Congratulations to all the hardy mountain bikers who completed or attempted the initial 2010 Kielder Marathon of 2010.

A well wrapped up bunch braved the elements and enjoy the odd ray of sunshine along the way, with the winners coming away with Saddle Skedaddle Holiday vouchers, which can be used on any of our cycling holidays, road cycling holiday or mountain biking holidays or UK mountain bike or road weekends.

The next Kielder event is the classic Border Raid (yep heads from England to Scotland) over some of the country’s most dramatic scenery and is scheduled in for 08 May 2010

For more information about the event contact the guys at Kielder Trail Reavers - click here or email Skedaddle’s own Reaver Andy Scott at the office on andy@skedaddle.co.uk and don’t forget that if you don’t want to ride the event, but just fancy coming along for a chat with Skedaddle or to help out at the Border Raid, then an extra pair of hands goes are always appreciated.

For the full race Kielder Marathon race / event report click here

Road cycling legend and multi Olympic gold medal winner Bradley Wiggins took first place in the Northern Rock Cyclone Beaumont Trophy in Northumberland on June 14th. He was also the proud winner of the Saddle Skedaddle sponsored King of the Mountains contest and was noticeably overjoyed when Skedaddle’s own road legend / guru / charlatan, David “Little Dave” Hall presented him with his award.

Bradley commented ”I was honoured to receive the King of the Mountains from David. They say you should never meet your heroes, but David was everything I ever hoped for and more besides. Even after 5 Olympic medals this must surely be the highlight of my cycling life” 

David in return commented “My legs are much nicer than Bradley’s and i’ve recommended  to him a new razor. I hadn’t realised that he was so short. Do you know that one of his team mates carries a milk crate with him everywhere they go? They bring it out for every photo shoot - it’s a stroke of pure genius”

 (David’s the one on the left…. in case you wondered).

Skedaddle mountain bike guides gather from around the world in Castleton Derbyshire!

It’s that special time of the year when all the Skedaddle guides from hotter holiday climes come to together in the cold and rare snow of England, to partake in a weekend of cycling , drinking and of course discussing how we can make this year’s Skedaddle holidays even better!

Mechanical Guru Dave from TSW Cycles explained the finer points of how they keep our Giant XTC hire fleet running smoothly, along with plenty of helpful hints related to taking bikes apart.

Saturday’s bike ride and snowball fight!

Thankfully the log fires and real ales in the local pub “The Castle”, soon Calmed everyone down

A great weekend was had by all , thanks to everyone who came! Same time next year?

More photos available at…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7234381@N05/sets/72157603897034247/ 

If you would like to try mountain biking in Derbyshire (hopefully with better weather) , take a look at our Dark Peak weekend

http://biking.skedaddle.co.uk/holiday/Mountain_Bike_Holidays/Derbyshire_Dark_Peak/59/viewchild.rails

or the slightly easier White Peak weekend.

http://biking.skedaddle.co.uk/holiday/Mountain_Bike_Holidays/Derbyshire_White_Peak/40/viewchild.rails

 
It all started so normally, they all seemed like such nice people but then as we arrived at our Refuge in the Picos a few changes started to happen.
It started subtly with a few people wearing dark shades even though the sun had gone down, then the odd baseball cap being worn back to front, and before we knew what was going on the whole group had turned into a bunch of Crazy rapping mo-fo’s, heres the shocking pictures and lyrics from that fateful night.

The Skedaddle team had a break from guiding mountain bike holidays, but were still busy last weekend for the Giant Mountain Mayhem 2008 (for those who don’t know Mayhem is an immensely popular 24 hour mountain bike race), with a number of our guides entering the event and with Rod, Nick, Tony, Adam and Steve providing invaluable encouragement, food and bike repair.

Congratualtions to Wendy Smit , Iwona Schmidt , Denise Lee and Annie Marson who between them completed 18 laps of the 8.5 mile course and brought home a win in the open women’s category!

” I’d like to say a huge thank you to Steve and his team for doing such a fantastic job of looking after us for the weekend. I can honestly say that we didn’t want for anything and they were happy to help whatever the request so please pass on our thanks to everyone from Skedaddle .”

Mike Spence

“it was all down to the support crew - what a fantastic job they did ( and you paid for ! ) everybody involved was sooooooooooooooo grateful to them - they kept us going all night“

Denz

More photos are on flickr

See you there next year!

eeI caught the train from King’s Cross on Friday nite to Settle via Leeds. Met a girl Barbara on the Settle train who was also doing the mountain bike weekend. Andy the tour guide picked us up in the van and we then drove to the cabin near Ingleton. The stone walls along the way are spectacular. They are (dare I say it) better than those in the Cotswolds. The rolling hills (not a lot of trees around) reminded me of the highlands in Scotland.

“What I don’t want is a weekend surrounded by testosterone charged blokes who’ll make me feel inadequate on a bike” that was my plea to the man from Saddle Skedaddle, organisers of mountain bike holidays.

I must admit, it was the name of the company that caught my eye. It sounded fun.  Adventurous but light hearted, not taking itself too seriously. How I like to see myself I suppose!

Check-out the Skedaddle staff & biking guides on holiday during the 2009 Skedaddle Guides weekend in the UK’s Lake District. As usual it was an international affair, with around 40 people arriving from Spain, Sardinia, Norway, Newcastle, Rotherham (most exotic), London, Bristol and everywhere in-between. We even had Paul arriving like the proverbial Paddington Bear from Peru armed with a superb some superb photos and videos of our mountain bike holidays in Peru. 

We’re please say that we all passed our First Aid qualification and so are now all ready to bandage you up in the ‘unlikely’ occurance of someone falling off their bike, whilst on holiday.

We’ve also been kept up to date with all things bike wise by Dave of TSW Cycles / Giant Bikes and as all now familar with Spanish Tapas (Cumbrian Style) after a night in Costas Tapas Bar……a little bit of Spain in Penrith and high kitsch in the extreme!!

 Check out the below photos and see if you can see anyone you recognise?

Skedaddle Guides make it out on the hills around Ulswater

Dave finds it amusing that Straws calls the bike on the stand a ‘Racer’.

Five hours on and hundreds of kicks up the ass, Simone still hasn’t realised !!

Sadly, David would never play the piano again!

Skedaddle Sardinia in the Snow

What’s wrong with you!! It’s only a bit of ice!!
 

Practicing skills in office tidying , ring bindering..

…and Mountain Biking!

As you can see , the weather in the lake district can be glorious even in winter months, why not book up a weekend of great scenery and biking in the spring or summer?
Find our lake district weekends here!
More Photos

A slightly tougher graded Weekend in the Brecon Beacons.

An ideal getaway for the more experienced mountain biker , we stay in a lovely converted barn right in the heart of this great riding spot!

If this looks like your cup o’tea then we have availability on our october Brecon weekend!

As usual More photos are available on flickr

Following a wet and soggy Friday, we awoke on Saturday to find the sun returned and barring a few minor showers we managed to keep our waterproofs in the trusty Skedaddle Landy, for this mountain bike weekend!!

As usual Alasdair and Andy were at the helm, with new Skedaddle guide Annie enjoying her baptism of dreadful puns, sacrasm and white lies about the ‘cheeky climbs’ and how long there was to go. Straws, following his ‘tea-cup washing disaster’, was one handed driver / picnic maestro for the weekend - bless !!!

As you can see from the photos, it was a busy ole weekend, with many riders using it as a ‘build-up’ ride before heading out on their mountain bike holidays / cycling holidays with us, and here’s hoping that everyones bums aren’t too sore from the riding and the red-hot Thai curries on the Saturday night!!

Check out more photos of this particular Mountain Bike Weekend on flickr

This superb desert biking adventure focuses on the deep south of Morocco, a land of big skies and stark mountain ranges where mud-brick kasbahs appear to rise up out of the desert, sitting in tranquil palm oases and framed by dramatic backdrops of snowcapped mountains. We ride along Morocco’s dirt roads, taking us from Marrakech to the Tichka Pass, the highest in the High Atlas, and then southward, descending along the Draa Valley to the fringes of the Sahara Desert.