Having hired a mountain bike last year, I knew what to do with the lifts and passes etc. So on Monday morning, after collecting the bike, I was straight into it. Riding a full on downhill bike for the first time was difficult. They are heavy and have wide handle bars, not good if you lack upper body strength! But after a while I was getting better. Even the muddy rutted areas weren’t too much of a problem. The weather today was good but on some of the routes there was a lot of standing water, especially under the trees. So I learned the best routes to take to avoid these.
I decided that as the weather was so good, I would do 4 hours of downhill nonstop and then run / walk up the local hill Pointe de Nantaux (2170m). So when 2pm came I washed the bike and tried to find an open shop for food. I couldn’t so I rode back to the tent to eat some fruit (not enough). Sorted my mud spattered self out, and headed for the mountain.I started at 3:15 and the ascent went well I reached the top in 1hour 55 minutes (1200m ascent). The descent was tricky on a mix of slippery rocks and mud. But I took 1 hour to get back to the campsite. I ended the run on a partial bonk. I clearly hadn’t eaten enough during the day and the last 15 minutes of flat and slightly uphill were tougher than they should have been. A total outing of 3 hours.
It was a good day though, I squeezed a lot in. At one point on the mountain bike I thought that I had pulled a tendon. But later on, on inspection a bee’s sting was still sticking out of my leg. I suppose it is better than a damaged tendon.
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