One new rider reported for duty with the usual Moos this week.

Harty’s ride progressed on the twisty singletrack that would inevitably lead to Garlic Lane.

The new kid on the block, Noel, was warned by a few about the severity of some of the drops, but followed undaunted, feathering his brakes. ‘I haven’t been over the bars like that since I was a kid!’ he remarked at the bottom following several ‘stacks!’. Noel also used a few expletives when told that this was just a warm up.
The next part of the ride ascended the lane of Ochr Wyth, which led us onto Machen Mountain car park, and then a rocky descent to the lane below. Marty’s pedalling ‘motion’ on the uphill stretches was, as usual, not that fast. Quite the opposite to his bowel ‘motion,’ causing him to dive over the nearest hedge cursing the dodgy chicken curry he had for lunch!

The chicken curry caught out Marty again, later in the ride, which meant that after being ‘caught short’ he had to cut his ride short, taking new boy Noel with him.

This meant that they missed the Machen tip descent, which only five riders attempted and successfully completed. Two without lights!

The usual run down Machen Mountain was only marred by those of us with no lights in the darkness.

Yours in gnarlyness

Cap