Two weeks ago before the British Summer time was swept away by a huge rain cloud we enjoyed a super weekend in the Surrey Hills. Not only was the weather tip top but the biking was pretty mega too!
Over two days our latest group of clients came on leaps and bounds as the honed their trail skills and crafted their flow on some of Surrey’s best known mountain bike trails like Barry Knows Best, Yogurt Pots and Summer Lightning to name but a few!
Here are some action shots from the weekend. If it looks like good fun and you would like to join our next adventure check out our mountain bike weekend page here.
Feedback from Candy:
What a great weekend thank you Hannah for specially helping me. I do feel much more confident now!!! And thanks to Paul who helped to set up my bike and guiding me. What a lovely bunch of people on the course.Thanks for your help and encouragement, guys, when I was flagging! The food was lovely too.Fantastic way to spend a weekend in glorious countryside! 🚴♀️
We all know that modern life can be stressful. The feeling of always being connected and the amount of time we spend looking at screens each day doesn’t do our mental health much good.
But there are ways to improve our lives, and we think that mountain biking is a great place to start. As a video on Single Tracks recently pointed out, hitting the trails can be great for stress relief.
First up, it’s a great way to get out into nature and just enjoy the beauty of the world around us. But more than that it is a brilliant way to exercise. Climbing trails on a mountain bike is intense exercise, which causes your body to release endorphins. These are known to relieve stress.
Every climb is followed by a descent, which, as the video notes, provides an instant reward and means your body releases adrenaline. This gives you the incentive to make the next climb and continue with your mountain biking adventure.
Finally, the act of mountain biking requires a great deal of concentration, which helps you shut out all the worries and stresses that fill your mind during everyday life.
The Mental Health Foundation also advocates exercise to help improve our mental health. The organisation points out that there are lots of ways to be active beyond going to the gym or taking a jog.
But the key to becoming more active is to find something that you love doing, so that you make time for it and value its “positive benefits”.
If you want to try mountain biking but haven’t got much experience, take a beginner’s mountain bike course to get you off to a flying start.
We’re always on the lookout for new spots where we can put our mountain bikes through their paces and it seems that Scotland could be the next place to head to if you’re keen to hit some tracks amid stunning scenery.
Given that Scotland is one of the few parts of the UK with proper mountains, it would make sense for the sport to gain more traction here, and it seems the Scottish government is keen to support that.
It has just provided a grant of £185,000 to help develop the sport in the country, after already investing £1 million in the sport alongside Forestry and Land Scotland.
Fiona Hyslop, Scotland’s tourism minister, unveiled the additional funding ahead of a new publication outlining a new national mountain biking strategy.
“By using our natural terrain and the expertise of organisations such as the Mountain Bike Consortium, we can further develop mountain biking opportunities to grow the sector and attract even more visitors,” she stated.
If exploring Scotland’s mountain bike trails sounds like your kind of break, get some mtb coaching before you head off to make sure you’re prepared for what’s on offer.
Looking for some inspiration on where to go mountain biking north of the border? Take some inspiration from Red Bull. The organisation that’s known for its extreme sports, as well as its energy drinks, picked out some of the top spots for mtb fun.
Among them are the Tweed Valley, Fort William and Dunkeld. Tweed Valley was picked as the number one place to visit because it’s the “home of the original man-made trails in Scotland”.
The answer is probably not, whether you use your trusty GPS or map you will find your way round some beautiful trails in the UK. BUT, you knew there was going to be a ‘but’ right?!?
We take the hassle out of your experience so you can focus on the pedalling.
Here’s why:
We find the ‘harder to find’ places.
If you’re looking for the sweetest single track, the best lunch spot with a view, most thrilling descent or climb, we can take you there. Our experienced team know the UK riding spots, like the back of their hands and will take you on an adventure down undiscovered trails, brand new lines and to the best views.
We take you off-grid.
Our big day rides are full of adventure and about pushing your limits. Safely in the knowledge that our experienced guides will keep you out of trouble and riding all day.
Time is precious.
Life is super busy, we reckon if you had to opt between riding your bike and planning a ride you would pick option one! So let us do the planning and organising so you can focus on the fun factor.
We take out the ‘unknown’.
If the weather closes in and you need to dive into a pub which won’t mind soggy bodies, we know where one is. Legs turned to spaghetti? We know a local café serving the best hot chocolate and tasty cakes. Want to push hard all day? We will push you as far as you want to go, as long as you’re having fun we will ride all day long.
No need to pack the kitchen sink.
Every guide on our trips carries an extensive pack of bike and human first aid essentials. No need for you to carry much more than water, a snack, coat and inner tube. Ride light and save your energy for the miles ahead.
Anyone can be a passenger on a bike. Like with any sport to become more able it’s a good idea to get professional coaching. Last weekend we headed to the Surrey Hills for a weekend on some of Southern England’s finest Singletrack.
The weekend began with coaching from Leith Hill, using the famous Summer Lightning trail. The aim of the day, increase your ability to flow effortlessly down the trail with minimal excursion. How did we achieve this?
By getting into the right position and being able to move around the bike, keeping movements free and not jerking the bike around, which happens with bad technique and a lack of confidence, because you tend to be more ridged. We also mastered manuals ready to get over those tricky trail obstacles and pop off drops.
Lunch was provided by local chef Joanne Sorg, who served up a delicious packed lunches, no sandwiches in sight! Of course there was also enough cake to keep even the hungriest of riders satisfied.
After lunch it was time to focus on strengthening and stretching those muscles. Lying under the swaying trees, the group worked on their core stability during Pilates specific for cyclists. Pilates focuses on the ‘inner core’ of our bodies, developing strength from the innermost structures and works outwards. Rather than working our bodies through muscle isolation, Pilates focuses on posture, strength, mobility and flexibility from head to toe. Moving the body in complete flowing movements, not isolated parts. Read more about the benefits of Pilates for cyclists here.
Sarah who took part said
One of the best biking weekends I’ve attended! Hannah is a great coach and her confidence inspiring style resulted in great changes in my riding over the course of the weekend. The small group dynamic makes it really easy to learn and at no point did I feel out of my depth, though I was most certainly encouraged to push my boundaries in a good way. Highly recommended! Plus the food is fantastic!
Bright and early Sunday we met with our guide Sean from Marmalade MTB at Holmbury Hill. Sean led the group on an adventure down some of the best trails and up to the best viewpoints in the Surrey Hills including Barry Knows Best, Yoghurt Pots and Telegraphs. Of course, no trip to the Surrey Hills could end without a trip to the famous Peaslake Village Stores for a cheese straw!
After a full days riding we headed to the pub for a pint and to share stories from the weekend and talk about where our next adventures on two wheels may take us.
Thank you to our wonderful clients for a fantastic weekend of fun, we hope to see you on the trails again soon!
If you like the look of our Surrey Hills weekend why not join us in June!
As part of our ’12 days of Christmas’ we thought it would be great to share some trail side tips! So please sit back and enjoy as Sean from Marmalade MTB shows us how to repair a split in your tyre wall with none other than a toothpaste tube! Trail side repairs can help get you out of a sticky situation or a long, long, long walk to the car!
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