The DaveyChain

I used to love snow. Day off school, etc. Nowadays I hate it though, second only to ice. But snow, you can ride in it, yeah? Slap some wide, knobbly tyres on to your cyclocross/gravel/mountain bike and "hit those trails"! Who's awesome? Yeah, we're awesome. Cycling in the snow is awesome, yeah! (not me, not my photo) ©liveoutdoors.com Sounds ace. Hit them same day and it's semi-ace albeit the snow clogs some gears, potholes are hidden, etc. and everyone you see thinks you're mad. But it's crisp, kind of predictable.  Wait a day, as it starts to melt & fade. It's still a snowy ride, only less so. If it's a sunny winter's day the full impact of the almighty fiery orb could leave a road almost dry. Where the fiery orb couldn't reach, like behind hedges, trees or buildings, snowmageddon survives. And everything in between is either wet snow, slush or puddles of icy water. Well, it is until the sun starts to set again, then it...

Open up any cycling magazine or cycling website over the past few years and it'll feature gravel riding.  Photos of gravel roads undulating through forests before leading to a gravel hairpin before a stretch of gravel especially open to expansive skies, before taking a small gravel off-shoot to a lake previously untouched by human breath, let alone a gravel tyre.  This lake, not on maps nor even seen by any of the 2787 active satellites above Earth this very second, will provide the perfect backdrop to boil a whistling kettle and stroke your beard whilst watching rare birds circle above some unicorns frolicking in the water (I googled the number of satellites, obviously). These writers did not approach me or the expanding band of UK cyclists about our realities of going off-road, and as it's autumn, off-road when the days are short and the tracks never dry.  If they had, it would be this... Ride along a road, a normal road.  Internally remark to yourself about how 'd...