Genevieve Whitson Elite Road Cyclist

It seems to be that around about every 6 months I have severe withdrawal symptoms from Scotland and have to come up with some reason or excuse to go back and visit the place otherwise I bore people talking about it far too much.

Last weekend I managed to combine my love of mountain biking with seeing as many friends as possible in Edinburgh and it was just awesome to be back in the fresh air of lovely bonny Scotland. I am really drawn to Scotland because the landscape is so beautiful and you can get out amongst it relatively quickly. I also find the Scots to be ultra friendly people and full of energy.

Edinburgh has got to be up there as one of the most intriguing and picturesque cities in the whole of Europe in terms of its medieval and georgian architecture. If you took away the cars and people it would really be like stepping back in time by anywhere between 200-500 years as the buildings are just so old and the architecture is so detailed and exquisite. I often just walk around the city with my jaw wide open gob smacked at the incredible designs everywhere and the immense use of stone that you would just never see back down in Aoteroa (NZ).

Despite the terrible weather forecast I arrived on Friday to a cold but crisp blue sky. Scotland was doing a good job at keeping its ratings up. The gallery has now been fixed so you can actually see some good pictures of Edinburgh/Glentress instead of everything looking fuzzy.

Saturday I decided to hit the trails at Glentress and managed to convince my mate Amanda who has never been mountain biking before to join me. For anyone who has not heard of Glentress it’s a mountain bike centre that has been designed purely for single track nutters about 45 minutes south of Edinburgh in the Tweed Valley. It is pretty impressive with enough trails to keep you busy for a few a days, ranging from Blue through to Black for more advanced riders. I love it –there is something for everyone and a lot of care and attention has gone into the trails, plus there is a bike shop and café at the main parking ground so you can treat yourself to cake and coffee after all the hard work…

Have a look at this link for more info: http://www.thehubintheforest.co.uk/Trails/index.html

Unfortunately the bad weather had really set in by the time we reached Glentress. I have to give full credit to Amanda as it was pouring with rain around about 6 degrees and not exactly the most enticing environment to get underway for your first off road adventure. Amanda rocked the trails very nicely and I think she is now considering joining a MTB club –I feel my job to convince as many people as possible to ‘get on their bikes’ is working.

Sunday it was back to Glentress again. I had booked on to a skills coaching session with Dirt School. Dirt School was GREAT. I would highly recommend these guys as they really know their stuff. I’ve been mountain biking for about 11 years now, but somehow managed to skip the actual ‘get some good coaching/skills advice’ along the way, and it showed. I have formed some really bad habits on the bike and Sunday was all about trying to iron out the creases. The reason for doing this course is because I am hoping to get into a bit more mountain bike racing over the next year or so. The focus is still on the road, but I definitely want to mix things up a bit more.

Our coach for the day was Andy Barlow. Andy was super chilled out but at the same time super ‘on to it’ in all aspects of riding a mountain bike, he was also very patient while I asked a million questions. We spent a lot of the day riding trails, stopping at corners, drops etc and discussing lines and bike position. There was even a chance to learn how to do a manual, but I think I still need a bit more time to master this one..

The most valuable thing I got out of this course was to always ‘pay attention, be alert’ and to put more time into thinking carefully about the right lines while keeping your focus on what’s ahead on the trail. I am a little astounded that I never got the chance in all the years of Mountain bike racing to have a really good coaching session like this. I used to head to World Cups and be really intimidated by sections on the course lined with mattresses on each side and arrows and signs reading ‘extreme care required’. I think if I had had some sort of specific skills coaching about 5 years back I could of made up a lot of time in my laps and generally been more relaxed in the races instead of thinking ‘I am so going to brake a bone any minute now!’.

My favourite part of the day was riding Spooky Woods and Blue Velvet, although I wouldn’t recommend the climb up to Spooky Woods; a granny ringer all the way, but the view was fab from the top. Spooky woods had so many fun tight corners and bumps and Blue Velvet, well the name really says it all…it was like one smooth rollercoaster. I had a fairly cheesy grin on my face by the end of the day.

And then all the fun seemed to be over all too quickly and suddenly it was Monday night, bags packed and time to head back to Oxford. I am back up in Scotland in 6 weeks time so provided its not snowing I should be able to apply all the cool new skills I’ve learnt, although I still have a lot of practice to put in – all well that should act as a motivator.