Just when my local trails are riding amazingly well, and I’m feeling really good out there, winter strikes and turns them in to a right state.
Every year I try and remember that by the end of the previous winter I’m normally riding really well and am totally used to the foul conditions- but still they catch me off guard and it’s like learning to ride all over again.
At first the ground remains firm underneath, and there’s just a layer of thick, gloopy slop on the top- which you slide around on completely out of control. And it’s always when least expected, and still riding on summer tyres at summer tyre pressures.
But some weeks on from then, my tyres have changed, so have the pressures and so has the way I’m riding again- I’m tuned in to the slop once more.
Or so I thought!
Out at the weekend, things caught me off guard again- I was riding my normal mountain bike, with tyres and a set up that I was prepared for- except the mud got one over on me again. Locally, it’s like ploughing through muck- but thinner tyres get through and you can find grip- although now it’s freezing out there, the mud in congealing like the blood on a scab.
In places it’s like riding on toast- firm on the top, and cracks to a sloppy mess underneath- which is great as it’s fairly predictable. It’s the stuff that looks like the top of a Betty Crocker Devils Chocolate cake that really creates problems.
This stuff is thick, and has no support- it never stops moving! Even riding in a straight line becomes tricky as the whole surface of the trail is sliding around- but not in a fast, loose way- more like a tectonic plate’s subtle movement.
Doesn’t sound so bad really, but what it means is that you’re continuously sliding and are counter correcting. I reckon I spent more time sideways than I did going forward yesterday.
Not a bad thing, as it’s all great for the skills, but it can really change your ride from a crisp winter day’s blast under a blue sky, to feeling like mother nature really doesn’t want you there!
Being based down south, I’ve not seen the weather get any worse yet- but the next stage of winter is my favourite- when the ground freezes and becomes rock hard again. Preferably with a coating of snow to boot. The last few years I’ve felt like a kid riding in the snow- let’s hope that there’s a decent dump over the X-mas break and we get to ride a true winter wonder land!
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