the "are you rOcKeTdOg?" ride

railing a berm, a photo by rOcKeTdOgUk on Flickr.

the crew visited the Forest of Dean today and it coincided with the 661 mini Downhill race which made the visitor car park very busy, in fact we had to park about 1/4 mile away from the start of the trail. I'd loosely arranged to meet Dangerous Dan at the cafe but due to zero phone signal there it was impossible to txt him. so we rode in and started the trail, pausing only to watch the racers practice over the last double on the race course.FoD flying at the start the trail was frozen, it had got down to -1 over night, later on after a thaw it got quite sticky but never really muddy. as we climbed a fire road a rider called "are you rocketdog?" it was Dangerous Dan heading in the other direction, we stopped for a brief chat but he was going to the start so we went our separate ways, although we'd cross paths again later. a bit further around the lap we caught a group of riders up and one was wearing the same shorts as me, as we passed i complemented him on his choice and he said "are you rocketdog?" it was a guy i only know from twitter and instagram, we shook hands, the rest of his group took the piss in a good natured way and we carried on past them.fashion faux pas the next part of the trail has a bit of switch back climbing, where i was passed by a dog! he was running the trail with his owner who was riding, very cool!, the dog was excellent on the berms.nearing the end of this part of the trail a guy came up behind me "are you rocketdog?" he said, "i read your blog" this was getting a bit spooky. the final descent it always great fun, i could have done with some wider rubber than i had on as it was a bit eroded and rocky in placesIan rails a berm but i still went as fast as i could reaching the end which was opposite to the final jump on the DH course, i didn't exactly emulate the sort of style they were showing though and i stood open mouthed at some of the airtime they were getting. later queuing for the cafe we met other riders form the NW Alps so it was a bit of a bizarre day and shows what a small, internet enhanced world it really is
ride 173
9 miles
total 3165
commute 860