Roads to Trails

Sunday 19th July was set aside in my plan to go and ride the last two trail centres that are to be part of my Trail Centre Challenge. Wanting to fine tune routes and turns etc i figured i would throw myself in starting at Easty.

The day started with a drive to Eastridge Woods to the trail point but not to ride the trail centre (that comes next week), the plan was to take in stage 3 of the road section from Eastridge to Hopton Trail centre a total mileage of 20.66miles and an elevation of 1804ft. Now i have quoted stats above re elevation and i can definitely say that the ride felt very hilly on my legs at the time. Bearing in mind this was on fresh legs too! All be it very hilly the route was absolutely beautiful. Such a wonderful place to ride with stunning backdrops and an faultless still and sunny day defo helped. Along the route ihad a chain drop on some rough farmer track/lanes which also made me glad that I was on the CX bike too. I do paln to ride the whole route on my CX bike but will need to test the terrain at the trail centres to ensure that its not too heavy going on the bike or rider for that matter.

A welcome site as I saw Mark on route in the last 2 miles of the journey to Hopton, knowing i was close to the centre meant i could take a quick breather and then get chance to go off road.

I have visited Hopton before and already had an idea of what was in store for me on the trails. It had been a while though so i was keen to get round and see if there were any changes to the trails. Hopton is a tad rooty in places and the cx bike coped well. I could have done with a little more suspension on a couple of features but i got through to the end. A Total distance of 5.94miles and 1000ft elevation, taking the days total mileage to 26.6

Quick refresh at the van with Mark and then the decent out of Hopton Trail centre which is a weird kind of cobble slatey type of surface and defo feels a tad lively on the bike, again glad i was not on the slick tyre road bike at this point. The next stage of the road journey was towards the finale trail centre, Mortimer. After hearing good things about this place and never having visited before i was excited to see what was ahead.

The road ride to Mortimer from Hopton was relatively flat and was a welcome recovery ride for me. A chance to get my legs back ready for the final stage of off road riding at the Forest. The last 2 miles of the 11.46mile section to Mortimer were however up hill and i think that knowing this was the last section of the day defo helped get through that part.

Upon arriving at Mortimer the trail signs were not terrific and we suspected that the trails we could see bleeding off left and right looked way more fun than the one we were following, but still we cracked on to get the ride done for that day.

After opting for the fireroad main route we proceeded to climb for what felt like forever. We were however treated at the top to the most sunning view and knowing that then all that was left of today was to descend and go sit down.

I would like to revisit Mortimer and explore some more as there were snippets of trails that i could see that looked amazing. I do think that a little local knowledge would not go a miss so if anyone has some good routes please let me know. Mortimer Forest trail 4.01 miles and 636ft elevation. A mere 42.07 miles covered today which in the grand scheme of the big challenge that lays ahead in Sept only a tiny scratch. I do however love the change of riding from off road to road etc and of course love riding on the cross bike. Next week I will be testing the cx bike at Eastridge trail centre as I am suspecting this to be a little more gnarly for my rigid cx rig.

M.....gone out riding somewhere