Wednesday 27 August 2014

Mynd The Gap

I have to admit that as I pitched my tent in the corner of a busy and drizzly campsite in Little Stretton I was wondering if the Long Mynd was everything I remembered it to be. Long-time readers will know I’ve had issues with this ride, whether getting lost, or drenched, or both. Settling into a cold pasty dinner in the car, watching QI on my iPad and watching the rain come down I wasn’t sure that this would be any better, or that the trails I remembered were as good as I had built them up to be in my head.

The next morning I was still unsure, especially as the rain insisted on coming down. I had ridden the first section, crossing the golf course and worrying that the ride would be less than good. On the top of the ridge the drizzle seemed to settle in and the climb dragged on. I swore at the weather, and for once it worked. The rain eased as I turned left into the first downhill of the day.


This wide fast descent blew away all of the doubt and I cruised over drainage channels and rocks with a grin that grew and grew. Hitting the bottom I missed the turning and had to take the road into the big grinding climb to follow. This is a long climb but now it was all seeming worth it. The steep tarmac drags on into the renewed rain but it gave me time to think about the route. Traditionally this ride is a three loop pattern, but that would have taken me past the car midway round, so I decided to mix it up a little and do the downhills the opposite way round. (I also had some issues with the Sports Tracker in the rain. I didn't actually fly from the top of the hill to the bottom.)


To do this I had a longer ride across the top of the ridge to the gliding club before dropping down the simply superb valley ride at Minton Batch. This is the absolute pinnacle of beautiful riding, with a narrow trail rollercoastering down next to a stream for the best part of ten minutes. It is fast and flowing and that grin can only get wider as you plummet through the bracken.

As you can see I rode it perfectly.

Oh ok ok, I guess this is what you really want to see from that descent:


(I mean that’s why anyone watches mountain bike videos, right?). The crash was hard and pretty fast and left me bashed up from my hip to my swelling ankle as well as scraped across my forearm, but I remounted and rode on, pressing on up the fireroad, forest climb and back to the top of the Mynd. Grinding over the top I couldn’t help but remember the last downhill as less good than the other two, but I was in for another pleasant surprise. It climbs over some grassy rises and then flicks from one contoring side of a hill to another with steep drops on the outside before dropping fast to the bottom of the valley for the third time, landing me by the car, to pack up wet kit, hit the heater on and head off into wilder Wales.

I’d started the week well, loosened up into the riding, got over the idea of getting wet, and even got an inevitable crash for the week out of the way early on. Suddenly I felt good about the week of riding great natural and man-made trails that I had planned.

A

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