So, there was Friday night. There was much drinking and dancing. Good night all in all.

Then there was Saturday. There was getting up in the morning, feeling like crap, eating a fry-up and heading over to the Forest of Dean for a bit of DH biking. Pedalabikeaway has been transformed with the addition of a new toilet block with showers!

Alex was going particularly big, launching some very hefty step-downs and gap jumps. Nick wasn’t, largely because his brakes are completely shagged (much like the rest of his bike). We really ought to club together and get him some new ones. Met James from Stopadoodledoo and got free stickers, which was cool.

We watched The Ladykillers in the evening. Pretty good film. All in all a very good day.

Sunday came a few hours later (need more sleep!). Got up, ate three of your finest boiled eggs and headed out to play on bikes again — only up Leckhampton Hill this time. I rode the newest track first, and we really weren’t getting along at all. I struggled to get down from the path to the trail, which is never a good sign, then ended up wearing the trail on one of the off-camber bits.

The second run saw me ride the old chute instead, which was a marked improvement. I nearly lost it big stylee a bit further down, when I grounded a pedal at speed and it kicked me right up in the air, so my hands were the only thing left connected to the bike. It was a symptom of my rear-shock playing silly buggers – it was bottoming out very very easily. Time to send it off for a service and get a heavier spring methinks. Pity I can’t afford it right now…

The final run was much better though – down the old Ridge/slalom track. I was right on Gary’s wheel until I span out in a muddy berm. I ended up running down the trail! After that I could feel the confidence coming back – I don’t like steep drops at the best of times, but I flowed down these quite nicely.

Then somewhere near the bottom, Gary had the idea of tramping straight on through the woods, instead of groung around the 180 berm, so we could meet up with the bottom third of the other tracks. So off we go up a bit, then whoop down the drop and clatter crunch skshhhhh through loads of undergrowth. There’s definitely potential for a traverse through all that though – its almost as if there already was one once upon a time.

I cleaned both of my bikes when I got back. That’s pretty much unheard of.

So that was my weekend. Pretty damn good all in all. I need an early night tonight though. Can someone remind me to go and get a new seatpin-collar for the Stiffee tomorrow? Cheers.

So, remember how I was telling you about my Halloween a couple of months back? Well Lewis finally got around to getting the pictures developed – I’ve bunged some of them up in the gallery for you.

I’m a little scared of us now.

Who would have thought it? Thick snow on the top of Cleeve Hill.

After a nice XC ride through the snow up there, I caught up with Brett and Gary who were boarding in the stuff! I spent the afternoon racing them down the “piste”. Its amazing the grip you can get in the snow! Was it bad of me to go jumping down the tee-off points on the golf course? I don’t think it counts when they’re covered in powder :)

There’s a bunch more pictures in The Gallery.

Just like yesterday, the highlight of today’s ride came right at the end.

This time I followed Alex down the old tramway. He was on his cross-country bike (a nice little Cove Handjob XC), whereas I was on my gert big full-susser.

He set off ahead of me, absolutely powering through the tight, flat singletrack. I was stuggling to keep up through there — it was all I could do to stay in contention with him. Then the trail heads downhill, over a series of rooty steps – and he’s not slowing up at all. I’d best let off the brakes then. Jaysus! He’s quick through the s-bend, I’ll have to try that line next time. Ahh, it gets really bumpy now! HA! Now look who’s the fastest!

The scary thing was that he wasn’t holding me up at all, until it got really rough and my rear suspension came into play. Even then I wouldn’t have gone a great deal faster.

Its always fun chasing a good rider down through the singletrack like that. The competitiveness kicks in along with the adrenalin: you just can’t let them get away. It really forces you to push your riding envelope and go for it. Its slightly galling when they’re on less suitable equipment and they still force you to push the envelope, but it doesn’t make it any less fun trying to keep up.

It also means you can see where they make the time up on you. In Alex’s case he simply brakes less than I do — he only uses them where he really needs them. He also takes slightly different lines through some sections: only slightly different, but enough to make him that little bit faster. Its probably the most fun way to learn how to go faster.

It was windy as hell last night. You know when you’re tucked up in bed, nice and warm, and you can hear the wind and rain howling outside? That’s ace that is.

So anyway, I dragged myself out of bed this morning after a nice long lie-in, wandered over to my window and dragged back the curtains.

“Wow. It looks lovely out there. I shall be riding my bike this afternoon.”

After a bit of pottering about, doing nowt in particular, I got myself together and went out. It was horrible – I felt like I was riding through treacle. I rode slowly up through town, towards Leckhampton, dragging myself up as far as Undercliff Avenue before walking the rest of the way up. My head felt cloudy and I was struggling for any sort of energy at all.

I pushed the bike all the way up to the ruins and stopped for a rest. I was seriously tempted to just turn around and head for home. Instead I decided to ride Dog Poo Alley – which thankfully was free of the stuff – and head up the hill that way. I really felt like crap until I got out of the trees and up onto the top of the hill. It was bright, it was sunny and the view out over Cheltenham was fantastic. Its amazing how quickly my mood brightened there.

I carried on riding right on up to the viewpoint and my word was it windy up there, rendering it sunny, bright and bloody freezing. I elected to carry on as quickly as possible, riding across the top of the hill, dropping through the big dip and lifting the front wheel over the monster puddle. I love that bit of trail – just a pity I didn’t seem to have the energy to power through it today.

I carried on over to the top of the old slalom course and headed off down there. I rounded the first few corners, dropped into the tricky bit and then slammed on the anchors – three families with small children were walking up the trail.

Still, the rest of the run down went OK. I wasn’t really flowing but it was fun nonetheless. I had every intention of heading home after that but I spotted that Gary and Alex’s vans were parked up in the car park – so I thought I’d head up the hill and see if I could see either of them.

I met Alex about halfway up the tramway, and then Gary turned up in the quarry shortly afterwards. We stood around and chatted for ages, pondering the possibility of snow boarding holidays and perhaps taking the bikes out to Whistler for the summer, before wandering up and doing a couple of runs of the newest DH course. I took some interesting routes down, bypassing the bits I’m really not confident on at the moment. I ought to just bite the bullet and ride them again, but today was not the day.

With the light fading fast, I ended the day with a run down the old tramway – which was ace fun. I didn’t faceplant this time for a start. There’s one point where there used to be two distinct steps – they’re still there, I just hit them fast enough for them to appear as one these days. I wish I had that much confidence on some of the other trails.

Update: There’s now a gallery of the pictures I took on this ride.

Here’s a selection of pictures I took over the Christmas period. You’ll find friends, relatives and turtles amongst other things. Hope you enjoy them. View the pictures…

I’m fairly sure that B.A.T.G.R.A.T. stood for something once. I can’t remember now though. The important thing is that its a group of college friends getting together and having a laugh. You might even go so far as to call it a reunion. This year we did it in central London. Present were Claire Bear, TJ, Becky, Brettle, Christophe, Weon, Anne, and myself.

We arrived. We had the longest lunch of all time at The Rock Garden, Covent Garden. We visited the Tate Modern – where Bruce Nauman’s Raw Materials exhibit both impressed and freaked us. We wandered over the Millenium Bridge and watched the Ice Skating at Somerset House. We drank in Punch and Judy’s and a random Starbucks. We wandered some more. We went our separate ways.

I had an absolutely ace time. It was really good to see you all again guys.

There’s s few more pictures in The Gallery.