The Dark Side

Expedition Racing is all about highs and lows and this week has been no different.

Ok, The good stuff first! It has been my birthday this week and with nothing really special planned I've enjoyed a week of doing a variety of new things or things I haven't done for a while.  Apparently, I've moved over to 'The Dark Side' when I took delivery of a new full-suss MTB, my first full-suss but peer pressure eventually gets to all of us.  So riding that has been different .... and takes some getting used to.

I enjoyed a very special birthday-day - entitled a nice 'Gentleman's Ride' - Martin and myself enjoyed a road cycle loop, from home near Penrith and around the Skiddaw and Northern Fells. We had a leisurely stop for coffee and cake at The Filling Station on the out skirts of Keswick (highly recommended as a bike friendly cafe) and second stop at Hesket-New-Market. Fortunately, we timed it right so that The Old Crown was closed and we had to endure excellent soup at the village shop cafe instead. It was a good thing the pub was closed otherwise the cycle home may have been a bit different ... in the back of a car, no doubt.  The evening was rounded off with an excellent meal at The Brantwood at Stainton with Hesket Ales and some stunning Shiraz Merlot.

Another 'first' for me was the bike ride up onto The Peninnes and an unexpected 360 degree panorama over The Eden and Teesdale valleys; I'd seen it many times before but not from this particular vantage point and under such auspicious circumstances. This was the day we lost a team mate from our NAV4 race team; not a pleasant experience but also a very wise one given the nature of the injury involved. Pete will be sorely missed as he has so much to offer but not at the current time.

So, we have a new team mate on the near horizon .... and it feels good. I'll write a bit more once we clarified a few details and can 'go public' and report on the build up to Terrex Sting.

NAV4 Adventure are currently re-building for the future; we value continued support from Distant Horizons and will be looking to grow and strengthen our race squad over the Winter ready for 2013, with a range of skill and training opportunities for everyone. We'll also have some adventures outside of races and events.  If you'd like to be part of this development get in touch...

Joe Faulkner
www.nav4.co.uk