First things first! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa was kind to you! Hopefully he brought you some great additions to your cycling wardrobe and kit bag. The festive period at OCG HQ has been a really relaxing one with some much needed family time and lots and lots of laughs. *cue happy face*. Needless to say, I’ve consumed my body weight in good food and all things chocolatey and I’m feeling the need to get back to some regular exercise!
I can hardly believe it’s about to happen, but as 2015 draws to a close (was this the quickest twelve months ever for you too!?), I’m thinking about what kind of cycling challenges I’d like to undertake during 2016. Traditionally I’m a roadie. I love cycling on the open road, but my head is being turned by off-road cycling and getting closer to nature. Getting to grips with a different kind of cycling and the challenge of learning a whole new set of skills is really appealing. And of course the big pulling factor, is that we have our summer holiday booked! We are planning a couple of weeks in the French Alps with some down hill mountain biking! *cue very excited face!*
Ordinary Cycling Guy (Mr OCG) participated in the Pass’Portes du Soleil this last summer so he has some first hand experience, but me? Nope, Nada! Not a bit of proper mountain biking experience! *cue research*
So, I’m obviously spending a fair bit of time reading up and watching all sorts of skills based videos on You Tube and learning more about the essential cycling kit items needed for mountain biking. We attempted some off road cycling this Christmas break. I say attempted as being the holidays, the bike hire place was closed! *note to self….check the opening times before travelling an hour by car to desired off road biking venue*. It ended up being a very muddy walk instead, which was really disappointing!
I have decided that I will definitely be booking on to some kind of mountain bike coaching skills course before the trip – if anyone has any recommendations, please do let me know in the comments below! There is no way I can let Mr OCG think he’s the only one with the skills! Can you sense the competitive nature between us!?
Of course, this also means I’ve been researching bikes! And kit! Always a fun part! Whether, like me, you’re new to mountain biking, or new to road cycling; or maybe 2016 is going to be your year to start commuting to work by bicycle, or maybe you’re just keen to stay cycling whatever the weather, I thought you might find this from Halfords, on essential cycling kit items for year round cycling, a useful read.
Essential Cycling Kit Items for Year Round Cycling
*Quickly adds knee pads to essential cycling kit shopping list and heads back to mountain biking ‘research’!*
I’ll take this opportunity to wish you all a fun New Year’s Eve, or a relaxing one, if that’s more your thing! Either way, I’ll look forward to seeing you in early 2016 with lots more cycling news, features, travels and adventures! I can’t wait!
*This post is in collaboration with Halfords*
Happy New year to you and your family when it arrives Donna.
Looking forward to reading your blogs in 2016! Keep up the good work.
Stu Russell recently posted…Merry Christmas
And the same to you too, Stu. Wishing you lots of happy cycling in the coming year. Thanks for reading in 2015. Hopefully lots more interesting reads and good stuff to follow in 2016.