Well, this morning I was all set to write a slightly whingey post about motivation round these parts. A combination of relentlessly cold/wet/muddy/snowy weather, a winter that seems to have dragged on for ever and a hard-to-shake sense of cycling ennui seems to have infected not just myself but many of us recently.

Except an innocuous email yesterday from Dave has changed all that…

You see, way back last year we decided we’d enter a Mountain Bike Race. The Thetford Dusk til Dawn to be exact. And while we can’t claim to be super fast, or even mildly competitive except in a ‘look at my new bike purchase’ kind of way, it was an interesting event. It focussed our riding intentions for the year, gave some impetus to our rides and with the beautiful Autumn riding conditions of the race itself we all enjoyed it immensely.

Except Dave. Dave clearly did not enjoy it, in fact gave every impression that a long night in a Turkish prison was infinitely more preferable to riding Thetford again. And he wasn’t going to be volunteering for one of those nights anytime soon. For whatever reason, clearly the event didn’t click with him.

So it was with some surprise that the Mole collective yesterday received an email from him pointing out that the D2D entries open again next week for the 2010 event. He even implied a willingness to go himself.

Pretty soon, we’ve had Mark, Colin, Lee, Barrie, Paul, Devon Mole, Jez, AndyC and myself add our names to Dave’s which means without much effort we’ve got ten volunteers already. I’m sure there’ll be more, Tony, DaveW and JohnR haven’t had the chance to reply yet and I can think of other names too – all are welcome.

So, overnight I’ve suddenly found some motivation. Not to spend between now and October fasting, training and paying far too much attention to my HRM. Just to get out and ride; to start getting some miles in with a goal in sight; after all, the memory of that sunrise lap of Thetford on my Five is pretty special.

So, thanks Dave. I’ll be out tonight. I know it’s going to be cold/wet/muddy etc. and I’m some way – in terms of fitness – from where I was last Autumn, but I don’t care. I can deal with that, I can plan on warmer clothing, get the hose out ready to clean up later and so on.

It’s the ‘Thetford Marsh Gas’ that I can’t deal with… You all know who you are ;o)

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.