I had spent two days in Yorkshire doing general holiday things, visiting new places and seeing wonderful sights but I would be lying if I told you I wasn't really excited about the trip to Dalby Forest on a lovely sunny Wednesday morning. I use the term morning lightly as I didn't set off till about 11am, and was staying about an hour and a half away from Dalby. Arriving around 12:30 the wind that had been blowing a gale for the last few days had subsided, leaving the sun and clear sky behind that had been teasing me throughout the week so far. The visitors centre stands proud at the bottom of the Forest with the typical forestry commission gift shop, clean toilets and what looked to be a very decent cafe, unfortunately time was against me and the chance to sample their delights passed by. The Purple Mountain bike shop is about 2 minutes away from the visitors centre, the shop covers all the bases from accessories, spares, clothing, a large range of hire bikes and even the opportunity to rent a helmet cam to capture your adventure. As it was I had bought my own. The first part of my visit was spent riding round the forest with Stacey who had rented a Scott Aspect hardtail from Purple Mountain for £25 for 3 hours which seemed reasonable enough to me and included a helmet. We spent the next couple of hours riding round the forest and finding our bearings and also climbing some seriously steep hills, whilst out we found that to get to the Pace Bike Park and World Cup course we would have to head about 4 more miles from the visitors centre to get there, so after a few hours the hire bike was returned and the Trek was thrown back in the car as we headed deeper into the forest for a bit of me time! First up was a play in the Pace Bike Park which is a purpose built area for honing your skills. It includes a skinnys/north shore area which I skipped some of the higher stuff, I was riding clipped in and didn't fancy an off of anything too mental, after all I had the rest of the holiday to enjoy. This led me back to the start where I started eyeing up the jump lines, they are all table tops large and small so anyone can have a go and gradually build up confidence. Unfortunately the large line was shut so I was left to play on the smaller line with some jumps, a looping berm that goes under itself and some rollers. Finally I stopped for a play on the pump track, it's small but really well formed on my first run I couldn't fathom how to get round with out a pedal stroke but once I found my flow I was bobbing round it like a nutter with a loopy grin on my face, I must have looked like I was having loads of fun because Stacey even got in on the act! Time had passed by quickly as it always does when your having fun so the time had come to face the Black rated World Cup course. Honestly those 4 miles round that track were the hardest 4 miles I have ever rode and I consider myself pretty fit and a good rider. I had time for one shot at it and not knowing what to expect and riding alone it was approached gingerly, The start of the course is a blinder as you're tossed into a succession of berms on a slight decline your soon buzzing along at speed, the ground is littered with small rocks and some larger ones all the way round. After this little teaser of speed and flow you're led in to a wide section which darts off to the sides over a couple of piles of rock, after this thrill ride the speed drops (well, it did in my case) and the reason this is graded black becomes very clear. There are twisty rooty descents with some very tight rock switch backs on and some eye watering drops pretty much straight into turns so you can't approach it like a trail rider and just hit it at speed and launch off the top, you are forced to slow down and roll it and to be honest with this many rocks around it's a proper daunting prospect. Some of these were so steep I bottled trying to roll them, how the pro's ride stuff like that on a hardtail with the saddle jacked up is beyond me, especially the section I believe is called worry gill. Once into this section it's like being on a star wars speeder shooting down the narrow gorge, this is the last really quick section as you are soon led to some of the steepest tech climbs I have ever attempted. Without my granny ring I would have been screwed, the sheer steepness does not come across in the video but I consider myself a quick climber when you watch it back it looks like it would be quicker to walk it. There are a few more tentative rocky tight descents before the final climb which isn't too bad when you consider the rest of the course, which even has some raised woodwork sections. To summarise this course is not a flat out burn, it is a slow, mega technical ride that would challenge any rider, half way round I was thinking this ain't the sort of route I would keep coming back to but by the end all I could think about was riding it again to nail all these little tech features that I didn't hit or couldn't hit with much speed. I wanted to go round again and again until I nailed it, and hopefully I'll get the chance to do this. If you're a good rider and want to see how good you are I really recommend giving this a crack. But only if you're a glutton for punishment.
Videos Here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaZ4LgsJFJo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INZQWHzTbPs
