Cannock Chase
Wales the land of sheep, rain and superb mountain bike trails. After one whole weekend we definitely found the latter two at a cost. The cost came at the expense of one inner tube, one XT rear mech, one front wheel, one pair of seized forks, one brake pad, one wheel skewer, one pair of ripped cycling trousers, one crud guard, more crashes than one can count and lots of hurt pride. Luckily the nine of us who set off to Coed y Brenin managed to survived the two intense and gruelling days of mountain biking on the infamous MBR pink heifer and Red Bull trails.
After a long and arduous four hour journey into the heart of Wales, and the middle of nowhere, everyone was rearing to go the next day on a mammoth biking session that was until everyone looked out into the sky in the morning! The whether in the morning was cold, freezing, cloudy and pouring with rain, which made us all ask the question why am I here? And not at home in nice warm surrounding?. However, we put the conditions to the back of our minds, got motivated and went.
The first trail we did was the renamed MBR trail, formally known as the pink heifer, consisting of approximately 18 miles of Welsh mountain/forest trails, starting at the Coed y Brenin visitor centre, a mecca for mountain bikers. At the start of the trail was a nice little climb of about 3-4kms to get us warmed up. Once this was overcome we began the first on many high speed descents. This first decent witnessed the first of many crashes. The unlucky and unscathed rider was Nick, on his new full suspension Kona Stinky, although his crud guard wasnt so lucky!
After a few kms of technical single tracks, fire roads, rock gardens and a superb man made bridge T brake block decided to die. Luckily we were quite close to the minibus to make a quick repair. Once this was sorted out we set off again in search of more climbs, descents and single track! For a while things seemed to be event free but this was short lived! The second part of this route proved to be the most eventful!
The first event could be described as the worst crash of the whole trip in terms of bike breaking because Rob, the UNU cycling president, somehow managed to hit a tree on one of the best descends of the day. Luckily Rob was in one piece but that could not be said for his sorry front wheel, which hardly resembled a round wheel! Worst was to follow for Robs bike the following day. The softest crash of the day went to Phil, who while trying to track stand, managed to fall with his feet clipped in. After this, Chriss front wheel also had enough. It decided that it did not want to be attached to the bike. Even with these problems we all managed to survive the first day.
In general it was quite eventful first day full of tremendous climbs and descents, mixed into technical single tracks, all ridden in a typical continuous Welsh downpour. Credit on day one goes to Nick. for managing to survive the 18 miles on his heavy weight full suspension dual slalom Kona Stinky. The evening was spent nursing the aches and pains in a Welsh pub, sitting next the a 19th Century steam engine.
Day two we woke up to a seemingly rain free day with patches of lovely sun. After arrive at the start point during the late morning we were ready to blast round the well publicized Red Bull mtb trail. Another nice climb started our ride. This soon led to a fun and technical decent section in the woods, packed full of rooty and muddy camber sections, which proved tricky for some.
After more fire road and singles tracks the heavens started to open and it poured down! (typical Welsh weather! we knew it had to happen!) Whilst burning down a fire road the first and only puncture of the trip unfortunately happened, whilst still pouring down. After this short but freezing delay some of the best single track of the weekend was laying ahead! One stretch of single track lead us to what one can only deemed as a stream/river trail with small drops. This part was wet, ice cold and freezing. It was on this part that Phil decided to attempt some acrobatics by going over his handle bars but yet landing on his feet?!? (Still trying to work it out???)
Having got completely soaked we then had to ride up more hills. This was worthwhile because at the end the reward was a high speed rapid descent down to the forest floor. The last part of this trail finished with more technical single track and incorporating the Coed y Brenin dual slalom course, which proved to quite tricky in boggy conditions. Just this last trail was definitely worth the whole trip!
Overall, it was a superb weekends worth of mountain biking despite what one can only describe as a torrential downpour, especially on day one! Nevertheless for anyone who hasnt been it is definitely worth checking out in the future. And suspension of some sort is definitely advisable! as I found to my cost when my forks turned rigid! One regret was not having enough time to check out the Karrimor trail, said to be on par if not better than both the MBR and Red Bull trails. Next time maybe!!!