Mud, mud, glorious VeloCake!

Recently, I have been predominantly riding my hybrid, in the hope that the mudguards keep me slightly cleaner and drier, but at the beginning of the month I ventured out on my MTB with Mikey. We had decided sloshing through puddles would be marginally easier than facing the strong winds blowing off the ocean, as we could tuck in behind trees and shrubs on the local singletrack. It was great! I don’t think I have ever seen such deep mud – it was quite something (knee deep in places). I wouldn’t have been surprised if we had stumbled across a hippo wallowing in it. We returned home filthy and it took quite some time to clean and dry out my beloved white Adidas shelltoes!

(I really need to invest in some cycling shoes, but I am in quandary, as I don't know if I should finally throw caution to the wind and get some clipless ones. I know all the benefits of clipless pedals, but I keep pondering if a leisure rider like myself really needs them? I have only just regained my cycling ability… and I’m guessing these would set my confidence back again. Saying that it would be great not to have my shins covered in bruises from evil heavy pedals. Hmm… yet another decision that I need to make.)

Talking of mud, there was plenty of it, during the last Team VeloCake race outing (see http://www.velocake.co.uk/ for a full race review). Thankfully Mikey insisted I took my wellies. I may have looked and felt like an inbred yokel but I remained mud-free and had dry feet – unlike fellow VC supporter, Alan, who killed a perfectly nice pair of white adidas (it really isn’t a good month to be a white pair of Adidas).

The VeloCakeFest proved to be a great weekend of frivolity despite the irratic weather. It was really ace showing Simon some of the local sights. He even got to see the choas that is Mikey's work and take part in our Saturday tradition of "pizza night". More importantly, we took him to our local beach and VeloCaker's fave beach café and sample their cakey delights. He seemed to enjoy the beach/café trip despite the picnic-table parasol violently collapsing on top of our heads, under the weight of the wind & rain! I just hope that the awful weather doesn't put him off another visit!