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Most of the time when I go cycling with folks from the MTB Britain forum the routes involve actual mountains or at the very least very big hills!

For something a bit different I organised a night ride around Sherwood Forest. There were 7 of us in the group and we had a very smooth day out with not a single mechanical event – not even a puncture. All 7 were people I’ve met a number of times on previous rides and great bunch – very capable and also very easy to get along with. All of that helps when you’re effectively stuck with them for most of the day! :)

Our route started on the edge of Sherwood Forest at about 2:30 PM and we made straight for Sherwood Pines to get in some of the fast weaving singletrack while there was still some daylight. At that stage I think everyone was full of beans and we were flying around up there. After the singletrack we had a go at the Dual Descender which doesn’t really do it for me. I much prefer the singletrack course around the forest.

From Sherwood Pines we went to Vicar Water and made the completely unnecessary diversion up to the top of the reclaimed pit tip. There wasn’t a need to go over this because there are paths that go around it, but it’s a good challenge. These days I’m never in any danger of not making it to the top in one go, but there is definitely some effort involved in making that happen!

From Vicar Water through Newlands near Clipstone (it was now dark), crossing the River Maun and making our way to Parliament Oak and on to Market Warsop and then back in to Sherwood Forest and then on to Clumber Park. I find Clumber Park quite eerie in the evenings. Being able to see the silhouette of the large chapel and being far enough away from anything for it to be really quiet all add up to giving me this feeling. You hardly ever see anyone up there when it’s dark. There are exceptions though – tonight we went past one parked car and two couples walking their dogs. A few years ago a mate saw some bloke jump out of the undergrowth at the side of the National Cycle Network path completely stark bollock naked and then run off to get on his bike which was lent up against a tree – and it wasn’t even dark – not that that would explain it any more! Nothing like that happened tonight though!

By the time we got back I think it was about 7:30 PM and we’d clocked up 34 miles. A few of the group had flat light batteries and some were running on backup lights and some were just staying in the middle of our group soaking up the more than adequate light being pumped out by the remainder.

I managed to fall sideways twice this evening while being clipped in. It’s still very early days with the pedals and on two occasions I didn’t unclip before teetering over to one side. Both were on to very soft ground though so no harm done, other than looking very silly!