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Jeux
Sans Frontiers
We reached the Woodbine Caf' in Hope unscathed and the sun was completely blotted out by the freezing fog, weird. After a quick bite to eat we set off to climb back out of the fog and up towards the infamous 'Beast' descent. At this point things got completely silly. The climb is characterised by superb views often blocked by steep sided banks which leave the trail running in a kind of ditch. These steep sides meant we were stuck in the bob-sleigh worthy bottom and the resulting comedy slap-stick ascent would have been worthy of It's a Knockout. We finally made the top of 'The Beast' I really never
guessed a day would come, when this crazy boulder slope was the safest
descent of the day.
Dirty
dancing
Although known for it's Jekyl and Hyde personality disorder, the trail gods smiled and we made a good showing of it dancing over rocks and sliding down
millstone grit boulder slabs. We reached the bottom and made the tough decision to cut the ride short and turn back. A rare cop-out, the slow pace meant we'd be caught out in the dark if we carried on.
After the portage back up the boulders we wobbled along one of the
flat sections beyond. We found ourselves riding over the usual
lake-like puddle which can be well over a foot deep and was more
than a hundred feet long.
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I say riding 'over'
as it suddenly occurred to us that we were riding on thin ice. Like
the sheep droppings of that morning the incentive to stay upright
was intense. We pedalled and even breathed more softly, the thought
of falling and crashing through the ice in to the deathly cold water
beneath was excruciating. As we pedalled the ice cracked and popped
under our tyres. Luck was with us again and we both made the
far side with some relief. On the steep descent we adopted our new-found tripod skills and slid much of the
mile back to Hope. It really was the only way to arrest terminal velocity.
Halfway to the bottom we were over-taken by the Jamaican bob-sleigh
team in practice' We made the huge climb back up Pindale and crossed the moor with a minimum of slip ups. At the end of the day we'd had a shortened ride and more than a few falls. But we'd seen an amazing sunlit sea of fog and learnt more than a few things about riding in a friction-free universe'
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