Breaking news: It’s Déjà vu all over again!

News has just arrived fresh from the hill (Carrier Marmot) that a spat has erupted between tourists Evans and Carrick. Apparently Mr Carrick has taken the huge media interest in Evans’s tree incident last year as a personal slight. His response was both swift and devastating; he rode headlong into a tree. Not the most original of headline grabbers I’ll grant you, but effective nonetheless. As usual we aim to provide film footage of this curious event including a diagram of how he managed to extract himself unaided from what some observers have disparagingly described as “a very small bush”.

We hold our breath.

The Monkey Has Landed.

Morzine at last.

As most of us know, things don’t always go to plan. My original ideas was to pootle down to Ashford on Friday afternoon and await Mr Redwoods leisurely arrival was thrown slightly askew when his car broke down on the way home from work. So a breathless dash to Cardiff and on to the tunnel found us arriving with only 8 minutes to spare before the check-in for the journey closed. We then spent an hour waiting while they conducted ‘essential maintenance’ (had a fag and a cup of tea).

Luckily this was the only exciting thing to happen on the journey. So far so good.

So today was the first day on the hill. Everyone is excited and busy fettling their bikes. Apart from me. I’m just excited.

The first few runs are ok. It all comes back very quickly. Mainly the day is all about getting your eye in and gasping at the wonderful views on offer. My outing was curtailed slightly when I popped a brake cable in the early afternoon, but this time (as opposed to the occasion four years ago) there was no smoke and I was able to stop without the assistance of the local flora. So this afternoon has seen me enjoy a nice meal and a couple of beers.

More exciting stuff later in the week.