Thursday 28 August 2014

Riding the Mach Trails

Wales is a country of myths and legends and for mountain bikers the trails from Machynlleth are the stuff of folklore. Back before trail centres were the way that everyone seems to ride there were tales of a marked trail, and technical riding above the ancient Welsh capital. Trails so good they were just known as Mach 1, 2 and 3. The mountain bike infrastructure of the UK has moved on but I included this stop in my trip to see if the Mach trails still hold up and to satisfy my intrigue from the past. There were stories that the signs had been removed and Machynlleth sits on the edge of two maps so there was more challenge from the ride.

I had been joined now by my brother, providing an excellent pasta dinner, company round the campfire and, as it would turn out, a challenge on the climbs. We rolled out of town on a narrow road into a rainy day, carrying directions for both Mach 2 and 3 which start together. At the first junction we saw our first sign to confirm our direction and suggest that the indicators might remain. We climbed on tarmac and then a gravel track and finally across fields and then the rain picked up. Getting drenched and ploughing across grassy expanses it certainly crossed my mind that the ride might not be all I imagined. We struck out across a field in one of those soulkilling struggles to find the right gate, losing faith (and the structural integrity of our route maps) rapidly.

Just beyond this gate it suddenly got good, with a slatey drop down to woods that suddenly perked the ride up and made the decision to continue on the Mach 3 route easier.


This took us quickly into a long tough fireroad climb for a couple of kilometres where we quietly pushed each other to keep going at a fairly high pace up the zigzagging track, steadily and relentlessly gaining height through the conifers.

The top of the climb was marked by a locked gate and another heavy rain shower. We elected to lift bikes over and shelter in the last of the trees, now in nearly full winter gear, despite it being still firmly August. As the rain eased and the Mr Kipling Country Slices were digested we rolled on out into the open. Here the trail opened up into a wide open remote hill-top trail.


This carried on for a while before passing through a gate and past a warning sign, another bit of signing from the trails that warned us to ride with care as we entered “The Chute”. This was where the fun got serious as the trail dropped in loose, rocky channels curving high above the valley and suddenly giving a taste of proper mountain riding. The gradient eased a little but the trail flowed more to a woodland and then a gate where I stopped to wait.

After a while I set off back up the hill to check what was taking so long, and discovered a pinch puncture being fixed, but gave myself the opportunity to ride the fun back down again. Next up there was a minor navigation error, some flapjack eating and a correction that put us on another flowing contoring path over grass and rock, then a fast track descent, and a bit of woodland riding to finish it all off.

In the end this was a big day out, five hours in the hills, but a day of proper mountain biking in some surprisingly remote hills. We finished the day with a drive to the coast to pick up a new saddle to replace one that had been seriously bent by a sensitive part of my brother in a series of crashes. In my opinion the Mach trails have lived up to the legend.

You’re probably wondering what’s going on in the Vuelta right now, and I can tell you. It’s hot, and there have been sprint stages. Michael Matthews is in the red jersey, but he will lose it today on a summit finish where the favourites will play their cards, as they started to do yesterday when a split in the bunch threatened some of the big names who didn’t stick to Contador and Froome.

A

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