We were due to set off at 8:30 this morning to meet up with Rich, Dave and others at Penmachno. Great trails, rocky singletrack aplenty. Unfortunately there was a problem at the stables which meant that Deb was late getting back so me and Michael didn’t set off until 9:15.
The new plan was to get there, jump on the bikes and catch the guys up. Why I thought for a second we’d be able to catch them up with a 30 minute start I’ll never know; it was never going to happen.
We had to be back by 3 as well, so our “window” was already getting quite narrow.
We had a decent enough ride, the singletrack at Penmachno really is up there with the best in the country and there’s a lot of it,  but Michael was obviously not enjoying himself (all of a sudden lost all his new-found confidence with clipless pedals) and was almost sick at the top of the last climb before we called it a day. There’s only so much moaning I can take, after all 😉

We got back to the car just in time to put some dry clothes on, eat a butty and say hello to Rich and Dave who were just finishing the ride.

It was the first time I’d ridden anywhere outside local trails on the Salsa singlespeed. It’s certainly nimble. Maybe a bit lively in fact. With a small drop of “handful” thrown in.