See our page about “Novice Friendly” rides.
Sunday 5th Sept 2010
This ride had an amazing turn out, with 30 riders in the Pedalabikeaway car park at 11am. About a third of these were true novice riders, the rest obviously just fancied a ride in the forest. We used a fair amount of the family trails (on dismantled railway lines), but we also threw in some tighter stuff with wet roots, puddles and mud. It rained for most of the morning.
We stopped at the Rising Sun pub for lunch. The queue stretched from the bar out of the door.
After lunch we rode up New Fancy View. That was followed by a fast descent down some fire road before using some more singletrack. We made it back to the cycle centre for 3pm. The route covered 20km.
It was great to see everyone enjoying the ride and also that the experienced riders didn’t form into a clump and race off into the distance. Everyone becomes faster and fitter as they ride more and build their confidence; everyone has to start somewhere; we’re all keen to encourage more people to get into it.
We did a bonus ride round some of the FODCA trail and the 10 mile cross country route after the main ride.
