Wrecking Crew
The boys battle the ‘Beast from the East’ at one of Wales’s most popular trail centres
Coed Llandegla in North Wales is one of the country’s busiest trail centres, but would it impress our crew of pinners?
There are days when you want nothing more than to disappear into the hills with your bike. Today’s not one of those days. It’s raining, the wind is whipping through the pines and, being honest, we’re rather enjoying the cosy warmth of the Oneplanet Adventure cafe at Llandegla. But there’s only so long you can spend procrastinating over a lukewarm coffee, so as the rain briefly relents and the sun casts a feeble ray through the window, we gingerly venture out. Biting the bullet Like on any cold winter ride, the initial shock is the worst bit and it’s not long before we’re all shedding layers, on the long pedal out towards the heart of the trails. Well, all apart from our guide for the day, Ed Roberts. Ed’s been bed-bound with the flu for the past two weeks and is only just back in the land of the living today. Huddled in a massive puffer jacket, the colour of his complexion isn’t far off that of the snow on the far hills. But even so, once the trail starts to point downhill, he’s the one leading the way, as we sprint and pump our way down ‘Bob’s Sleigh Run’. Scrubbing over crests and dodging icy puddles, we all finish up at the viewpoint with a smile on our faces. But then, inevitably, the dark clouds roll back in and Mother Nature does her best to dampen our spirits.
We dive for the cover of the trees, threading our way through a field of stumps to a fence with a stile of rock slabs that marks the start to the ‘extreme’-graded ‘Parallel Universe’ descent. Former MBUK team rider Al Bond is with us today, and instead of grabbing the anchors and taking it steady, he hits the gas and pulls up off the first slab. Tucking the bike up and tipping the bar down, he boosts through the gap and disappears into the blackness of the woods. Trusting his judgment, we follow suit with rather less grace, pulling out a textbook safety pencil while our eyes struggle to adjust to the light in mid-air.
The sound of Al’s rattling bike guides us though, and from the loud ‘kerrdang, kerrdang’ of chain on chainstay, we deduce it’s going to get rough. Sure enough, as we slide our wheels around a tight switchback, we’re faced with a straight plummet
through big rock-clad rollers. By the time we get to the bottom, Al’s already pushing back up, along with Ryan, the third member of our crew for today. He’s pointed out a big sketchy double-up that might be on, and it’s got them excited.
We tuck ourselves behind a tree and watch as they take a few test run-ins, amusing ourselves by watching the duo’s very different riding styles – Ryan, calculated and smooth on his 29inwheeled Santa Cruz and Al going balls to the wall, hammering his GT into the compressions and eking out every ounce of speed from the rocks. On his second run, he comes in carrying insane pace, but it’s not quite enough, as he yanks for the gap, only to come down a few inches short. We wince for his poor bike as it bottoms out in a cacophony of chain slap. After that valiant, but unsuccessful, effort, we move on, before any more two-wheeled abuse can take place. The high life Thankfully, Llandegla is home to plenty of more manageable gaps and after continuing on through ‘Dave the Fox’ and ‘Badger’s Rise’, we rejoin the red route and leave the shelter of the trees to be blasted once more by icy wind and drizzle. It’s at this point that Ed throws in the towel and turns tail for home. Given the amount he’s shivering, we’re surprised he’s managed to keep going this long and we bid him farewell, before dropping into ‘JJ’s Jumps’. It’s a fast run of rollers and small tabletops that may not send you into orbit but, hit at fullspeed in a train, are still a laugh. Braking isn’t really an option with our numb fingers, so we just grip the bars and hang on for the ride. This leads us into ‘B-Line’, which is essentially JJ’s faster and bigger brother. The lips here still aren’t massive, but if you’ve got your eyes open for a sender and you’re willing to get a bit wild, then there are a few naughty gaps to be had.
Down the final high-speed straight, we spot a lip that can be boosted off to let you sail over the intended lander and hip into the banking on the side. We throw down the gauntlet to Al and an
impromptu long jump competition ensues. With every successive run, each of us is going higher and getting closer to crashing, as we try to squash the run-in jumps that bit faster and catch that one last danger pedal stroke. In the end, it’s pretty close, but photographer Andy reckons we might have it by just a whisker. All that does is fire Al up more though, and he challenges us to round two back in the freeride zone.
By the time we get there, the sky is leaden and the rain is falling, so we agree the decider is to be one run of the final jump. We’re up first, but despite speed-tucking into the transition, we’ve no idea how fast to hit the blind lip and our attempt looks more like a man trying to get intimate with his stem than a slopestyle-winning effort. Al soars to victory, launching way over head height and even having time to turn on the style. Congratulations, mate – but, oh, didn’t you know? Winner gets the post-ride cakes in. Unlucky!
OUR WHEELS AS WE SLIDE CK, SWITCHBA TIGHT AROUND A WITH A PLUMMET WE’RE FACED CLAD ROLLERS THROUGH ROCK