Woburn With A Touch Of Snow

Something I love about mountain biking is the people you get to meet through it. I'm sure like many others, through biking I've been able to meet loads of people and made loads of friends. More often that not though these friends end up living no where near where I do meaning I don't get to see them as often as I'd like to.

Recently I've been going out riding on my own, something that might be an alien concept to some riders. I don't really mind it and with biking being such a welcoming sport you soon end up chatting to people and finding someone to ride with.

The weather at the moment is pretty grim. There's a thick layer of snow here and the forescast for the rest of the week is rain and fog. Normally with weather like this I'd stay indoors but whe I got a text from a riding friend saying him and his mates were heading to Woburn Sands there was no way I could say no.

Pete was also home for Christmas so I geared him up with some spare kit I've been testing for the mag, big thanks to Fox and Giro, and we were ready to go. Despite only living 40 minutes away I haven't ridden at Woburn Sands since the start of the summer and I didn't recognise any of the tracks.

I kind of thought that the cover from the trees would mean there'd only be a light dusting of snow but there was still a good few inches of the stuff. You have to completely change the way you ride with snow but it was so fun.

After a couple of runs we had two tracks working side by side for 'dual' racing but no-one was taking it seriously at all; it was all about riding with a smile on your face. The new tracks are great to ride and even in the snow the Maidstone Massive were hitting some of the jumps and drops with speed and style aplenty.

The snow did mean everyone was crashing every few minutes, and I think I found it easier to stay on my bike than I did to stay on my feet. I had a go on Amos's bike and his Wet Screams made a huge difference so a pair of mud tyres are now top of my wish list.

With the riding and snowball fights over we headed to the the nearest pub for some post-ride refreshments, a catch up and of course some rough love from Ben.