As Wednesday rolled around I was aware I was probably going solo again, my usual riding buddy had other kid-mitments due to the holidays and I was pretty sure know one else would be about, but then I remembered some brief ramblings whilst working on the weekend about maybe heading to Danbury Wednesday afternoon / evening if I could get a cheeky half day off work.
The work situation had been manic and I knew that going to my boss on a Tuesday morning asking for Wednesday afternoon off was unlikely, I asked already 90 percent sure the answer would not be in my favor, A miracle! With no pleading and minimal fuss the boss had agreed? had we got so busy he didn't / couldn't care anymore, like some sort of mad man who just wanted everything to fall down around him? I tried not to concern myself with these things, all that mattered was Leighton and I were off to Danbury. As it was all coming up aces I flung a text in Gs direction and in an almost instant response a reply......I'm in whats the plan. After all the failed attempts of trying to organize a ride, out of nowhere via one question and a text us three amigos were on our way to Danbury. Get in!
Wednesday afternoon came round and I was all geared up waiting outside work for my lift, Leighton rolled up bikes were loaded and we headed off, Leighton likes to knock my car because of it's age and lack of well anything so I was a little surprised to see that his newer Audi had a tape deck and blasting out was some old skool Helter Skelter. (whistle crew)
I have to admire Leighton's approach to finding anywhere, when questioned on his navigational ability his answer was quick and precise. I just get in and go. Nice! Nearing Danbury and it dawned on me that I hadn't swapped my spd's for flats, I was going to be riding stuff I hadn't rode for six months, getting more airborne than I had since breaking my elbow and generally looning around at speed trying to keep up with G all whilst clipped in which is a way I hadn't ridden for some time. This could get messy. As it turned out I felt confident clipped in maybe more so than running flats which doesn't seem right but I just felt I had a lot more control over the bike. It's fair to say that my spd confidence is fully back.
Danbury is a pretty compact place consisting of a network of trails all blasting downhill with various off shoots to take as you go and in the dry the trails were quick. Nearly every corner is bermed and there are humps, kickers, table tops and hip jumps scattered all over, the real beauty of this place though is nearly everything is roll able or has chicken runs so you could bring a real novice along and they could join in and no doubt improve vastly, that has to be a testament to the guys that put in all the effort keeping the trails so buff.
We trained round various different runs while we all got back in the habit of spending as much time in the air as we did with our wheels on the trail and things soon started to speed up, eventually we started doing a half run which incorporated a really long tabletop, I'm guessing it was about 10ft long and amazing fun we spent a vast amount of our time hitting this occasionally getting real smooth. It was a nice surprise that we virtually had the trails to ourselves except for a few kids, felt like our own private playground for the afternoon. In all if your a group of varying abilities this is a great little place and being only an hour away from me I hope to hit it a bit more often so I can really start to nail those runs.
The only downer is I have just entered my first race and this would have been my first training ride I was planning on hitting my usual loop as hard as I could and really smash in the miles, instead I went to Danbury, probably clocked up about seven miles, most of that was downhill. Not the best start to getting fit for a race but sometimes you just gotta go with the flow, and believe me unscheduled afternoons like that just don't come round often enough.
Thanks must go to the locals who keep those trails so nice. Great job guys.
Reatin rides on.
