I woke up early on Saturday morning and made straight for the Downs with my MTB on the car roof.

It is nice now the days are getting longer, the sun appears more frequently and the wind is less vicious.

What I hadn’t bargained for was  various “rave” vans pumping out a heavy beat and blocking up the car park at the top of Ditchling Beacon. But hey ho there was space to park.

A fairly straight-forward figure of 8 (asleep) was the order of the day – just over 10 miles and  1100ft of muddy climbing, nice and taxing, but no overly so.

The ground conditions are getting better as the winter receeds.  Although there were still some very goooooopy sections to make it 100% concentratio.  One short climb I rode twice was different both times – the first time the mud was quite like plasticine – but some 45mins or so later it had thawed a bit in the sun and was much more slippery. Thankfully this time all the puddles I encountered we below pedal height!

I was aiming to go out again today but found my bike had a flat tire this morning and with the sun out warming the air I started on some overdue maintenance – I am now waiting for two new chainrings – it was not just the mud causing chain suck on my granny ring on recent rides but some not that pretty worn teeth.