For Chas's first club off road ride we organised rain, wind, mud and extra slippery tree roots in abundance. Matthew, Kev & El, Andy B, Richard C and I did all we could to break him and his enthusiasm. Despite all of this, and his slighly retro bike (with not particularly knobbly tyres), he lasted the course and is rumoured to have enjoyed it!

It wasn't the best weather on Saturday, but more fun riding in the forest than out on the roads I expect. We headed over Old Pale and on to Primrose Wood where it wasn't quite as muddy. Chas used his trials motorcycle skills to help negotiate the slippy conditions and I only saw him fall once (4.5 for artistic impression, but 5.9 for technical merit!) on a day that we all lost control at some point. Andy (having accepted taking the lead on our return down the Old Pale zig-zag path) saved his fall for a spectacular 180 degree broadside wipeout - the things you see when you don't have your helmet camera on. But as Kev will confirm, the ground in the forest is much softer than the road, so falling off isn't usually painful and the terrain lends itself to high intensity interval training. So we all had a great workout to justify filling ourselves at the excellent club dinner later that evening.

We're off to Hit the North mtb race in Manchester next week and anyone who wants to enter might just get in http://www.hitthenorth.net/, but there are no entries on the day. Hope we didn't put you off for good Chas and will see you out again soon in better conditions. Future events see http://wvccbogblog.blogspot.com/