A dirty weekend away

Hi All!
Work has been daft of late, but I love it. Spending whole days talking about the evidence behind this orthosis and the efficacy of that intervention really floats my boat.
Anyway, last weekend Jo and I returned from what is developing into our Annual pilgrimage to all that is the 7Stanes.
I tried to surprise Clive by popping into Mabie, and after a quick chat with the lasses in the Shed when they recognised my racing kit and bikes, I realised that the little sod was on the other side of Scotland. He was teaching people how to ride bikes with MTBSKILLS.EU

Dammit.

So Jo, Zoe, Scott, Mark and I plodded off and did our own skills sessions. Passing on what little knowledge I have is something I really enjoy doing. Seeing the way people can quickly develop when they learn how to turn a bike properly (for instance) is a great buzz.

Jo, Mark, Scott and Zoe all came on really well, until I go to the point where I thought, "Hang on, they're going to start making me look like a novice soon."

Jo was doing all the drop off's and rocky steps that she had never managed before at Kirroughtree. Zoe was carving beautiful turns using the tyre camber and not simply hoying on the steering whilst Mark was floating his 29'er (freak) over some gnarly stuff and making it look as if it was all dead smooth. Scott was the biggest handful though: He started following me along The Qualifier, The Slab, The Terrible Twins, and any other scary stuff we could find.

So I stopped teaching them. (I didn't really)

We had the best long weekend of riding that I, personally, have had for a long time.

My luverrly little Santa Cruz Blur XC Carbon had a great time, too. She did all the on-piste and off-piste stuff that I ever did on my 6" bikes, at the same speed or faster, and kept coming back like a daft spinger spaniel; begging for more.

She was soooo good, that I was always the first to get ready in the morning to get her out on the trail. I was also the first to realise each day that I had forgotten to put my body armour on, again.

Oops.

We're going back in a few weeks. :)