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SCOTLAND 2009
Riders for the weekend were:- Chairman Spud, Pol, Clone, Roger, Spesh, Tyre and Tracey, Red Rooster, Brian the midnight fireman, Terry the sex pest, Ed and Hells, Edgey, Jonesy the Cider monster, Chunk, the Turner Triplets including Turtle kid, Dan, Si and Dave Graved, Hendy, Julian, Kris GT, Muddy Rider, Knotty Knotty, Nige, Hemlock, Pie Eater and Myself.
Day 1
The weekend started early for most with a dash up the M6, with some choosing to meet at the services and others going straight up to the excellent Café Royal in Annan for some hearty Scottish breakfast and pre ride scoff, black pudding was traded for toast and the banter had started. The Café proved a good find by Pol, and once all had arrived and eaten the Woollies Scottish road trip was rolling.
The group rolled into Mabie to be greeted by grey skies and steady rain, kit was donned bikes were prepped and away we rolled. Eric went for the full on Clone trooper look, with his full gimp suit on, even though this was to be the most gentle and XC like trail of the weekend. The trail was a mix of some stiff climbing and some great rolling downhill sections, none too technical, but a nice trail and a great start to the riding weekend. The “decender bender” was the standout section of the trail with some fantastic twisting downhill sections, and all enjoyed it greatly. Dan and Pieman had stopped for a bit of log run action, Dan managing to get half way across before dismounting gracefully, but he’s young enough to bounce not break!
Back at the end of trail, a quick bike hose down and coffee and the bike shop / Café and we were packed up and heading for Newton Steward and the Bruce Hotel.
Pulling into the hub of activity that is Newton Stewart and into the hotel, musical cars ensued as we managed to shoehorn everyone into the small car park and bikes and kit were unloaded. The bikes safely locked up the in cellar and time for booking into the rooms and getting ready for dinner. Jonesy had started on the Ciders straight after Mabie on the drive back and as we sat down to dinner to say he was “well lubricated” was putting it mildly, the typical Jonesy comedy show ensued as hungry Woollies supped cold beer and tucked into top nosh, the hotel services and food stood out as spot on all weekend. We were joined at dinner by those who could only come up in the evening, so once they had arrived we totalled 30 Woollies.
After retiring to the bar, and then a quick tour of a few of the local hot spots it was clear that since we had arrived the population of Newton Stewart had doubled! The place was a ghost town. The serious ones retired early, whilst the rest enjoyed a few sherbets and chairman spud could be seen eying the bar for aftershocks. I shepherded Jonesy back to the hotel with the lure of chips and strict instructions not to give him the key.
Day 2
The next morning some fresh and some not so fresh riders tucked in to a good breakfast and bikes and kit were prepped for the ride from the hotel to the gem of the weekends riding. Kirroughtree is truly a standout trail both in technical riding and sheer quality of the trail.
The weather gods had not been kind and it was bucketing down on and off for the whole day, The group set off after a brief road ride warm up with a stiff climb to get us there.
Once into the route the pace and depth of the trail split the group into bite sized chunks, tricky single-track and stiff climbs followed, with everyone pushing the limits of their riding ability right to the edge. Our group of riders, a surprisingly fresh Jonesy, Nige, Dave Greaved, Edgey, Kris GT, Turner kid and Chunk, Tracey and Tyre and me had missed the turnoff for the black and had continued down the complete red route, Turner / Turtle kid, had a ride ending stack after splashing through a river crossing, getting it wrong and ending up lying on his back in the water like an upside down Turtle, a bad hand crack saw the end of his weekends riding. Now with one big and one normal hand he was like Jeremy Beadle in reverse!
After our wrong turn we found ourselves back at the Café / shop having missed a fair bit of the trail, dropping of Chunk and Turtle kid to make their way back to the hotel and with Tracey dropping out too the remaining 7 of us took some advice from the shop on the quickest way back to the black, and we embarked on our “Rainbow route” this saw us using some of the green, a few cow filled fields, some of the red in reverse and then some of the red already ridden to get us back to the Rivendell turnoff to complete the black route proper. We were glad we did and ensued on our monster loop, all did amazingly well. We were tired and weary but plodded on. We all marvelled as Tyre completed the Chute on the McMoab, whilst we were drawing straws as to who would tell Tracey he was dead, now worries however as he completed it in style. The standout section for me was the Black Crags decent, it went on and on pushing you closer and closer to the edge of ability, it had everything with Rocks, drops, switchbacks, and some of the greatest riding around. Once we had finished the black we had a couple of red sections done and then came back off on our farmers fields and green route cutback, after arriving back at the trailhead, exhausted to discover the Café closed, we started the stiff road climb back to hotel. We were the last packet of riders back, and were welcomed by piss taking Woollies already sipping cold lager whilst we still had bikes and kit to sort out!
Once all was done we settled into another fine meal and plenty of beers, Chairman spud and Pol dished out the weekends prizes, with Hemlock getting some L plates to replace his race numbers he chooses to leave on, Tracey and Hells getting some pink handlebar tassels, Eric getting the overdressed Mankini award for wearing his full gimpsuit on the first day, Pieman getting the pink cowboy hat for his rodeo bad stack earlier in the day, and finally Jonesy getting the cock tiara for being the biggest cock of the weekend!
More beers and laughs ensued in the hotel bar with not many braving the dodgy pubs of the town, Kebabs were ordered, and much banter and story telling ensued, Terry the sex pest picked up his new nickname and Brian A the midnight fireman also, but that is another story I don’t have room to tell. Drinking carried on into the wee hours taking advantage of the extra hour in bed, although when you’re up until 4 am it doesn’t have same effect!
Day 3
Weary bodies dragged themselves to breakfast on the final day, with aches and pains and tired legs all around. After that the task of bugging out of the hotel ensued. Rooms were cleared and then it came to the “key gate scandal” where were the cellar keys to get our bikes out? Si and Dave Graved had left earlier and were the last ones in possession of the keys, after some frantic phone calls they were certain they had put them on the hotel reception but not given them to anyone. Staff looked everywhere but they were nowhere to be seen and no spares were held. After a bit of chin rubbing and some faffing it was decided we would try a “scouse key” and two swift shoulder barges later the door flung open. Hurrah. Bikes were loaded and we were off to Dalbeattie for the final days riding.
The club went off at its usual rabid pace, and before we new it we were making good progress round Dalbeattie’s many excellent sections, the trail was a new one for me, I found it very enjoyable and tough but mostly doable. The crowd had gathered at the slab, John Knotty Knotty had gallantly tried and failed to clean it, Roger showed all how it was done, Clone bagged it, Ste B looked very comfortable, Tyre too, Hendy cleared it but bottomed out badly at the bottom snapping spokes and mangling his XTR mech in process. After some trailside repair and a single speed conversion he was rolling again.
The last few sections in the bag, and a good finish with some great techie sections and we rolled into the car park our weekends riding complete. Exhausted but elated our riding was done.
All agreed that the club had enjoyed one of its best weekends away. Kit was packed away and off we set for the home journey.
Stats for the weekend include:
Day 1 = 11 miles
Day 2 = 28 miles (35 for the rainbow riders!)
Day 3 = 17 miles
A handful of stacks, one bad hand, and one good amount of slab scrape.
A few mechanicals, broken mech hanger, a few punctures, a tubeless tyre split that did seal, and 1 mangled Lappierre!
On behalf of everyone that rode, I would like to thank the committee for their hard work in putting on such a great weekend, and thanks to all the members who went for making the weekend such a great success, we had great food, great beer, great company and amazing riding, what more could you ask for (apart from good weather!)
Artillery Dave.
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