B
Bomba
Guest
Decided to hit the mtb centre of Belgium this weekend. Left the flat Saturday morning and drove the
2 hours to La Roche-en-Ardennes. Nipped in to the tourist info office and picked up their mtb kit -
a **** map and route descriptions in French. Hmm. I looked at the map for a route that took in the
most closely packed contour lines and went for number 2
- a 20km loop that runs to the north of the village.
My prayers to Ra had been answered, and despite it hanging around freezing, it was a good day to be
out on the bike. Finding the initial turn off for route 2 was a pain in the ass, but after 20
minutes I'd picked up the trail, was feeling good and motoring along. The first hour or so was ok,
with mostly climbing and despite the temperature, I'd soon stripped down to the base layer.
Fortunately, I didn't see many other people as my dress appearance resembled an all-in-one black
leotard. That band at the Xmas party must have had an influence, and I'm now being assimilated in to
German culture
The route was pretty standard fire roads, compensated by beautiful views through the valleys. It
occurred to me, that living miles from decent trails is a bad thing - it means you rely on public
access mtb trails such as this. My experiences of three of these types of trails (Germany,
Luxembourg and now Belgium) had been of sanitised forest fire roads, and it was beginning to get
a bit dull.
A short sharp downhill followed and I climbed the other side to find a group of pikeys on pig bikes
at a crossroad. I couldn't see any signs so asked for directions. They pointed me in the direction
of La Roche, and in doing so, off of the route 2, and heading the wrong way round route 1. All,
however, was totally forgiven as I ended up on a rocky, technical singletrack downhill, with foot
deep gulleys to clear. Over a road, and on to some smoother twisty singletrack through a forest.
Smiles all round.
I ended up back in La Roche after 2 1/2 hours, and although I was feeling fantastic and would have
quite happily gone out again, a friend was waiting for me in Luxembourg, with steak roquefort frites
and a bottle of '93 Haut Medoc Grand Cru Classe.
After that, topped off a great day by heading down my old local. 'Celebrating someone's life' always
sounds a bit cheesy to me, but it pretty accurately sums up how I went about the evening. Des, a
good friend of mine and the landlord of the The Brit (www.thebritanniapub.lu) died of cancer a
couple of weeks ago whilst I was on holiday and I missed his funeral. Sinking many beers in his pub
on Saturday was my way of saying goodbye to the old *******. RIP Des.
Photos of the ride: http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=1632427&uid=894762
--
a.m-b FAQ: http://www.t-online.de/~jharris/ambfaq.htm
b.bmx FAQ: http://www.t-online.de/~jharris/bmx_faq.htm
2 hours to La Roche-en-Ardennes. Nipped in to the tourist info office and picked up their mtb kit -
a **** map and route descriptions in French. Hmm. I looked at the map for a route that took in the
most closely packed contour lines and went for number 2
- a 20km loop that runs to the north of the village.
My prayers to Ra had been answered, and despite it hanging around freezing, it was a good day to be
out on the bike. Finding the initial turn off for route 2 was a pain in the ass, but after 20
minutes I'd picked up the trail, was feeling good and motoring along. The first hour or so was ok,
with mostly climbing and despite the temperature, I'd soon stripped down to the base layer.
Fortunately, I didn't see many other people as my dress appearance resembled an all-in-one black
leotard. That band at the Xmas party must have had an influence, and I'm now being assimilated in to
German culture
The route was pretty standard fire roads, compensated by beautiful views through the valleys. It
occurred to me, that living miles from decent trails is a bad thing - it means you rely on public
access mtb trails such as this. My experiences of three of these types of trails (Germany,
Luxembourg and now Belgium) had been of sanitised forest fire roads, and it was beginning to get
a bit dull.
A short sharp downhill followed and I climbed the other side to find a group of pikeys on pig bikes
at a crossroad. I couldn't see any signs so asked for directions. They pointed me in the direction
of La Roche, and in doing so, off of the route 2, and heading the wrong way round route 1. All,
however, was totally forgiven as I ended up on a rocky, technical singletrack downhill, with foot
deep gulleys to clear. Over a road, and on to some smoother twisty singletrack through a forest.
Smiles all round.
I ended up back in La Roche after 2 1/2 hours, and although I was feeling fantastic and would have
quite happily gone out again, a friend was waiting for me in Luxembourg, with steak roquefort frites
and a bottle of '93 Haut Medoc Grand Cru Classe.
After that, topped off a great day by heading down my old local. 'Celebrating someone's life' always
sounds a bit cheesy to me, but it pretty accurately sums up how I went about the evening. Des, a
good friend of mine and the landlord of the The Brit (www.thebritanniapub.lu) died of cancer a
couple of weeks ago whilst I was on holiday and I missed his funeral. Sinking many beers in his pub
on Saturday was my way of saying goodbye to the old *******. RIP Des.
Photos of the ride: http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=1632427&uid=894762
--
a.m-b FAQ: http://www.t-online.de/~jharris/ambfaq.htm
b.bmx FAQ: http://www.t-online.de/~jharris/bmx_faq.htm
