Welcome...........

Shock!! Horror!!!! What's happening? No mud, just lycra, dark glasses, suncream, skinny tyres and no jumps! Have we gone over to the darkside?  here's Mark, Paul, Colin and I all on ROADBIKES at the top of the Storey Arms waiting for Lynda, Basil and colleagues to come down from the top of Pen-y-fan to join them on the last day of  their mega charity road ride from North to South Wales. More details here...and you can give a contribution to their charity to support them if you like.... Overall it was fun to give the roadbikes a bit of a thrash and Mark as usual did 50 miles before we started, trying to squeeze more etape training into each ride he does...so he did 104 miles with Colin and I on 77 with Simon (not in pic as he joined us later ) on 50 odd and Paul doing at least 60 before having to go back for his family. There was a large group of 20 odd of us spinning down to the finish in Cardiff and very pleasant it was in the hot summer weather...long may it continue.

The other pictures show me doing yoga at the Dyfi last week, much to the amusement of the rest of the gang...it is worth a try though as it does make you more flexible, relaxing any tension out of your body. Checkout the videos just posted on youtube for more fun and japes at the Dyfi.. (for anyone who's interested, the top pose is reclining hero pose or virasana  and the lower one is wide spread standing pose or prasarita padottanasana or so the yoga book tells me...) A really good weekend  with the photos here  even the weather was kind which was very unusual for this route. 

Rides are organised  every weekend on Saturday. The rides start at 8:30 am from the car park in Nelson (follow the link on the left for a map) and cover most parts of the Valleys, with forays further afield to the Brecon Beacons, Black Mountains, Forest of Dean and  Mid Wales. The Forest Enterprise tracks at Cwmcarn and  Afan Argoed are often visited, and we  organise trips to North Wales to sample the Coed-y-Brenin, Nant-yr-Arian and Bettws-y-Coed routes during the summer months. 

The Club attends various organised events every year, and provides support to club members thanks to the help of a Sportlot grant which has allowed the Club to purchase a set of bike tools and a pop-up gazebo to allow bike servicing in the dry, whatever the weather. If we've gone camping to the event, we have a club barbeque the evening before the race and have a good time.

The Club has also  organised longer trips to the Lake District (Tim Woodcock's Lakeland Loop), the Sierra Nevadas in Spain (check out the excellent  http://www.switch-backs.com to see where we went), Morzine/Les Gets and last year we went to Les Arcs. We try to offer a varied mountain biking experience that means the weekend ride is most definitely the high spot of your week.....why not come along and give it a go?

View from High Street, Lake District

Top of the Rhondda

The Black Mountains

Enjoying a snack, Coed-y-Brenin

River crossing, Sarn Helen Roman Road

The Sierra Nevadas, Spain