From July 1st the low Carse road will be closed between the Station Road Level Crossing at Monorgan, and the Castle Huntly junction, for 3 weeks while the bridge at Monorgan is repaired following a traffic collision last Summer.

DFA COGgers will need to bear this in mind when getting to and from the rides.

COGger Gav Stafford is addicted to Everesting. Last weekend he completed his 4th Everest, this time on Kilspindie out on the Carse.

Everesting is climbing the same hill enough times in a row to reach the height of Mount Everest from sea level (8,849m). You can get off the bike to rest, fuel, ablute, etc, but you have to come down the same way you go up, and do the same climb without stopping your Garmin/Wahoo, and you can’t sleep.

To put this into context, Gav rode up and down Kilspindie (an average gradient of 6%) for 24 hours and 15 minutes, completed 8947m of ascent, and 287km distance.

This isn’t his first rodeo, having done 3 full Everests, and 3 Half Everests before. I suspect he’s not finished either.

Other notable COG Everesters – Rod Fleming (Abernyte); Ben Ulyatt (Ven-top, Zwift Virtual).

There’s only ten more sleeps until COG go to Comrie Croft so just a reminder to anyone planning to come along who requires to arrange a rental from the bike shop to consider doing so very shortly if you haven’t already done so.We’re going to be there on the same weekend that the Croft are running an open air cinema so it may be a little busier than usual. This shouldn’t effect parking (the cinema is in an adjacent field) and it won’t effect the trails or the riding. Parking at the Croft can be paid using PayPal, or the bike shop will take coins … £3, I think. There are food stalls and cafe’s for the cinema goers in the field but the Tea Hut cafe could occasionally be busier than it might otherwise be on a Sunday—thus, no pre-ordering of lunch is possible, but we’ll try and organise the day around potential busy periods. Just make sure you’ve got enough fuel snacks for out on the trail.The crofts website is still showing that the ‘wee caravan café’ is closed but this is just a web-update-lag. I called them this morning and the Tea Hut cafe will be fully open as usual, while they’ll open ‘the wee caravan’ if it starts to get very busy.And just to finish this short update let’s think for a second about the grace and beauty of what MTBer’s call ’flow’ … Well, let’s think more about how to stop the flow when the flow has already left, you’re starting to look a bit out of shape and you’re running out of trail, and skill … Yep! … How to use your Brakes!? Frequently the weakest, least practiced or least understood skill for many MTB riders, but it is the one that will fill you with the most confidence. When you can control your speed without skidding, before cornering, before going into a feature … before gapping a three lane highway (Tom) … and when you can stop, in a controlled way, when you need to … you can just about ride anything! Make a cup of tea, take 10 sometime and watch this wee video posted to Pinkbike yesterday.

COG Weekend social ride is on Saturday 5th June leaving Inchture at 10am. We will be heading up past Rait – down through Scone towards the Palace. Will head along the pretty road towards Spitalfield, bringing us out onto the road to Blairgowrie. We will cut in and have refreshments at The Meiklour Arms before heading back home via Coupar Angus, round the back of Kettins, down the Leys road then down through Knapp and back to Inchture via Rossie. 43 miles ish with some ups and downs. So far there are 8 signed up, with 3 maybes. Click onto the Events tab on the Facebook page and click on going if you can come! Weather at this early stage is looking good!

You can see the route on Strava here:

https://www.strava.com/routes/2832686328790210954?fbclid=IwAR3K8mxaAmZiOQxz-M81aGlK5sztXsTrTWkU_ncuKKB3ZnAM42nBVekm5Ns

COG at Comrie Croft – From 11.00 … until it’s over … SUNDAY 6 JUNE.

A fun day exploring the purpose built Comrie Croft mountain bike trails, with advice on trail and core bike handling skills with Kevin Henderson. All welcome. No previous experience of trail riding is necessary—but a safe and sturdy mountain bike is!

The Croft has rental bikes available if you need one (see their website for details and booking. A hardtail is fine for riding these trails.) as well as changing, toilet and café facilities .https://www.comriecroftbikes.co.uk/

Kevin is a very experienced MTB coach and guide with over 10 years of international experience in mountain biking. He is a podium finisher in the Scottish Enduro Championships. Kev is a fantastic coach and teacher on the trails whether you’ve never ridden a mountain bike, or you’re experienced and well used to hitting the trails, you will certainly learn something from him. There’s options to do some skills based things, a lovely flowing blue trail, a cross-country red with some optional jumps and drops, and if anyone wants to do the black run, it has recently had some work done which makes the bottom a lot less sketchy! We can split into groups, and see how it goes.

There’s the option of food from the wee caravan, so if you’re interested in that, I can try to book ahead. Please let me know if you’re coming, then in the chat say if you need a bike, if you want a hard tail or a full suss, do you want lunch, and an idea of your level of confidence (ie – complete novice; trail centre blue runs; trail centre red runs; trail centre black runs; natural trails; maximum gnar) so we can think about groupings.

Comrie does accommodate a wide range of skills and abilities. You can ride everything on a hardtail, though the black has a couple of parts that are much better managed on a full suss. Hopefully we’ll have decent weather, and shred some gnar.