After the away day last month the plan was to keep things local in May.  With this
in mind Rob, a shop ride regular, offered to show us round his local trails of
Delamere Forest.  We met in the large car park away from the visitors centre with
the plan of riding for 9.30am.  What can I say, blue skies and sun again and even
though the trails had a drenching the night before the water had drained away
leaving the ground firm, grippy and fast rolling - perfect.  This was another ride
that was planned in two sections, the first
couple of hours being on easier trails
then, after returning to the cars, another
couple of hours would be on offer to
those who wanted to test themselves on
some trickier stuff.  I'm glad we had Rob
to guide us as
with the area
all looking the
same I quickly
Rod, Sabine and Sheila flying through the trees
Maca and Derek head
into the trees
lost my usually good
sense of direction.  I
was happy to give
PaulB, Ken, Jon, Sheila
and the mud
Rob (our guide), Maca & Derek at one of the few muddy sections
up my role as guide as Rob
certainly knew the area well
and had us riding on some
fantastic twisty singletrack.  
Every now and again we
popped out of the trees for a
fire track link or were led to
an optional play section, like
the bomb hole shown on the
right.  After another big
dollop of singletrack Rob
brought us to a set of chutes
that everyone, after a bit of
help and coaching, managed
to ride.  It was then back off
Rod returns back into
the sunlight
Me, Mike and Rod drop
into the bomb hole
Clockwise - Sabine, Derek, Sheila and
Rob riding the rooty chute
Jon(above and below) and Rod
riding the chutes
on more great
trails for a while
till it was time to
go back to the
Mike really enjoying himself
on the chutes
cars, to drop
off those who
were only doing the first loop and let the
rest of us refuel.  After the couple of
hours riding we had just had I was not
surprised to see we had only lost one
person when we headed back into the
forest on the harder part of the ride.  
The tightness and twistyness of the
trails were still the same as before but
now they were made trickier with more
PaulB, Jim, Mike and Me riding the rooty chute
Once, twice, three time's a charm.  Rod rides these woods regularly with Rob
and never has a problem with this section, but with an audience and a camera
pointing at you things have a tendency to go pear shaped.
Other times you clean
things at the first attempt
and should have left it
Closkwise - Rob, Paul, Jim and Sheila cleaning
the slippery log ride
roots, sharp inclines, logs and fallen trees that required riding
over.  Mike impressed us all ride, attempting everything put in
front of him but especially the fact that by the end he was
riding over fallen trees as well as anyone.  The final part of the
ride was made more interesting by 15min of heavy rain (a first
for the Shop Rides) which just made everything a bit more
slippery.  By the time we got back to the car park the sun was
Not listening to my
own advice on
riding obstacles,
cameras and
audiences it takes
me two attempts
to clean this log
when I had no
problems with any
others
Rod, Rob, Mike and
PaulB tackling logs
out again in time for getting changed and
having a chat about the ride.  My initial rides in Delamere left
me thinking the place didn't offer much but going with
someone who really knows the area turns it into a fantastic
place to ride.  The riding is completely different to what I
usually do and exercises a different set of skills.  With what
we experienced that day I can safely say we will be going back quite often.  Thanks to
Rob, Jim, Rod and Derek for showing us round their back yard and Sheila, of course,
for the coffee, cake and biscuits at the end of the ride.
Mike wisely bailing
instead of being the
second person in the bog
there