Tackle Intact

Day 7 of the Technique Challenge - Wildcard. Just as well because I've no idea what you'd call this.

Today was quite action packed. It started last night when I stayed up til 2am to finish watching "The Bridge" season 2 on BBC Iplayer before they take it off tomorrow. Wow!! Well worth the effort. If you've never watched it get the box set. Trust me.

Then.. day off work. I was thinking of going snowboarding up Glencoe. Despite it being a great weather forecast and the best snow conditions this century (2-3 metres at all levels .. they're digging out the lifts!!), I decided to save a few quid and go down to the Glen Tress mountain bike trails near Peebles to ride the renowned red route. I've done it about 4 times but the last time was 9 years ago.

Riding up I realised how unfit I'd got, but its so well designed I could just puff my way up slowly looking forward to the reward of 3 miles of luscious technical downhill. I hadn't accounted for the rubbish forestry diversion half way up which required getting off to push at one point, but after about an hour, I found myself at the top.

I was going to stop for a breather, but a sleet storm got me moving down through the "spooky woods" descent - had it all to myself. After 5 minutes of glorious descent I set off into the next darker, steeper section and the SNAP!... My bloody seat snapped off. A couple of sheared bolts, so nothing I could fix on the trail. So a risky leg-sapping descent above the seat spike down some easier trails without a saddle. This was shot near the bottom on the green route. I'll be back for a rematch soon..

On the way back, I had some extra time and stopped at Rosslyn Chapel for a visit and some photos. Waste of time - £9 to get in and no photography allowed. It looked really interesting over the wall but I'm far too tight to pay that. I never went, but I'll bet it was £3 entry and a little shed instead of a bloody great glass visitor centre before it was made uber-famous by "The Da Vinci Code". Progress!