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Fun
in the Forest
On Sunday 25th November
2007, a group of six riders met at Brandon Country Park
for some mountain bike fun in Thetford Forest. The VCR
riders consisted of Andrew Elderfield, Richard Norris,
Paul Thomas and me (Brett Travers).
We were joined by Paul Speller, a
familiar face and voice (he’s a bit of a comedian) to
club riders in Colchester, and Michael Travers, my
cousin from Rochford.
Our collective aim was to check out
the course for the second race in the Thetford Winter
Series (on Sunday 2nd December). Paul Thomas
seems to have spent an inordinate amount of time in
Thetford Forest so he took on the mantle of ‘Route
Master’.
Upon leaving the car park for
Paul’s secret route to the ‘Beast of the East’ it was
clear that a group of boys were going to act as such.
Immediately, our jaunt in the woods turned into a
burn-up.
We fought to see who could keep up
with the Route Master’s slinky single track skills and
cut up (in a cheeky way) those that we knew a little
better. Fire roads provided a general breather and a
respite from these childhood games.
 Cold
and damp conditions meant that parts of the black and
red runs were boggy. However, the majority of the ride
was dry and it was a thrill to speed through Thetford’s
flowing technical single track with a bunch of mates.
The one downside of the ride was
the verbal ear bashing three of the group received from
their better-halves over their late return. Such matters
are easily justified (perhaps only to yourself and not
your partner) when a great ride has been had by all.
Brett Travers
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