Fanylion Mountain Bike Team
Official site of the Fanylion Mountain Bike Team. Includes mountain bike ride guides, gear reviews, bike maintenance, team reports and rider profiles of the Fanylion Racing Team.
Jersey
August 21, 2004, Channel Islands
Downhill Maniac visited the sunny Channel Islands at the weekend and it was only proper for me to show him the clifftop trails of Jersey. This didn’t happen until the Sunday due to our diaries being fully booked, Downhill really preferring to spend time with the new Mrs Downhill, something that didn’t go unnoticed Mr Potts. I therefore consoled myself in the only way I know how, down the pub. Night after night after night. On the 5th night of being on the gargle Chris decided to come along with me, we got hammered. On the next day we went for a bike ride….to say I wasn’t in any state would be a huge understatement; I had the compound hangover to the power of 5. Anyway, I prepped my old steed for Chris, a decent Scott Hardtail with upgraded brakes and some good tyres. I took the bull horned Klein and off we went. First up, a greasy sandwich…I’m now feeling decidedly ill. Then along the beach road and up the hill to the North of the island, to the cliffs, a 40 mins road warm-up.
The cliffs are steep and elevate to about 350ft, probably more. Chris surprised me because he’s fitter than he was 6 weeks ago, and I didn’t enjoy the usual rest at the top of climbs that I normally get when I’m out with the powder-puff Oldham massive. I’m going to suffer today methinks. First off there’s a gentle downhill, good fun, lots of jumps. Then there’s The Killer, a very steep climb with bikes on shoulders up steps; this has to be done in order to get to the flowing fast downhills yonder. I tried to copy Chris with the impressive ‘over the head bike carry stance’…. could I manage it? Could I fook! The fact an overhead branch had decided it liked my bike and wanted to keep it didn’t help as I wrestled with the bugger in 27degree celcius heat on some steep steps with a kleptomaniac tree (Ref: tree from poltergeist film, I think they are related, distant cousins maybe?). Anyways, I got to the top of the cliffs, Chris’s laughter spurring me on, and asked the smart-@rse how he did that bike hold carry thing coz I couldn’t do it. Easy he said, until he tried it with the Klein. He couldn’t manage it, you see the frame shape of the full suss Klein is totally different to the Scott (hardtail), you see the seat post is…ahh just look at the nice pictures of it on the website, and nod in agreement.
We then had a couple of hours upping and downing on the Cliffs. I was slowly re-hydrating with the new Camelbak, great things aren’t they? (it’s my first one). I felt a bit of strength returning to the legs, but it didn’t matter coz we just cruised the rest of the cliffs, stopping at the Jersey motocross track to watch some cocky kids get some big-time air along the way.
It was 3.50pm and time to call it a day coz the mighty Reds were about to play, and the pub beckoned. So we hit the roads again which is pretty much downhill all the way (about 5 miles). It was a good laugh racing the cars, Chris getting 1 inch… yes I said ONE INCH off the bumper of a Honda Civic doing about 25mph with the old boy driving wondering if his specs had flicked to super-zoom mode. He hit the brakes anyway, like any self-respecting old guy in a panic would do…bless. Chris, you were lucky dude. The Maniac title remains intact.
We overtook the old guy and raced to the pub, spitting water on each other and terrifying drivers and pets alike, usual fare.
It was a good day; Utd lost 1 – 0….but you can’t have it all can you?
Rspkt to the Downhill Maniac.
See you all in Spain.
Team Bergerac
Riders present
Team Bergerac
Team Downhill Maniac
Enjoyment level
Clifftoptastic!