Sad it may seem, but I have only just been on my bike for the first time since we packed up in Morocco back in November. So how did it go? To be honest it wasn’t the triumphant return to two wheeled fun that I hoped for. Why? Well because I grabbed a GPS route from utagawavtt.com without really looking into where it went. A schoolboy error on my part. All I looked for was a route that would take me 3 or 4 hours, so 29k with 800m of climbing seemed to fit the bill. I also needed to find a route nearby but that didn’t go any higher than 1000m for fear of snow. At this point you may be wondering why I, as someone who guided accompanied people around here for a living, was downloading GPS routes - well it’s because all the rides I know around here start from here and go up - which at this time of year means snow.
So with this route found, off I went. Unfortunately for me, whoever thought this was a good route obviously loved climbing up firetrack and descending down roads. To be fair there was a smattering of nice singletrack, but probably only 3 or 4k out of 30k - so not good! The views were great - Mont Blanc in the sunshine never fails to impress.
I think I must be spoiled with all these uplifts we get around here - it means that should the descents dissapoint, it’s not too big a deal as you’ve just got a lift up, you can just try again. Not so when you’re earning it all - I want 800m descending down techy, flowing, fast, scary, not too steep, perfect singletrack when I’ve ridden up!
Luckily just before the last road descent I got the map out and picked another route down. And got what I wanted - fast, flowy, techy singletrack - sadly only 150m descent, but at least I had a grin on my face as I got back to the car.
I also found out that not riding for 2.5 months means that you feel it - during and after the ride - even the next day. Blimey, I think I need to get out more - but for now I have a bit of a sore arse - softened up after 12 weeks off… best dig out those padded shorts next time.
Next week may see the return of the VP-Free as we go off in search of uplift nirvana 
as an aside - my Prince Albert (the bike!) didn’t skip a beat - having not touched it since attaching it to the roof of our Moroccan Land Cruiser it was in remarkably good order - I didn’t even need to oil the chain - it just worked. Amazing considering there’s still a fair bit of red moroccan dust on it!
