drops to flat over over old walls and fences so a few undignified dismounts and scrambles required.
Only took photos of the really cool and clearly very old path built up and overhanging the Earn though, which runs parallel with an old railway that's now a cyclepath between Comrie and St Fillans. Still a bit nadgery and not all rideable but very cool.
This morning’s ride was a trip along Froggatt and Curbar Edges but also a trip down Memory Lane as I revisited a favourite spot from my rock climbing days. Sadly, the ride was cut short by a puncture that refused to seal and I headed back with the emergency inner tube deployed.
Last day of summer weather for this year? Best make the most of it then; zig zag out of the front door over the tops to Tod, arriving on the station platform three minutes before the train home pulled in...
After last night's storms we wasn't sure what today would bring.
Once again the rocks were in abundance. Only worry was that we had a couple of river crossings but managed them.
Sat planning tomorrow's ride and trying to fit a couple of laps of Badlands into it.
Skved off today because it was nice and looks like maybe the last good day for a bit. Still felt like summer once it had warmed up in the afternoon
Big leg stretcher. Macclesfield -> Peniston linear ride public transport on the train to Leeds both ends. incorporating many Peak hits and bits o cheek.
Just shy of 100Km and about 2200M climbing (All told, including commuting down to the station and back, and also through Manchester between Victoria and Piccadilly stations)
Was mega. I'm a bit tired now.
Doorstep ride, flat as a pancake, but Garmin says 1100m of ascent. I did hit several short stairsets and ride off some ledges, which did involve climbing to the top of some of kent's smallest white cliffs, but no way was it 1000m worth 🤣
Sorry to lower the tone, no riding pics from yesterday evening's hillclimb up to the local reservoir (Loch Turret, starting at the Glenturret distillery 😎) but I do enjoy a nice HR vs. elevation graph, not often I see 179bpm these days 🤮
Also no pictures from yesterday's ride but have a picture of the ride instead.
35km/1700 Meters.
Was amazingly dry which I wasn't expecting after Monday's ride.
Nice bonus though.
@singlespeedstu - that chute you posted ^^^ there looks blooming terrifying!
A local loop on the "beige adventurer" including the "bridge of sorrow" or "where planks go to die" as my mate Trusty calls it. Approaching at speed in winter you never know how many planks will be there to greet you. Four, one or - excitingly - none at all. At which point your only option is to play a game of chance with the "ditch of doom". All go in, not all come out 😉
Anyway good to be able to ride without thinking "oooh that wet root might have me off and I'll b*gger my collarbone again". And officially bikes with light XC summer tyres are fantastic fun on flat-ish, damp-ish trails!
that chute you posted ^^^ there looks blooming terrifying!
The chute was only mildly worrying after the previous trail. It's the mossy, boggy G-out at the bottom that's scary when you're on your own on a trail that's a good way off and not many folks know about.
3 of us up on t'moor last night. Trails still running well (possibly for the last time?), ferns are starting to die back so sightlines improving. Splendid evening.
Two rides above Ainsa for us today . This morning we did a loop to take in the Badlands and Las Dunas. So much fun we could have made a day of it and re rode it.
Back to the van for coffee and cake then straight back out for more technical ups and downs. Finished the day chasing each other on As Cambras, not too steep or too technical but not alot of places to overtake.
Back to the van for lamb madras, garlic nan and a few beers
First time I’ve got wet on a ride in months, one down pour mid ride, but the biggest soakings were from wet foliage.
Another soaking here.
Waited until the last descent then let rip with a hail storm.
Piss wet through instantly.
Still 33km/1530meters and only 10 minutes of wet so no bad considering.
Last say in Ainsa so decided on an extended ride utilising Trailforks, Zona Zero map and Komoot.
We woke to blue sky's and by half way round the temp had hit mid 30s but most of the climbing was out of the way.
Had an amazing last day and stay here which confirmed why we wanted to come back.
A couple of days pootle through France to see what Sospel has to offer.
