Archive for April, 2008

Limburg makes for excellent rides

by Tanja on April 27, 2008 in Personal, recent, Riding with No comments

One of my good friends, Ilja, is from Limburg. But he never got around to ride in the region that’s known for having the little altitude we have in the Netherlands. But since we have big plans to be at least fit for the PPdS: we put Limburg on our map.

After a great ride last sunday we returned today for seconds (and thirds I guess), we got to ride lap 1 two times and had good fun at it! It’s just about 14km’s and there’s two alternative routes to connect to if you wish, which we’ll do next time.

Somewhat technical lap, plenty roots and small drop-offs. It has some very nice fast sections that makes the drive up there more than worth it. The beginning of the lap is the best fun and get’s you in the good mood right away. And for me, the mood never changed. Not even for the few uphill sections that can somewhat erm… suck. But I suppose it’s not even that bad considering we rode with our big bikes and I didn’t feel butchered at all. I must be getting in shape!

» More info on the Brunsummerheide xc routes (fun xc from now on)

Rocky Demo tour 2008

by Tanja on April 8, 2008 in News, recent with No comments

 If you love Rocky Mountain Bikes and live in the US, you might bein luck! Rocky Mountain Bikes introduces the Rocky Demo tour 2008 and besides the large events like MTBR Spring Fling, Sea Otter, Fruita Fat Tires Festival, Downieville, and Crankworx Colorado it will also be showing up at your favorite local trailheads and independent bicycle shops throughout the Western U.S. The test fleet includes the Element (70 and ladies), ETSX (50 and 70), Slayer (SXC and SS), Hammer and Flatline!

Find dates and events: rockydemotour.com
Source: sicklines.com

Nothing but smiles and air-miles

by Tanja on April 7, 2008 in Events, recent with No comments

Even-though this quote is one that my least favorite bikeperson Steve Romaniuk made in Kranked 6, it was so appropriate yesterday. Seven women defy-ed the bad weather predictions and got rewarded with nothing but sunshine!

One thread on the Mountainbike.nl forum got hijacked when we got sidetracked about doing a girls only clinic on the Filthy Trails. Eventually 11 women joined in and only a few skipped due to the weather. Most of them had no freeride experience or even the full intention to start with it. But skills for faster downhills, corners and drop-off’s was a common request I received from them.

Introducing the pump, the “poephouding” and “kijken”

(Sorry this subtitel contains dutch inside jokes).
I started off with some basic body position exercises and how to analyze corners and multiple corners. The Filthy Trails recently added a beginners trail, that features 3 sizes of drop-off’s, a seesaw, bit’s of northshore, roots and corners. Followed by a track with small bumps that invite ‘coasting and pumping. We chopped this track in pieces and eventually rode it in one breath and the spirit was the same for everyone: all smiles and even some air-miles!

It was a day cramped full with tips and tricks. Not all will land in the same tempo, but I’m sure in the next weeks they’ll find out riding xc has become more fun and dismounting the bike is not neccesary in tricky situations anymore. All but one btw, one sprained her ankle pretty badly so I wish her a speedy recovery!

Photo’s here on Flickr.com and some more taken by trailbuilder and owner Styles.

You can find a dutch report on another girls only clinic here (at the bottom), this time in Winterberg (2007).

Sunday ride in Limburg

by Tanja on April 1, 2008 in recent, Riding with No comments

This sunday I visited some locals on the trails spread over 3 country’s: the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. We ended on the so called Toblerone trails and got back to our car just in time before the rain started. Beat the weather once again!

You can read what Jaspero wrote about it on his new weblog here. I got invited to join him and some other Mountainbike.nl forummembers to check out their trails in Limburg. A lot of singletrails and good and plenty uphill; good training for a summer of trails if you ask me. Besides going to the Passport de Soleil, I have a wish to visite more trails in the Alpes. Preferbly in Switserland where Ride Guide filmed an episode on Big Mountain Bike Adventures. That looks inviting…

Oh, the photo’s of sunday can be found in this collection