Gaz, our club coach, will be leading a training day at the Forest of Dean. This will be aimed at anyone who want to improve aspects of their riding, from those who want to conquer drops, to those who want to enhance their trails skills.
Gaz is a MIAS L2 qualified coach with experience in training all levels, particularly novice riders, on a variety of trails.
This will be a low-pressure ride, taking in the skills areas as well as Verderers and a few other bits. No-one will be asked to ride anything they are uncomfortable with.
Gaz’s training days traditionally end with tea and cake as well.
Meeting at the café at 10am, look out for the big bloke in the pink club shirt
This a very relaxed ride, at an easy pace, with lots of opportunities to develop and practice skills. Everyone is welcome and this is a great introductory ride if you’re just starting or coming back to mountain biking.
This week we’re going to do some skills demonstrations and practice, using the features of the trail. We’ll cover the basics you’ll need for tackling technical terrain – front wheel lifts, unweighting the back well, climbing and descending safely.
You must bring a helmet, but you don’t need lights, yet.
Also thoroughly recommend insect repellent!
Meet in the Croft car park at 5.30pm for a 5.45pm start
NOTE – we’ve now changed the date to 1 day earlier, Saturday 16th March, to avoid a race.
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We’ve not been to FoD for ages, so we’re going to do another “FoD 4 All” event.Â
Basing ourselves at Pedalabikeaway, we will have several ride leaders, offering different rides for all abilities – a great introduction if you’ve not been before.Â
A lap of the legendary Verderers is bound to be on the agenda and we will take everyone through steadily, as a great opportunity if you’ve not done it before.
There will also be downhill trails and some of the techy super steep off piste tracks in the Cannop Valley too, should anyone want to try that.Â
We will also have at least one coach on offer if anyone wants to session some features, such as roots, jumps or drops, or certain sections of trail (the top of Corkscrew has a great sequence of features in one short run for learning).Â
Meet at outside the Pedalabikeaway café at 10.30amÂ
Ashton Court is home to the Nova Trail, a purpose built blue-graded trail that winds it’s way around the estate. At only 4 miles long and with only short sections of climbing it’s the perfect place to try a proper mountain bike trail. It’s recently undergone renovation and everything on the blue is rollable, there are some sections of red graded and more technical trail for those wanting to improve their skills but for those new to mountain biking or a bit nervous about getting out on the trails this an excellent place to begin.
We’ll meet by the cafe/toilets for a 10:30am start and we’ll spend the morning on the Nova Trail. We’ll stop and session bits if people want to and Adrian will be on hand to offer coaching.
After a break for lunch we can either pop over to the 2 mile long blue graded Yer Tiz trail just over the road in Leigh Woods (which also has a progressive skills loop) or head back on to the Nova Trail to perfect our skills.
There is more than one car park at Ashton Court, please make sure you head for the car park at Pedal Progression BS8 3PX, it’s through the stone archway just after the Clifton Suspension bridge. Parking costs £1.20 for the day.
Bike hire is also available at Pedal Progression – booking in advance is essential though.
