After a bit of catch up in the local internet café we headed straight to llandegla. First stop was the café for coffee and an award winning bacon bap, plus a chat with Pete from 2Stage bikes. Our friend Ben from Torico stocks their bikes and introduced us at the Cycle Show, telling us we needed to have a go, and we didn’t need pushing!
He gave us a freeride model, the Zed 8 to try and we headed off. We took it round the red route, with the add-on black. It was pretty heavy work on the ups, but awesome on the downs. A perfect bike for lift assisted riding in Morzine.
We were also very impressed with the trails we rode. Obviously very well built, they stood up to the recent rains and were still in top condition. We can also highly recommend the bacon bap, cheese on toast, and best breakfast in wales (well there were three of us!)….oh and the cake’s good too.
Early the next morning we headed up to the Singletrack offices in Calderdale. We heard a rumour they served the best coffee of all bike mags, and can confirm that it is pretty great coffee – made even better by fresh éclairs and apple turnovers. They then sorted us out with a pretty fun route to fill the afternoon. A little bit muddy, but some great bits of trail, fantastic views and a great way to spend an afternoon.
The evening was spent in a great pub in Hoole Cheshire with some more friends Gemma and Andrew. And yet more great food.
We left London on Sunday and spent the night with my parents in Bury St Edmunds, then headed up to the Santa Cruz distributors, Jungle near Harrogate. They should us the new Nomad and Blur LT II. The new bikes look great and we can’t wait to hear them. We’ve pretty nearly firmed up details of next year’s hire and demo fleet and will get details up asap. We then headed up to Thirsk to see our friends Liz and John and their playful dog Joey!
