This weekend we’re heading over to Holmbury St. Mary for the annual Cycleworks Demo Day. I can’t wait, I’ve booked myself three rides and plan on hanging around a bit after too.

Starting at 9:00 I’m trying out the Stumpjumper 120 Expert which should be interesting as I’ve never ridden a Spesh before. After that, a complete change with the Orange Prestige which is the one bike I’m most looking forward to trying as it sounds like it was made for me. And to finish off I’m taking out the Intense 6.6 which will make a good comparison to the Intense 5.5 I tried last year if my legs hold out.

Other moles have got a slightly varied mix of bikes and I’ll try to get a few pictures for Flickr. Dave is also planning on some more helmet cam footage of the day so we’ll get a good record of the event. Just to make things more interesting the weather forecast is for some ‘exceptional’ weather sometime between now and Monday which might spice things up and turn the trails to swamp (although it usually stays good at Holmbury).

Shame really because last night our night ride found the trails to be in peak condition with summer levels of grip, no mud at all and of course given the time of year no undergrowth to get in the way. The Landrover descent was fantastic, all dark shadows and rooty fun with the addition of a fallen tree half way down that (unlike the last one) you can duck underneath without stopping.

So roll on the weekend, hope to see a few of you at the demo day.

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About the author

Matt is one of the founding Molefathers of the Muddymoles, and is the designer and main administrator of the website.

Having ridden a 2007 Orange Five for many years then a 2016 YT Industries Jeffsy 29er, he now rocks a Bird Aether 9 and a Pace RC-627.

An early On-One Inbred still lurks in the back of the stable as a reminder of how things have moved on. You can even find him on road bikes - currently a 2019 Cannondale Topstone 105 SE, a much-used 2011 Specialized Secteur and very niche belt drive Trek District 1.

If you've ever wondered how we got into mountain biking and how the MuddyMoles started, well wonder no more.