As you will have noticed we’ve had some proper winter conditions over the last week. Lots of fun - sledging with the kids, snowball fights, traffic chaos….all the usual stuff. But the best bit has to be mountain biking in the snow. Faced with thick ice on all but main roads, any kind of sensible ride on the road is out of the question, so heading out into the hills to hear your tyres crunch through the snow is the only option. Of course getting to the off-road bit involves some road riding, which around my way last weekend meant negotiating the bike through a series of ice-rinks linked by occassional stretches of tarmac. Easier on a thick tyred mtb than a skinny road bike but still a test of handling skills. As long as you keep it light on the pedals and don’t brake or turn you should be fine!
So I had a great ride last sunday, two and a half hours zig-zagging my way around Boxhill and Ranmore Common in the North Downs. A great blast and a real workout, it’s amazing how quickly one warms up when slogging up an off-road climb!
The downside of the weather is the necessity to catch the train into work rather than ride in. Living 30 miles from Mosquito allows me to do a good bit of my training by simply riding into the shop. The state of the roads this week has made this impossible and I’ve been relegated to the train along with everyone else (and their germs!).
Still it’s nearly Christmas and if the snow stays I’ll be out their playing in it again on Boxing Day and hopefully working off a bit of the Christmas Spirit. Merry Christmas!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 at 18:51:10 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.