Waltham Wriding

I have lived in London for a number of years and have struggled to find mountain biking near to where I live. There are some options that I’ve covered before but I felt what was missing was any of the kind of bridleway bashing that I enjoy as well. After last weekend in Bristol I was jonesing for some real-world riding, rather than a managed trail.

A Friday night studying the map looking for anything that would work finally threw up a possibility.

What looked like a long unbroken bridleway for miles through the countryside just outside the M25 seemed too good to miss. It looked hard to make into a loop but still with possibilities.

Parking just north of Waltham Abbey I set out to find out.

The way out was a bit bitty, mostly on roads, but then looping back to pick up the track I’d seen. It turned out that recent muddy grinding rides had worn my front brake pads to nothing so the ride would be mostly without them, with the spring catching in the rotor to give me a lovely irritating noise to keep me company on the whole ride.

For once I remembered to turn on Nokia Sports Tracker on the way back so you can share the route as I recorded it.

The track was mostly wide, and it’s popularity with horses made it more technical on the broadest grass sections, but soon it dropped into fast, smoother flowing woods, treating me to views across Harlow and London to either side. It won’t be a good winter route when the mud takes over, but it does seem like it’s finally a bit of real riding within 40 minutes drive form my house.

It starts to make me wonder whether there’s a way to ride all around London, just outside the M25, on bridleways and byways.

All of this ties nicely into the news that Google is now including cycle routes on their mobile mapping on Android.

Too much cross-country for you? Here’s what went down at Nine Knights?

Finally the Vuelta and there was another brutal mountain top finish that saw even the big Spanish guns (or "pistolas" if that's not too much like Contador's trademark winning salute) almost standing still as they fought each other. In the race between two Spaniards who are returning from a drugs ban, and one who hasn't, I'm pleased to say that the clean rider is still winning. Ahead of the GC fight Cataldo held on to win the silly hat award.

Froome lost more time and the realistic chance of him winning the race, or even making the podium is slipping away.

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