Is Wales a country??

When twenty-ten rolled around, I made a pledge to ride in 3 new countries this year. I'm not one for resolutions and all that, but I definitely want to ride more, and in new places. Meanwhile, I've been aching to ride in wales for years now, from before GG and I had our Scottish adventure. But you can already see the dilemma...does Wales count as a country?

Let's see. They have their own incomprehensible language (with far too many consonants, in my opinion). They have their own national sports teams in international competition. Flag? Check. National identity? Check. Is that close enough? Perhaps I should hold my decision until the end of the year.

This was waiting for me in Wales...


So finally the day had come. I had a free day and was in London. That meant I was going to Wales! About 2 hours from the sister's house in west London, I planned to make a day trip out of it. Wales, like Scotland, has a number of purpose-built riding centers just for mountain bikes!!! Pure genius. The original plan was to hit Afan, a center (or should I say, centre) just outside of Cardiff. An uber-epic 46km loop of single track was waiting for me. Unfortunately, those plans were derailed when the most absurd showing of traffic control ever played itself out, right in front of me. ONE TRUCK turns over. ONE TRUCK. The result? Full stop on the freeway, for all traffic. For two hours.

Now I'm sure there are those among you who are saying, just as I did, two hours? With the engine off? For one overturned truck? Didn't the British build one of the largest empires of all time, stretching to all corners of the globe? Didn't they invent a bunch of stuff like subways and little tea sandwiches? Haven't they produced the two biggest rock bands of all time? The answer to all these questions is yes. But somehow, the 21st century skill of traffic routing has evaded this quaint little island. It defies logic, is all that I can say, having experienced it first hand.

This was my view for 2 hours...


End result - new plans. 3 hours later, I passed the singly overturned truck, and headed to a closer riding center - CWMCARN. Now, I have no idea how to pronounce that, but that's not important. What's important was that it was TOTALLY AWESOME. I can say with confidence that it's the most fun I've had on a mountain bike since August, when I was in Oakridge with the boys. 15.5km of delicious singlerack. So so tasty.

It started with a nice opening gambit, a steep little stair-case track strewn with rocks. After some rolls, it settled into a fantastic and extremely technical singltrack climb right alongside a bubbling brook. Green moss and everything. I had just ridden a road bike for multiple hours the day before, but the goesting was high, weather was perfect, and I was so excited to be on fun trails.

At the top there was a pretty ok view, followed by a peeing-in-pants-inducing descent. Fast, fast, fast, bermed to the brim, and fun. Some choppy stuff as well - part of the fun in riding here was the different terrain, dominated by flat rocks in every shape and size. After some more climbing, more descending, hill traversing, more descending, and more climbing, the final descent brought me back to the parking lot. It was brilliant - a roller coaster line of very tacky soil and seemingly endless berms. Like Whistler for 5-inch bikes.

So yes. Wales basically rocks. English traffic people do not. But I will be back in Wales...there are heaps of trails waiting to be devoured.

The riding "centre" had a pretty nice little cafe and info area


I was rocking the Ibis. Perfect bike. That 160 fork in front was perfect going down.


Huh?


Trail info was comprehensive...


Which way?


Cute little welsh boars guided you along the way


If this doesn't make you horny for your mountain bike, you're hopeless


My silhouette in front of some welsh hills

More from Seattle - Black Diamond

It's shocking sometimes, when you log into your blog, to see when the last post was. March 26. It's been my intention to update twice a week, how did 3 weeks fly by? I hope I've been doing something constructive in that period...

Well, to be honest, there hasn't been a lot of mtbing going on. I've lost the goesting for the lumma loop. I need to go out and build some new features, because as is...it's a bit of a snooze fest. That said, I did do one other ride in Seattle (and rode in Wales this week, that's coming later).

So back when I was a kid...walking to school in the snow every day and all that...the majority of our mountain biking was done out at Victor Falls. Ah, Victor Falls, what sweet memories. Well south of Seattle, up on the ridge above Sumner and Orting, there was a huge forested region that really wasn't ok for bikes, but wasn't prohibited either. A seemingly endless network of criss-crossing trails, we could spend all day out there. Well, Victor Falls is mostly houses now, but the new place is just down the road from mom's house, in Black Diamond.

Yes, Black Diamond. Real America. But the riding is pretty damn good! A vast network of tasty singletrack has sprung up since I last lived in the US. I met Eric and Todd Graham out there (the day before I broke a rib in a stupid road race). Typical Eric was in race mode...but that was fine, it was good to giver' a little bit and burn the legs. And although I didn't know it, this was to be the last ride on the Belgian 29er...I'll miss you B29. We shared a lot together.

Friends. Superbe single track. Fantastic weather. What more do you want?

Eric was in "go" mode all day.


Todd had just finished a time trial on the road bike.


The last photo of the Belgian 29er shredding!!

ZOLDER

When Alex asked if I wanted to do the Zolder toertocht, I thought, why the hell not? I had imposed a mtb moratorium on myself until the trails dried up...one can wash a bike only so many times in one's lifetime. But, ever since I moved to this crazy little country, everybody was talking about Zolder this, and Zolder that. "Did you know Roel Paulissen trains in Zolder?" So how bad could it be, right?


Sad to say, it was MISERABLE. Ok, riding in the dirt with a friend is always ok. But the course. Oef, the course. The picture above is really the highlight of the day. A short little climb where we tested ourselves to see if we could climb it without getting off. We made it.


The rest of the course was like this. Cold. Dirt roads. Muddy. I'm falling asleep just writing about it. To give the organizers some credit, apparently it's a new group putting this on, and there was some reason why they couldn't use a bunch of the normal trails. But still.

Fortunately, the bicycle dinosaur museum was especially powerful today. Look at this! I don't even know what it is, except it's probably almost as old as me. Full carbon fiber with an elevated chainstay. Magura HS-33! And what is with the strange, sea-foam green bar-ends pointing up to the sky, as if to receive special instructions from the mothership?


Here was another beauty. And I'm not laughing at these riders. I think it's cool that they are still shredding belgian singletrack on them. But you must admit...this one is also a little peculiar. The frame, combined with the wheels. V-brakes on a carbon Specialized-branded Rockshox. This was the sexiest bike in Belgium in 1994.


Anyway. Highlights were few and far between this day. But that's all right. Bike wash. Beer. Home to watch a cyclocross race. It was all good.

Tokul, WA

It used to be that if you lived in the Seattle area, there were really only 2 or 3 areas to ride: Tiger Mountain, Tapeworm, and maybe St. Edwards park. But over the last 5 years or so, a ton of fantastically excellent riding places have popped up. Grand Ridge, Preston, and a totally new one to me, Tokul. Despite a late night of xbox and whiskey until 4am, I managed to drag myself up to Tokul where Eric, Garret, Chip, and Matt were waiting to ride.

It had been a tough week. 5 continuous days of endless driving, big meals, and little sleep. The crash in the last week's road race gave me a dislocated rib. So I was totally pathetic going both up and down. But whatever. These were totally wicked trails.

Wallace brought me a Turner Flux to ride. Although I disapproved of the tires, the bike was solid. And the trails? Did I talk about the trails? Fantasstic.

For those about to rock...

Of course, it had to be AC DC

You Yangs

Ah, Australia. Our last mtb ride took us to You Yangs, arguably the main mtb spot on the general Melbourne area. I had ridden here before with Mark but there had been some improvements to the trails and some new additions. The You Yangs now was a dedicated mountain bike area. Pretty cool!

The two manly men set out on their ride. You Yangs is kind of a lumpy little hill in the middle of a giant, dry plain. It's not all that big but they aussies have managed to cut some fun little trails.


Trails were impeccably marked for idiots like me and also graded on level of difficulty, so you could push yourself to the brink of injury. The Boulder track was a good one. Short and sweet, but lots of slick rock and testy little sections.


And wildlife. Australian wildlife! If you squint really hard you can see in the center a wallaby, which I found out is just a small kangaroo.


This is also really the only place you could ride a big dual-squishy, and they had a handful of dedicated DH trails with some north shore features. We ended up doing a big figure 8 loop that took in plenty of climbing, some little jumps, lots of flowy singletrack, and some technical delicacies.


...as evidenced here by yours truly SHREDDING that rock face. Practically turned it into molten lava...


Not sure if you can tell from this photo, but it was HOT there. We were pooped at the end.


Luckily the pilot had pre-empted our tired thirst by bringing cold aussie beverages. Good day all around!