The Great Divide
There’s good winter riding to be had above the famous Angus Glens of Prosen and Clova
AKIND of unspoken disbanding happens in deep winter. My riding group, already quite an elastic organisation, don’t see each other as much. Family commitments, holidays, parties and a warm couch keep folk inside.
Winter can offer conditions as good as any season. When the ground is frozen hard and leaves have blown off the trail, wheels turn as effortlessly as in summer. It’s rare, though, and a series of dry days is like a good swell for surfers – messages ping round and plans are made quickly.
Most of the time, the ground absorbs half of your effort and lobs muddy bog water at you in return, and days out are bookended by strategic dressing and five freezing minutes in the dark at the jet wash on the way home. Which is still better than a decade ago, when it was more like 15 minutes with the limp stream from a garden hose. Dickensian times.
Winter is hard work, but as they say, summer bodies are made in winter. Even in the midst of the worst soggy slog, know that you’re moulding your bod into an endurance machine, even if your clothes will never quite be the same colour again.
One company recently released the first-ever mountain bike onesie. A very hard thing to make cool, but there aren’t many seasoned winter bikers who’ll worry about odd looks at the petrol station. If it works, it’s worth all the teasing.
The market for winterproofing yourself is phenomenal. From Gore-tex boots to full-length ponchos to change under, there are no end of ways to fight the ingress of mud into your life.
What they can’t do is motivate you to get out, but what can help is picking the right route. The safe option is to withdraw to the trail centres, which I believe are at their best in winter, but choose carefully and there’s still gold to be had in the hills.
After a hefty amount of debate, Niall, Mike and I picked a new route up behind Kirriemuir and Alyth, riding the exposed ridge separating Glens Clova and Prosen. Snow had been light, and the temperature was low enough to keep the ground firm.
The grim pull out of the car park was hard on cold legs, but there are advantages to gaining that much height
“We bombed full tilt into the patches” snow