The Saturday Slog..

When I rode with my friends over nineteen miles out in the Wild West of Cornwall, on a really humid day, it felt like we’d ridden a hell of a lot more. After what many might consider a short cross country mountain bike ride, two out of three of us, my nextdoor neighbour Tom and myself were done physically.  The other member of our little ride crew is our mate Adam, and he’s just a machine. When he says he’s not feeling fit, what that really means is he is ten times fitter than either one of us. Nineteen miles here at the far end of Britain feels like you're climbing for eighteen of them with only one mile down, combining short rocky technical descents that only take a matter of seconds. It's obviously not only one mile of gravity but my point being there is not too much recovery time,  and over 2200ft/730m of climbing in 19 miles, my skinny little legs struggled that day.  

Yet saying this, if you’re reasonably fit, you’ll love riding here and If you’ve not ridden this far West, then you’re missing a trick and I’ll happily show you around. In the heart of the World MIning Heritage Site, you’ll be riding through a landscape that could tell so many stories of both hardship and wealth, tales of an era of hard bloody graft for little reward albeit to pay the rent and put food on the table, or mine owners with fantastic wealth. Actually this sounds familiar and could almost be 2022. Every vista from our ride looks upon the remnants of an industry that was once the heart of this area. Geevor Tin Mine closed in 1990, and during the 80 years of operation produced some 50,000 tons of black tin. Each time we ride this area you can’t not be in awe of such a place.  

Our ride took us from our home in Sennen, to the moreland above St Just and Pendeen, and down the coast path, through the remnants of the mines and farmyards with a right of way. Our weather battered landscape is literally treeless, and we have no significant woodland or monoculture forests here on the North Coast, our nearest woodland for enduro training is Grogley Woods near Bodmin, so instead of slippery roots to avoid, we have sharp slippery granite; wheel bashing, tyre tearing, knobbly ripping granite. We have no fire roads, just narrow, often technical climbs, with flowering gorse and bramble to give you a quick stab every now and then. In the summer the moorland is dusty and dry, and easy to ride compared to winter, when it’s mostly impassable muck and two foot deep black puddles. The downhill granite trails turn from super grip fine gravel to slippery lethal little buggers in the dry.  Yes riding the coast path is really for walkers and frowned upon by the real purist, and yes some of it is ‘hike a bike’ in places; but I will add my case for it to be open up to riders. The amount of people that actually, or could, or want to ride the coast path is miniscule, because you'd be carrying your bike for the most part, and any damage done is nothing compared to walking erosion. But if you want views and don’t want to ride, then once off the moors I recommend taking a scenic ride down one of the lanes to Nanjulien, Cot Valley, Cape Cornwall, or Bottalick and you will not be disappointed. You will have to climb back up though, but each valley has its own beauty and is well worth the effort. 

I will also add that on our ride on parts of the coast path we met nothing but smiley happy people, and pleased to see us. Maybe being respectful to everyone you met on the trail, slowing down and being aware, saying hello, and often stopping to chat,  goes a long way, because in our case, every meeting was always reciprocated with a likewise smile. 

For whatever reason myself and Tom found ourselves flagging at about mile seventeen in this ride and we limped home that last two. We’d eaten well, we snacked regularly,  and carried enough fluid to have seen us through. I’m even riding to work once or twice a week with a round trip of about 28 miles a day and 1800ft/600m of climbing, so I’m not unfit, and I think Tom will agree that this ride was just one of those days, but actually one of those days that we’ll always do again, if only for the laughs, hoots and riding with mates on a bright and warm Saturday morning.  By Sunday we;d all eaten our body weight in roast dinners and chocolate, and even Adam admitted it had been a tough ride, but only after he'd probably  mowed acres of lawn that afternoon!! Cracking ride boys....where next. 

Footnote: No Electric bikes were used in making of this ride. I'm not ready for that just yet but if we had, it would be a piece of cake!