Obsessive Cycling Disorder from OTT

A mild & slightly misty morning greeted the Batford posse for another excursion through the gloop and water.  Tim proudly displayed his Tough Guy medal which I’m 100% certain was well earned and much deserved.  Sadly he left the ride early but had other commitments which would have ruled out the full route anyway.

Craig was sporting a minor injury but that didn’t prevent him from taking his singlespeed for a blast. Simon also on his singlespeed, Rich III on an old school Muddy Fox, Neil on his Kona and myself on my trusty old Trance made up the riders.

We made our way over to Nomansland Common for our first dose of mud.  This was followed with more gloop by heading cross country towards Symondshyde Great Wood.  The run down into the woods was pretty sticky and the regular trail was a slip and slide spectacular.

In a moment of madness, I persuaded everyone to do a full Bunyan Gulley run  and we headed towards the start of it by branching off through Titnol’s Wood which was a mega mud-fest.  I found the best way was through the middle of the deepest mud where your wheels actually had some traction deep below the surface - it certainly wasn’t an easy choice of route though.

Bunyan Gulley was as expected and I opted for a full-on through the water approach to get me to the end.  However it was negotiated by all, it was a fun run in horrid conditions.

As per usual, we continued into Brocket and along to Waterend eventually picking up the Ayot Greenway.  We dropped down the Steep and continued until the Codicote Road where I delayed proceedings with a puncture.

That fixed, the slippery route through Stocking Spring was next on the agenda.  We finally got to Ayot St Lawrence where I picked up my second thorn in less than a mile and a half - Arghhh!  Suppose I’m overdue a punture or two though - gotta take it in turns eh?

We continued through to Gustard Wood and across the golf course. After Heron’s Farm, the last section that had us exit onto Marshalls Heath Lane was a nightmare.  The mud stuck like glue and despite a stream of profanity, I couldn’t  make it fully across the field.  I was about 30 feet from the road when both wheels stopped rotating completely due to an excess of mud.  None of us made it fully across this section as it really was impassable.

I’m sure Rich III’s old school ride weighed the most as his V-brakes collected mud like crazy.  The last section saw us all pedal to the start of the singletrack for the final descent into Batford.  A short ride today - only showing 17.3 miles on Memory Map - but it was a 20+ mile workout we had negotiating all that sticky Herts mud.  What better way to spend a Sunday morning than pedalling like madmen throuh the stickiest tracks in the county.

Thanks to all that came and stuck it out in the gloop.

 click for full route

Mark

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 08:35 pm and is filed under Bike Rides. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.