First day on the MTB

It was organise even before I came to Germany that I could go and train with the  local Nürtingen SV Reudern MTB Team. Yesterday was my first day allowed back on the mountain bike and also their Wednesday Training day.


It rained in the morning so I expected it to be muddy in the afternoon, but not quite as slippery as it was. There is a race coming up this Sunday so we practiced the course three times, once slow then two times race pace. The lap first climbed up the hill then came down a little a short piece on off camber really muddy single track, then a short fire trail, a fast descent that was really wild with the mud and then some more short bits of single track and firetrail.
The first time I got caught out on one of the off camber corners with too much speed and slipped out. I scored another layer of mud on my leg. The next crazy bit was the straight fast descent that only had slight corners, but in the wet with a couple of rollers chucked into the mix made it hard to keep a straight line. All three times I found myself right on the edge of losing the front wheel. The rest of it as I hit the brakes.

After being off the bike for 9 weeks I was pretty happy to be able to keep up with the U17's on the climb, but when it came to the firetrail I was left behind. Something to keep the training going with.


All of the people there have very good bike skills and are hopping around and doing wheelies all the time. I think it is time to sharpen up on the bike handling skills...


The afternoon was awesome and I can't wait till the race on Sunday. Fingers crossed the track will have dried out a bit by then.

My bike before I washed off all the mud last night.