Sussex-MTB

Being relatively new to parenting, Hoops and I were delighted that our better halves had booked us all on a holiday. To our amazement the place they chose was just 15 minutes from two of the 7Stanes MTB centres, Mabie & Dalbeattie. Get in! Obviously with small children and wives around we weren’t expecting to ride every day, but we did manage to get out three times – once with the families and twice without. All this basked in glorious sunshine.

Mabie

Coming back from a long lay off from the bike, and having a fairly new frame under me I was keen to shred some rock, and on the Tuesday we took the easy green route around Mabie, along with the boys on the back, and the wives. It was Mrs Tommo’s first riding in years and she loved it. Master Tommo eventually started screaming with delight, with Mrs & Master Hoops taking it all in their stride!

Mabie

After a lush BBQ and some playing on the big boys playground, we packed the family off home and the shredding began. The red Phoenix trail starts out with a long climb to the top as is the case with most of the centres across the UK, with some singletrack and some fireroad climbing. Atop the first climb the trail goes in Descender Bender, and then the Burn Splash. Fast and flowy, it was great fun with berms, drops and jumps aplenty. The burn splash wasn’t too filled with all the dry weather we had. Up again into the Roller Coaster which is as described – a sweet flow. Then the elevator which had a fair few north shore sections and gained altitude really without noticing, and into the Bad Step, which had a few drops one of which required commitment or a walk down, no rolling. Rattle n Hum was the final section and was a really rooty section but great fun nevertheless. I was very impressed with the bike, it took a hammering round there and I loved every minute of it.

Dalbeattie

Earlier in the day we went out to a farm park and being big kids found the trampolines. I was trying to do forward flips and one landing almost broke me in half – my back creaked and cracked as I landed which had later implications. We arrived at the trail car park and I knocked back 4 Ibuprofen cos I knew my back would hurt. They did the job, my back was fine, however tunnel vision and light headiness ensued until ¾ of the way round! Mental note – just take 3 next time.

Slab action

From the car park you follow the skills loop out for about half a mile. This was a good warm up as it was fast and flowy. Then the loop went into a very long north shore section which was great. Again the trail eventually ascended and into Moyle Magic, which was baby-head rock filled, with drops and knarl all the way. It was very different to Mabie as it was slightly more technical and less flowy, and more of a challenge. The next part is where it gets a biz hazy as the pills worked on me. It seemed to be pretty good from what I remember. Then we got to The Slab, a huge granite rock face. A couple of nutters were there minus lids. Next up was Smithlands, Barcloy hill and the terrible twins. I was still out of it, I know there was a big drop which I refused first time but went back and did as I wanted to do it all. Spooky Wood II is nothing like Glentress, its just a dark wooded area with a clever bit of trail building. Jacobs ladder was a rock descent into a berm. Dunno what Rock don’t Roll was? The Instigator was good though, a few black options over logs and such, but there was a big ish rock drop which we did.

Mini huckers

Then it was back to the car park via a very long log section which you had to ride, no way round it. I got half way along and lost balance. I had a moment like in Snatch, right where Micky nails the other boxer and the scene stops and Turkish goes “Now we are f***ed”, my options were to face plant from about 3.5 feet, or huck. I chose to huck and landed quite neatly, thanks to my heart rate’s amusement! 200 bpm at least.

Skinny action

And that was it, back for a BBQ. Awesome.

Hoops' Pulling face

Tommo