3 Days, 2 Rides

The Alps is a good place to ride a mountain bike, of that there is no doubt, but the UK is pretty good too, especially trails like this one:

Dave W and I headed to Stavely to scratch a trail exploring itch that had been on my mind for a while. The Highstreet - Staveley descent is a techno corker at the best of times, however the Bridleway to complete the loop is a grassy boggy slog up onto the ridge. After a massive trail had been dug in up to the ridge north of Garburn, I had a feeling this would provide a better way of summiting high street. We were mainly focusing on getting a few moving images in the bag for the second Pretty Sweet, plus I had forgotten my camera, so this is the only image from the day, but as a ride it was brutal. Garburn to the ridge was steep, and the descents of two of the three summits where short but steep, and super gnarly in places. Needless to say Dave W aced most of it. I had a bit of a struggle, especially after my sucess on the Lakes Gnar on the 'Long Steep Road of Trips' Trip. I would like to blame it on going back to a hardtail, but my super tech skills could well have gone backwards.

And this one:

All our riding at the minute is done with one eye on the Tour de Ben Nevis, so Cal and I decided to head out to the Marin trail and get used to just 'knocking it out' again. Felt pretty good, certainly better than the pain-fest in the lakes. 2 hours 15 mins for a lap at 'could do it all day' speed certainly boosted confidence. Anyway, it is good to be back in the UK. Despite how it may feel we have it pretty good here.

Pretty Sweet Hits Canada

Well this is Rad. Got news today that a slightly shortened version of Pretty Sweet will be included in the Bikeshorts Film Festival Tour

The tour starts at the above event in Vancouver before taking in dates across Canada along with some international showings. This really does look like an awesome night, I mean c'mon, there is bike valet parking. The line up looks great aswell, with a fair few mountain bike films, including Shortcuts from the Bamboo Chicken guys down the road in Llanberis. Their is also a picture slideshow in the interview, and I think we may have a few shots in that aswell. Basically thus is awesome news about an awesome event.

Personally I think it would be great if we could bring this to the UK. If anyone else reading this thinks they could help make it happen then get in touch (address on the Pretty Sweet film page)

Check out www.bikeshorts.ca for more details

We're Going Racing

Yup. it is all on the line now. In a month or so's time the Pretty Sweet Race Team (ha..) will be heading of to this:

On the No Fuss website it is described as 'The race that took mountain biking back to the mountains' and a 'mountain biking adventure race' which sounds right up our street. As far as I can tell the format is sort of like an Enduro, with both downhill and uphill stages on a course that circumnavigates Ben Nevis. The stages look like they take in some sweet out the way singletrack, plus a stage on the Fort William Downhill Course, and a hike-a-bike section.

Anyway, it looks like Dave W, Cal and I are all going to be there, so bragging rights are on the line, plus it sounds like a pretty good excuse for a roadtrip whilst we are up north. Cal and Dave W are talking of training programs so they should be super competitive. I am aiming to avoid the wooden spoon. The clown is down.

Scottish Road Trip Disaster

These pictures are the leftovers from the 'Long Steep Road of Trips' story that appeared in Singletrack 58. Dave W gives his side of the story below:

Hope that we could find a spell of dry weather in the Scottish highlands was well and truly quenched by a curtain of spray coming up off the motorway. We were at the border to Cumbria and knew full well that every northward mile took us deeper into a developing downpour. Decision time.