We headed down to le Mas-d'Azil today to have a bash at a mountain bike circuit that I had found - it sounded ideal, 22km with 660m of ascent. Easy peasy. I was looking forward to it, especially since the amazing weather is continuing. We parked up in the village, switched on the GPS devices on which we had downloaded the route and set off. It started uphill, up a slippy, sticky track - we ended up pushing the bikes. After 5km I had my first puncture. Shortly afterwards, I realised that we were in fact doing the circuit in the reverse direction to the one proposed on the website from which I had downloaded the route. There was yet more 'up', unrideable up ... it was becoming increasingly hard work. The only redeeming factor was the view.
But I was sustained by the thought of the long ride along the ridge at the top which was sure to be fun. However, I had another, more dramatic puncture before we arrived at that point. Doh! When we eventually arrived at the ridge we were greeted with highly technical terrain with slippy limestone rocks which made for a tricky and exhausting 5+kms before the descent down into le Mas-d'Azil
By this time, Andy had damaged a link on his chain and we had both run out of water. We were somewhat relieved to make it back to the car. We had been out for 4 hours. Bonkers. But hey, it can't be an amazing outing every time, now can it!
But I was sustained by the thought of the long ride along the ridge at the top which was sure to be fun. However, I had another, more dramatic puncture before we arrived at that point. Doh! When we eventually arrived at the ridge we were greeted with highly technical terrain with slippy limestone rocks which made for a tricky and exhausting 5+kms before the descent down into le Mas-d'Azil
By this time, Andy had damaged a link on his chain and we had both run out of water. We were somewhat relieved to make it back to the car. We had been out for 4 hours. Bonkers. But hey, it can't be an amazing outing every time, now can it!
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