One Dark Lord

Who decided he didnt want me to ride !



So, the holiday in Greece is now a dusty memory, if only we had dusty trails, SITS was worse than usual, not just rain but trails made of plastocene, I really feel for the organisers of these events, they go to enormous efforts to put on a great event, new trails every time, but no matter how hard they work the weather gods dont even bother to get out of bed.I started the 1st lap with Jac, it was okay but before I was even half way round the bike was inoperable and had trebled in weight, by then I had decided that I wasnt going to bother, horrible flashbacks to Mountain Mayhem of 2 years ago where I pushed my mud laden bike for nearly 70 miles and paid a heavy price for 2 months afterwards, there's no way on gods earth that I'm going to put myself through that again in the name of fun, so that 1 lap was me done.Shower and a beer and I switched into support mode for jac, sharing the duties with Chris, Shaggy and Mel, sharing lots of laughs and banter with all the crew on our side of the fence.Jac did a sterling ride to grab herself 3rd solo place, the Delamere crew also did them selves proud with Dave, Ian and Sue all finisjhing their first solo attempt, chapeau to them all, and all who continued on, even the guy who set out with just a bike frame over his shoulder...The quietness in the wee hours gave me some time to think and I made a decision to try and get to the forthcoming single speed world championships, I've been dilly dallying all year about whether or not to go, I doubt I'll be racing but hopefully Punkass can get me a loaner bike for a few days and I'll be doing lots of riding on dusty trails.After getting home it'll be head down for a few weeks on the road bike leading upto the Manchester 100, I'm not a big fan of these organised charity rides but this one will serve a purpose and give me something to aim for, a sub 8 hour time I hope and (yes yet another) kick start to getting some fitness (yes i know, more comebacks than Frank Sinatra) leading upto what I really hope will be a mild autumn when I have places to ride and people to see.Next year I will attempt another 24 hour solo but hopefully it will be warm, dusty and rideable, maybe Finale with some of the cheeky crew :-)