mtbrepairman

Spring is here 🥳 but it's still very wet so I chose to stick to gravel tracks in the New Forest. A lovely ride in sun and 16C, but the ground is still sodden if you venture off the main tracks. I was worried about flooding at Linford Bottom and Millyford Bridge but they were OK. The sloppiest section was the single-track descent to Burley, but it was more fun than the road 😄 Normally I'd head back through Acres Down but despite checking the website which showed no closures, there was logging in progress, so I had to take a detour. At least I missed the Ford though 😄 Well worth the drive down and making use of the free parking before charges are introduced in April.

Where to go when everywhere is flooded after the wetest January on record 🤔 I chose to stick to tarmac and go high, which worked well though a shame the fog never lifted 🙄 so I never got those wonderful views from the Downs. Although there was evidence of washout, the only flooded road was at Soberton, after an endless downhill. The route was really quiet, I saw more cyclists than cars, until the last bit back into Denmead

After waiting for the rain to clear 🙄 I put this ride together, using solid gravel tracks. It worked really well with a fair bit of off road and only a few sloppy sections. It seems all the tracks through Watergate Hanger are a bit boggy now ☹️ and I diverted onto the footpath at Forestside but it was surprisingly rideable otherwise. A good job for winter mudguards and not too mucky considering.

Some nice off road sections on this route. It was amazingly dry, in December 😲 but these tracks are usually good in the wet too. I had a wonderful dry single-track descent from Liss, nice to be off road again 🥳

I normally do a gravel ride around Ashford Hanger, but being so wet I changed it to a road ride. Even so, some of the lanes were more like gravel 😀. Reasons for starting in Liss are lots of free parking and the Turtle Bean cafe for post ride replenishment 👍Usually the small lanes are pretty good, but there was a fair amount of washout and mud on them this time. A good decision not to venture off road then....

Such a contrast to my previous dusty rides 😲 it was seriously wet after all the rain. So I avoided the Meon Valley Trail and stuck to roads I know are less prone to flooding. Not cold at 13C and sunny too.

The classic Maspalomas off road route, with some mtb tracks added in. After the GC504 road climb to Ayaguares it takes GC602 into some spectacular mountains. I went further onto the quaint town of Fataga, then turned to Los Llomos for a rocky track back down to GC60. I then climbed on GC60 to the summit at Las Yeguas. Quite a scary road, not helped by the sign informing of 6 cycling fatalities in the last 5 years 🫣 From the summit I then took the "flow" mtb track back to Maspalomas. Some great single-track, quite rocky in places and sometimes sketchy 😲

A big day out! I took the renowned road climb to Soria then added some gravel tracks to loop back to Maspalomas. The GC505 to Soria was indeed popular with road cyclists and quite busy with traffic until the switchbacks. After Soria I took a gravel track into the mountains which proved more challenging than expected 🙄 at some points the track resembled a river bed due to slips and wash out. Once back on GC505 I climbed in the mist to GC60. I turned off on GC604 to descend to Chira and after a short climb there was 9km of wonderful gravel descent followed by 12km of swooping road descent back to El Tablero. A wonderful adventure 😁

What an incredible ride! Using GC604, a road that was never completed, to climb to the mountains in the centre. The first 19km of GC604 out of El Tablero is a steep climb on quiet tarmac. It looks like the road ends at someone's Finca, but just round the corner is 11km of wonderful gravel track through the pine trees. From Chira the road is tarmac again and climbs to GC60 to go back to Maspalomas. I was lucky to have no cars behind me on the switchbacks from San Bartolome, but turned off after Fataga on GC602 to ride the fast gravel track descent into Maspalomas

Road circuit to Ayaguares where I seemed to have run out of options to go further (cerrado) with an extra detour up a nice valley to Palmitos Park. GC 504 was a consistent incline, then a steep climb and descent on GC 503. Nice circuit very popular with road cycists