Mountain Biking
Having “given up” climbing in around 2009 and with my fell running slowly declining (mainly due to an arthritic hip) I, like many others, moved into biking. Initially this was mostly road but with some mountain biking mixed in. Over time the mix moved in favour of off-road but
While many think of trail centres when mountain biking is mentioned, there’s little that bores me more than riding around in circles in forests. Maybe it’s the roadie background but I much prefer a journey.
And then there’s being competitive...
As a means of testing yourself ITTs (or Individual Time Trials) are a bit weird. You are on your own, hence “Individual” but you are often riding alongside others. It’s a “Time Trial” but you can stop whenever you want. Hmm. Best to think of them as single stage, multi-day challenges (definitely not “races”) where the clock keeps running regardless of what you are doing, whether that’s riding, sleeping, eating, etc.
Not quite in the same bracket are the BearBones 200 (and 300) routes. Very much a “challenge” but with different routes every year, they are closer to a Reliability Ride though very much at the tougher end of the scale and have a time limit of 36hrs. Always held in October in Mid-Wales, there’s no winner but badges are given out according to your completion time.
Away from competition, there are a number of long distance bikepacking routes, some official, others just made up by someone who thought they would be a good ride.