At 8am I picked up my two nephews (once we had prised the younger of the two out of his bed!). With three bikes, three people and all their gear in it my car was fully loaded for the two hour journey to just outside Ludlow. It was a grey cloudy day but wasn't raining until we got about 5 miles from Bringewood! Then it began spitting and the ground looked wet. The car park for uplift days at Bringewood is unusual in that it is half way down the hill and the courses run through it. We parked up and began assembling bikes in strong gusty winds with a slight spitting of rain. Not ideal conditions but it wasn't horrendous and the coats were left in the car. As we got ready Phill and Jamie turned up to join us.
As the car park is half way down the hill you have to start by riding down part of one of the courses. The first sections of all of them from the car park are open to the elements due to tree felling and therefore were a little damp making the many roots slippy. We took a steady roll down and I was very surprised as we entered the trees to find it bone dry. At the bottom the first Landrover and trailer lift back to the top was waiting for us. Pearce Cycles run these days and are very efficient. There's never much waiting for a lift with multiple vehicles constantly running.
The top section of the main course is under tree cover but was damper than the lower part of the hill. It still wasn't too bad though. For the first couple of runs I was struggling with the tricky rutted rooty start sections and was dabbing left right and centre. Further down it turns to bermy fun. The whole course is pretty fast flowing really.
For the first two or three runs we experimented with different variations on the courses available to find our favoured line for the conditions. There are several courses at Bringewood. All are similar and very good. We didn't bother going from the uplift drop off point to the furthest though as we figured it would be more exposed to the strong winds. The weather was pretty good for the whole day with the rain never starting properly. The trees gave us protection from the wind for the most part though I did have one moment on the little step down before the final kicker at the bottom when I felt a gust move me significantly sideways. This wasn't to be a day for building up to "big air" on the final jump!
On the fourth run I was just thinking that I was starting to get my eye in when my bike was over the top of a berm and I was on the deck on the track! Jamie was following and enjoyed the free entertainment. No harm was done other than my brake lever moving a bit. We stopped at the cars for a quick fettle. Tom said his rear brake was rubbing. On inspection I found the two bolts holding his replacable dropout on were loose! We didn't have any loctite with us so it was a case of just tightening them up as much as possible and keeping an eye on them.
A couple of runs later we stopped for a quick lunch break. It wasn't a cold day but we soon cooled off in the strong winds. The only downer was some young lad with his arm in a sling in the car park about to head off to hospital. Broken collar bone I think? After lunch Jamie slid off on a very rooty corner and I had no choice but to bale to avoid running him over. Again just a comedy moment with no harm done to bikes or riders.
We continued doing runs until the end time of 4pm and probably got into double figures. I'm not sure how many as I didn't count? A good day was had by all and the kids were soon both asleep in the car as we headed home.