We did two rides this weekend, usual Llandegla on the Saturday and Penmachno on the sunday, making our way from Widnes both days. Llandegla is always a good choice for us as its easy to get to and we know the trail well, which is what we wanted as non of us had been  biking for a month since we did the last bike race. 

 

Arriving to Llandegla entrance Saturday we were confused by the chaos of cars trying to enter the centre and even more confused by the idiot reversing down the entrance to a big line of cars waiting to make their way up the slightly snowy track. Anyway, we made our way up the track no bother in the van as did many other cars then decided to be the first ones to park at the top car park only to be gutted to see a focus had already made it up there! Non of us had expected the trail to be as snowy as it was and Stu was very upset at the fact his fancy snow tires which he was desperate to use were back at his house. Still the trail was clear enough to get around with no problems and set us up for the big ride the following day.

 

Come sunday and it had snowed in Widnes and our trip to Llandegla the day before had convinced us that Penmachno was going to be snowy too, so Stu finally got to use his snow tyres again. The grin on his face did not last long tho as the ride turned out to be a real tough challange! This was mainly because unlike Llandelga, Penmachno does not get the huge amount of visitors ,especially on a day like the Sunday with a thick blanket of snow, so the snow wasnt compact from hundreds of people riding.

 

The toughest part of Penmachno is definetly the huge amount of forest road climbs that you have to do that link the great trails together and it was the climbs that had no tree cover making them exposed to the snow that we had to push our bikes up through, although we did waste alot of energy pratting about (covering stu's bike in snow etc).The trails there are amazing tho and great fun even in snow, there narrow, fast and flowing with lots of nice rocks to pop off................and puncture!! As I found out twice!

 

The ride took twice as long as expected and we were all shattered, hungry and very very cold. We all did hate the ride at some point, but as usual looking back at it now, it was fun and will definetly be back there again...............in the summer though.

 

Pics from the weekend can be seen in our gallery section here.