Mountain Biking adventures

By Damian Tow

Until fairly recently mountain biking (MTB) had not been one of the core activities that AAC(UK) offered, but since 2017 we now have 4 British Cycling Level 2 leaders and 3 mountain biking Ûbungsleiter trained in Austria. These qualified leaders are based in the South East, South Wales, the Peaks and in Scotland so have a good geographical spread to organise rides for our members. Personally, I have been riding off road since the early 80s and have owned an MTB for over 30 years. and Like many AAC(UK) members I also practice a range of other outdoor sports.

We have organised some fun and successful MTB meets in 2017 (Snowdonia), 2018 (Peaks and Lakes) and 2019 (Lakes and Peaks) but unfortunately all planned Club MTB activity got postponed in 2020 due to the dreaded Covid.

The Übungsleiter training course was a great experience with myself, Stefania Rosso and Richard Smith meeting up in the Tirol in September 2019 for a 5 day course led by the Austrian MTB guru, Christoph Malin. We stayed at the comfortable Jufa Hotel in Steinach am Brenner and were joined on the course by MTB leaders from the Czech Republic and Australia (via Innsbruck).

Each day we would typically spend a couple of hours in the morning and evening in the classroom on theory covering topics such as navigation, route planning, coaching techniques, electric MTB technology, repairs & maintenance, nutrition and weather. The more interesting part was putting these lessons into practice during 20 to 30km journeys with often 1000m+ ascents to mountain refuges such as the Blaserhütte (2176m) and Tribulaunhaus (2064m). Once there, an obligatory rest stop was required to greet the hut guardian or Hüttenwirt, sample the local cake and coffee, enjoy the amazing views and scope out our return routes. On our final day ride we descended in one amazing swooping single-track trail from the border ridge near the Sandjochl pass at 2273m to Vipeteno (Süd Tirol) at 948m. On arrival at the train station in the valley I made the mistake of touching my calf against my rear brake disc, and the red glowing metal certainly sizzled my skin!

I did manage a personal MTB challenge this summer with my friend and fellow Club member Mike Raffe. I had been skiing in Austria in early March and was due to go to ski touring in the Queyras on 13 March, but literally pulled out of the trip an hour before travelling due to the rapid lockdown happening across Europe. Soon after I developed a persistent cough and had symptoms of Covid by the end of March, which fortunately only lasted a few days but took a few weeks to get back to normal energy levels.

I started to recover from Covid and, with the Brighton Marathon that I had trained for cancelled, I decided a sporting challenge was needed. I had cycled the South Downs Way previously in three then two days, and 2020 became the year to ride it in one. With Mike as a training buddy, we worked out a programme that would build up to riding the 100 miles and 4000m of climbing. This gave us a real purpose and structure to the summer which meant Sundays were a fixed point in a somewhat blank week and I looked forward to planning rides and exploring new sections of bridleway on our mountain bikes. As lockdown eased, other friends were able to join us on the rides, though when we started doing 60+ mile sessions they generally found better things to do! Finally, on Saturday 5 September we set off just before dawn from the Premier Inn in Winchester and had an amazing day of sunshine and light winds. This led us to finish in Eastbourne after about 12h of riding, plus a coffee and cake stop and a very welcome picnic supplied by my girlfriend Rachel. It was amazing how many calories we got through that day, at least 5000 each, with continual flapjack, chocolate and energy gel consumption! In 2021 (lockdown allowing) we MTB leaders plan to run some UK day rides and meets, including a multi-day bikepacking trip on the Sandstone Way in Northumberland and potentially a hut-to-hut Alpine trip in the Italian Alpi Marittime.

Descent from the Tribulaunhaus
All photos by Damian Tow

On the ridge above Vipeteno

Bikes by the Blaserhutte

Damian at the end of the South Downs Way

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