Sunday, December 07, 2008

The Return of the Spinks.

Well....
After his accident in Spain Eric has been in forced rest mode.
That is until last weekend.
We dragged him out in the cold and rain.
Unfortunately the rain meant I had to keep the camera at home so no pics.
This week the sun came out and so did the camera (still bloody cold though).
There were some beautiful views with the sun streaming through the trees.
...and us streaming through the trees.
...and us streaming through the streams.
...and....... Ok. Enough of that.
Here are some pictures.









































Look at that sky.
Yayyy.

Friday, November 21, 2008

This Video is available in full DVD quality at all good Delbert shops.

Starring The Herts Carnival.

See them make no attempt to ride on the first day.

(swimming pool was sooo much better)

See them arse around.

See them try and ride bikes.

See them crash.

See them cross-dressing......ehem...sad but true.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Today is the 150th Aniversary of the Gin and Tonic.


First invented in India in 1858.
Tonic was the drink they used to combat malaria.
(Hence Indian Tonic Water)
The quinine in it made it taste bitter so.........
They had the bright idea of adding Gin to off-set that bitterness.
And bloody good job they made of it too.
I guess they were ..... Very very drunk at the time.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

And home again.

We are all cheesed off to be home.
Here are the pictures that are on Sierra Cycling's website.
http://www.sierracycling.com/imagegallery/2008-10-4/index.php
All that blue sky..................
Hmmmm...
Enjoy.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Injury of the week.


Eric turned an ankle and is sat out the rest of the week. Great colour eh?
Poor old fella.
It turned out that he has ligament damage (and very black toes).
The good news was that it was near the end of the week.
The day after this accident 6 of us went out on the wettest, windy and coldest ride I have ever had in Spain.
Mini gave up after 10 mins.
The rest of us pushed on for another hour and a half before calling it a day and ending up in a bar.
Several brandy coffees warmed us up.
We stood there with gallons of water pouring from our clothes onto the bar floor.
He he he he..... Had to be done.
It absolutely pi***d down for the rest of the day.
We had to go and eat and drink for the remainder.
What a hard life.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Group picture.


Time to pose after a big climb.
Just an excuse to put our lungs back into our chests.
This was our last ride before rest day.
Everyone was glad to get to this point and get a good 'ol dose of downhill.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

I never booked rain!


The tuesday ride started like this. But by the time we got to the mountains the sun came out. Yay.

The girls


It's always good to see girls serious about their biking.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Look what we found.


Would you believe it?
Up in the hills while riding along we came across this Casa.
We just had to get a picture of Mini-Me with it.
SMALL world eh?
(or a big world if you´re Mini)

The riding starts.


Out on the trails at last.
A great day had by all.
We had a couple of crashes (Nicky and ..er.....Nicky).
No harm done though.
Ian and Johnny are the guides.
They seem good guys and happy to throw us down mountains.
It took a little while to get used to the hire bikes but after that it was business as usual.
We had a swim after the ride and then off to stuff our faces and have a beer or two.
...or three or four or five.
It´s a hard life.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Only us.


Here we are saturday afternoon. We are meant to be setting up bikes but we won't leave the pool.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Early start.


4 am and we start off with a beer and some food. Gotta be done.

SPAIN SPAIN SPAIN>>>>>>>>>

We are now all finished with work and getting into the holiday mode.
Don't tell anyone but I've just poured a G&T.
The burning question is whether to get a few hours sleep before setting off to the airport.
We have to be off at 02:45hrs.
Hmmmm......
What would you do?

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Norton Green Mini Ride.

Another great day for a ride.
Weather was probably spot on for riding.
Bright and breezy. About 16deg and with the sun somewhere trying to break through.

A few visiting Carnival members joined the ride.
Christine and John turned out. That is the first time we have seen them for ages.
The big news is that they are to get married early next year,














Yayyyy... can I be a bridesmaid?

Mini's next door neighbour John joined in the fun.














Terry turned up with young Joe but minus Debbie.
She has damaged ribs after a crash on last weeks ride.
Get well soon Debs.

The ride was good and fast with a few downhill runs of loose boulders.
Only one crash.














Mini got himself stuck in a rut and off he came.

Young Joe did get it very sideways on one descent.
He hit a big rock and nearly laid it down in front of me.
Lucky for him he didn't go down.
I can only bunny hop about 2" off the ground so he'd be in trouble.

Later in the ride we bumped into Greenhouse Garry and Becky.
We seem to bump into Garry in the most obscure places.
This time he was behind a hedge in a field mending a puncture.
Last time it was at Chicksands.
The time before that in Afan.

Anyway...
A good time had by all.














Was great to see everyone laughing and joking.

It was our last ride before Spain so........
if your not in Spain with us....See you in a couple of weeks.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Ladies and Gentlmen.....The ABE Song.

Yo yo yo yo yo....

Nickey and Mark entertain us in Afan.

The Sunday ride before Spain.

This week we are going over to Mini-Me's for a pre-Spain ride over Stevenage.
Mini is going to put his slant on the Norton Green ride.
It's going to be fun and get the legs finely tuned for next week.
Here is Min.




















An old Chicksands picture taken by Mickey "Monkey" Michaels.

DB

Friday, October 17, 2008

HERE IT IS AT LAST.....CHAMONIX 06 THE MOVIE

A once in a lifetime chance to view this classic video.

Enjoy.

DB

Sunday, September 21, 2008

It's been a while....as Staind said.

Hello all.
We have been off line for a very long time but now we're BACK.
Time to get some pictures and stories about 2008 up and running....
What would you like to see?

We've been to Afan for a long weekend.
Log cabins and goats mostly.
A great weekend had by all.
I was in the support team because I had just had an op on my knee.

Loads of good riding and partying.
A birthday party and.....
A special ABE song.

In may we had snow....
And also went up to Cannock to ride with Eammon.
And that kinda brings us up to date......

Chris has deserted us for a couple of months in Australia
All the local trails are still holding up well.
Today's ride was dry and dusty.
James "Mickey" tells me that it was the last day of Summer so...
It would be rude not to finish the ride with a beer eh?
And so it goes.
See you on the trails next week.......and every week.

Friday, January 04, 2008

Happy New Year

Happy new year to you all.
2007 was a funny old year.
Some were recovering from injury while others were getting injured.
We made it to Chamonix and to Sierra Nevada in Spain during the year but didn't manage the usual amount of road trips that we have come to enjoy.
We ended the year with a couple of nice rides over the Christmas period.
Our Boxing Day ride was always going to be a short Play session.
The thought of the Mulled Wine and Cake waiting at Chris's house made sure of that.
A slippy slidey ride around Sherrards Wood made us all puff like old fellas.
No surprise there then.
We stopped off to play on a couple of stunts.
Chris managed to damage his thumb while riding over Big Daddy.
Oops. We rushed to the crash site to get a better look and show how concerned we were.
Tom was seen flying over the bars while jumping in the doughnut.
I fell off a couple of times and then hit a tree while showing people how easy it was to ride down the side of some steps.
Only damage there was to my pride and the tree lights I had mounted to the handlebars.
A lovely morning it was too.
The sun streaming through the trees.
James manned the camera and looked all professional as he crouched down and tilted the camera this way and that.
He even let Gill take one picture with it.
She brought us back to the real world by shouting.....
"Which button do I press?".
Over to Chris's then for some Mulled wine and Cake.
Mmmmmmm...
Smashing. We finished the ride quite early so many thanks to Tina for getting out the shower to prepare the wine.
There will be pictures to post here soon.
(No. Not the shower ones)
(Note to self for 2008. Realise your opportunities and take them)
:o)
DB

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Spain. Sierra Nevada 2007

We're home from another international adventure.
Southern Spain.
Sierra Nevada.


We arrived on Saturday morning and had unpacked the bikes before you could say.....
....flipping heck it's bloody hot here.
Lunchtime we got straight out on the local trails.
Now...locally they have wicked thorn bushes.
We got back 3 hours later torn to shreds.

Weyy heyyy. Blood!
The evening was spent eating and drinking in town till we were full and pissed.

Sunday. First trip into the mountains. It was ok. I guess the guides have to find out what standard of riding a group are up to
seeing that we had 15-60 year olds, male and female.
The ride was a bit tame for us to be honest.
Oh. When I say tame.
Poor Terry still managed to get big air on one of the trails and break his collar bone.
Get well soon fella.
Evening we ate and drank big time.

Monday. Another trip out to sample the Spanish countryside.
We were made to work for the descents and big climbs in Spanish heat was a new experience for most of us.Phew.
I could see my weight dropping off as we were riding.
Thank goodness I put all back on in the evening!

Tuesday we were taken out to the mountains again.
We did a lot of climbing during the week. (Where's the fecking ski lifts?)
This time the riding was a lot more technical.
They gave us more techie stuff and got in return silly grins and
shouts of "more" and "bring it on".
Guy managed to eat dirt big time on one trail.
We dusted him down and stamped on his bike a bit to straighten it out.
On the final descent we arrived at a huge rutted drop with a very steep ending.
One guide confided in me that he didn't like it very much and would be pleased to give it a miss if we wanted.
He he he he.....
No way mate!
"We call it The Widow Maker" he says..........
In a cloud of dust...a 15 year old, 2 16 year old's, 2 women and most of the others were off down there.
Regrouping at the bottom it is my pleasure to tell the guides they have just renamed it "The Window Cleaner"
Many joke throughout the next few days about getting T shirts saying I've Done the Window Cleaner.
To celebrate we go out in the evening and eat and drink to excess.

Wednesday was the day off so we shopped before eating and drinking for the whole day.

Thursday was more riding in the mountains. Great views and brilliant trails.
Plenty of scary moments now (which is good).
Guess what we did in the evening?
Yep. Got it in one.

Friday's ride was probably the best day.
Loads of height gained by transit before climbing on the bikes and riding in an upwards direction for quite some time.

All worth it of course.
Lovely long descents and fantastic views of the area all the way down to the sea.
In the afternoon we rode a part of the area that has massive rocky boulders that you can ride across just like what you see on the telly.
After that ride we felt the need to celebrate.
So we went out and had a great meal followed by buckets of drink.

Saturday was our last day. Booooo!
I think we were meant to do a morning ride but it was obvious we are mental about our riding
so they took us out for a complete day ride before returning and packing the bikes in seconds flat.
Just enough time to get out and have a final meal before rushing back to get the airport transfer.
All in all a truly great week.
Loads of thanks to all the Sierra Cycles team.
Thanks to Alan who had no idea how many rooms any of his houses had.
Thanks Tom and Matt who couldn't work out why old people would want to risk life and limb but were still willing to point us to the nearest cliff edge.

BTW chaps..... Where's our T shirts?
Pictures are on the righthand clicky button for......er......Pictures.


We will be back.