Massive moon last night, sun this morning. Trails starting to get tacky rather than just sodden and slippery. Light when you wake up and getting lighter every night too. Just chucked up a story about a new hostel in Afan, and did my first set of proper hill sprints and sessioned descents yesterday too.
Yup, spring is here and that means only one thing to most bikers - it's time to start planning the summer trip.
We know that we've still got a few more proper mire rides, and we're creaking where we should be cruising. Bikes need some work, and some riding mates need dragging out from under the pile of excuses that's sat them on the sofa all winter. Nothing motivates us better than the thought of squinting down sunscorched singletrack ribbons with dusty corners warmth on you back and easy speed fitted as standard.
I know we're biased but there's nowhere better to head for a riding break than Wales either. The centres are all different in character (rather than just bigger or smaller versions of the same) and they're all pretty close spaced too. Once you're over the bridge you can hit a centre pretty much every hour - half an hour up north - and we did every one in 37hours last year. Some of the best wilderness riding in the world is waiting out in the mountains for you to find too, and even the events in Wales are proper rides, not just loops of a wet field with a scruffy wood in one corner.
Seriously, we've got the riding, the convenience, every sort of accomodation for every sort of budget so pick a date and get your planning head on.
We'll be back with some ideas and prompts PDQ, but right now I've got a sunny morning and four brand new test bikes to skin up and smoke through so we gotta go.
Got to be ready for summer after all!
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between them is even