Today the rain fell, OH did it fall!
I’ve been riding alot of xc, the other day the marin trail in Betws was my choice, it was brilliant and very wet!!
That single ride made me realise once more why the rain is my favourite thing to ride in, its amazing! Everything feels way more dangerous because you can hardly see, the feeling that you get when you smash through the first few puddles and one of your feet gets soaked and cold is rad…i won’t go on and on about how lovely it feels to ride in the pouring rain because really, you need to do it yourself!
So today drove to Penmachno, near Betws Y Coed, with my mate Tom, we sat in the carpark looking down the valley at the thick mist that was doing a very poor job indeed at keeping the rain out!
Perturbed we were not, excited we were, which might have had something to do with the new Red Bull energy shots that arrived in the post this morning. A pocket sized shot of concentrated Red Bull, 27 calories and it doesnt make you need half and hour rest because youre to full to move, like a whole can does!Good shit!
Before we knew it we were climbing the first climb, I instantly boiled over so took my coat off. I love the feeling of riding in the rain with just a t-shirt and shorts, seem to have done quite alot recently!
The ride was FANTASTIC! Probably one of the best rides i’ve done for a while, we were soaked to the bones and it seemed to make everything better. Half way around, the track winds around the side of a bowled hill and towards the end it gets mega, rocky as fook and pretty fast, i was bloody having the time of my life!
The rain was falling hard and the track was a river, my eyelashes seemed to be soaking up the water and holding it over my eyeballs so i couldn’t see a thing, I was trying to jump and double up everything i could, hitting the turns as fast as i could, it was just so good.
It felt like we were going so fast on the downhills, just launching off everything as far as i could, it was incredible, it really was. The climbs gave a brief respite from the blindness and a chance to appreciate the rain, just letting it hit you, feeling the drops falling on you, on your bare arms compared to your covered back, reveling in the water that runs down your face, it feel like it washes things away and there really is no thought in your head apart from what you are doing that moment. You are so wet, and your face so covered that you could be sweating like mad, you could be crying and snivelling and no one would know. The rain is a mask behind which any emotion can rage and battle itself out, how many things let you do that?
It amazes me almost every time i ride my bike how terribly excited it makes me, it is like there’s too much excitement inside to control and i go loopy! We shot out onto the fire road after that particular section and i just whooped and laughed and shrieked like a crazy lady, it was so exhilarating, i swear to God that everyone needs to experience that feeling.
I think that riding in the rain makes things way better, it is properly British, (Welsh!) the quietness that it brings to the mountains, it sort of smothers things in a layer of secrecy and yet there you are, enjoying something that everyone seems so frightened of! But why, because as long as you don’t stop riding your bike, then the rain never feels better!!
Let it RAIN RAIN rain raIN RAIn
