First ride of 09 - freeze dried tracks

Our first ride of 09 - we had been thinking about doing a proper race today - but their online entries closed a week before the deadline - which would have meant driving up to Wiltshire for 8am on a Sunday to feel reassured that we'd get places - and so we made other plans....

27.3km route from South Wonston, followed by a quiz and "gala" dinner with awards ceremony at Pizza Express. S & X are still enjoying their Christmas colds and Kitty had other plans - so it was Husband, Goldfish, C, M & me.

We scooted around in just over 2 hours. Progress was speeded by lack of mushy mud - freezing temperatures (-1oC at the start) have transformed tracks into weirdly freeze dried bumpy routes with the occaisional mud puddle. See the pic of iced up duck pond at Crawley. I think I should have planned in some more extreme hills as my legs were freezing up towards the end. I enjoyed listening to the others specualting about what the quiz questions might be - I think M was trying to count the sheep at one point!

Awards for Mountain Biking in 2008 :


Whippet Award for being first up the hills - M
Lemming Award for being first down the hills - Husband
Virgin Trains award for punctuality - S
Guinea Pig Award for best en route squealing - C
Domestic Goddess award for the best biking accessory crafting - Kitty
Hippo Award for mud appreciation - Goldfish
Canadian Mountie Award for always carrying on, whatever the pain - X

And Husband won the quiz. Kitty and X both scored more than Goldfish - even though neither of them came on the ride the questions were based on!