37, 38, 39 and 40

37,38,39 were boring there and backs, made ever so slightly more interesting by being along the river on the Stiffee which is the only burly bike with working brakes, I now have 4 pairs of Hopes that need servicing !

anyhow, no aches from the knee during any of these rides so I felt confident about todays escape to Penmachno

WRONG diddly WRONG

But before all that we had a few comedy moments, first of all driving into ByC for a bacon butty, we were both laughing at the memory of the potato gun incident from Robs leaving do, what must the residents have thought as hot potatoes rained down into the town that night ? and then just a funny for me watching Dave drop his coffee as he struggled to get out of the bakery door, I guess you had to be there on both occasions !

Anyway, the ride....

1st climb and I'm wincing, 1st descent and I cant stand without it buckling under me, bollocks bollocks bollocks.

Dave and Ali continued on to finish the red route whilst I dropped back down the hill, but instead of heading to the car I dropped into the granny ring and spun my way up hill to drop down the last singletrack descent, the knee was still aching and twingeing but was tolerable so I decided to head off again to see how it went. I headed back uphill at a snails pace but again it was manageable, decided to head further up and get to the second last descent, after an eternity in the granny ring I finally got there. The descent was interesting as there was a few guys in front of me who were even slower downhill than me and I kept catching them, but as tempting as it was to overtake I decided to stop and let them get well ahead so that I could descend at a more pedestrian pace.

I got back to the car having done just an hour so my start at 31 in 31 was completed, and despite the knee playing up I was still happy, happy just to be in the hills, happy to drive down the estuary road to ByC, happy to hear the buzzards calling and watching them circle (I've been going here to ride bikes for 20 years now and I always see and associate buzzards with this area).

abot an hour later Dave and Ali arrive back at the car, they are buzzing having raced around the trail, get changed, bikes loaded, cheery goodbyes, some vague plans for another attempt at Snowdon and we are driving.

This week will see just an hour eac morning hoping that the knee will get better in time for next weekend.



Running total, 40 rides and 480 miles.


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