We did a route I've described before: taking in Asfordby Hill > Saxelbye > Shoby > Hoby > Brooksby > Gaddesby and Kirby Bellars. At Asfordby Hill I led through some of our usual little play trails in the old iron works. Ricky followed me down a steep roll with a drop halfway down it without realising the drop was there! He got down it okay though. Sometimes having that extra suspension not usually needed for Leicestershire comes in handy!

At Saxelbye we did the usual steep little rooty climb. Ricky normally whizzes up this no problem but last night he got his gear choice wrong, attempted a change half way up and snapped his chain! Once we had fixed the chain with a Power Link he had another couple of goes at the climb but the first attempt had messed with his mojo and he failed and gave in. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was dominoed by Ricky on the first attempt but cleaned it easily while Ricky and I fixed the chain. He now has it dialled.

At the end of the same little section of singletrack there are two exits. I had previously had an on-sight go at the trickier of the two and failed so decided to have another go now I knew what to expect. It's pretty easy really: a roll down, then across a stream with a rooty step to get out of the stream bed. I rolled down but my line choice was terrible and I hit a large root obscured by vegetation and ended up rolling in the undergrowth! A couple of horse riders on the nearby road were wondering what was going on?

The rest of the ride was less eventful. Our gate opening relay technique worked well on the bridleways from Shoby to Hoby and Brooksby to Gaddesby allowing us to maintain a pretty decent pace all the way.

On the bridleway towards Kirby Bellars I motioned for the other two to go in front of me. I was on the hardtail and they were both on full sussers. This bridleway is proper hoof churned and hard, especially in the latter stages so I didn't want to hold them up. I wasn't too far behind by the end of the bridleway but was feeling somewhat battered!

There was no post ride pint this time due to peoples domestic commitments :( so we continued on home.