28/7 & 4/8 Birling Butts Mid week MTB

Our Birling Butts ride has now become our default mid week mtb ride.

last week only myself and Malc were able to get out to 'play'.To make the ride harder we took the SDW over Alfriston rather than the  Drovers track. This made the ride  more enjoyable and also meant we would no longer have to do the road climb up to Bo Peep.This has put the hill density at over 100 feet per mile so it is now in the leg breaker category which is especially tough on knobbly 29 inch tyres. I then added an extra loop into Cuckmere Haven so that we could enjoy the stunning view over Seaford head. I really enjoyed this extra little loop but so do lots of walkers on the Vanguard way so sadly we wont do this loop again.

This Thursday five of us manged to take time off work to repeat the ride. . The most notable thing was that Derek brought along his 29 year old son Tim. How would he get along riding with us old fogies (average age 59) ?

So that we would finish at the  pub (great chips) we switched the start of the ride to Butts lane but rather than pay for parking we started at the bottom of Butts Brow rather than the car park at the top. I have got used to this incredibly long and steep climb (this must be the hardest climb in Sussex?) and Tim was going well but Derek was really suffering and had to get off at one point. On reaching the top he declared that he never wanted to do that climb with cold legs again!

My On-One 29er is great on the flat but terrible at descending

With the recent persistent rain I was concerned about the lack of grip on the  badly eroded descent down into Alfriston. It turned out to be even more treacherous than expected, even Derek who is normally a demon descender said that one mistake would have you off. I let the others go ahead so that I could descend as slow as possible with my back wheel slipping and sliding until eventually I reached the bottom.

Extra loop to admire Seaford Head 

Thankfully the rest of the ride is non technical so I really enjoyed it but Tim who had started so well was starting to flag. Even though this is the shortest of our mtb rides, he had never ridden so far off road before.

last week , to make navigation through Friston Forest easy we stuck to the family trail but this week Malc and Derek navigated a way directly  through the woods. All went well until I lost sight of the others. Unperturbed I carried on in the same direction thinking to myself what a great route this was. Suddenly the trail died out. All there was in front of me was an indistinct path almost completely blocked by the under growth. Surely this couldn't be the way through? I waited for Tim and Derek to catch up expecting Derek to redirect us but no this was the path we had to take. Being small of stature Derek and Tim managed to ride through but I had to get off my bike and use it as as a shield to push through with thorns and nettle trying to get me from all directions. Eventually I reached the others at the end of the forest relatively unscathed but Duncan had come off worse and was bleeding from a number of lacerations. Apparently there is an alternative to this last over grown section so I will try to map that bit out next time.

Tim's lowest ebb was the final five mile uphill section between Birling Gap and Butts Brow. Derek urged us to leave them behind but we stayed around to add encouragement and were more than happy to wait and enjoy being out in the warm sunshine. Like myself Derek is a great believer in the restorative power of energy Gels. Normally one would be enough but it was only after the second gel that Tim's energy levels recovered and he then made it to the top without too much trouble.

All this effort was rewarded with the usual bowl of chips at the pub where Tim cheered up considerably. It was great to have him along and hopefully the experience hasn't put him off mtb riding?

Steve C