It was another windy night and most of us were weighed down with a bit of Christmas indulgence (either that or my riding gear has shrunk), but still seven anti-socials turned up at Sawdon for a blast around Wykeham: Nigel, Mike, Russ, Keith, Nick, Richard, and me. Father Christmas had been busy delivering new gloves, jackets, socks, even a dropper seatpost, and Mike and Keith were on their relatively new 29ers. (We're taking over!)

With fast riders Steve, Anton and Alistair absent, and Mike having no one to make the pace with, the tempo was pretty civilised. We had several stops too, mostly due to mechanicals. Nigel broke his chain and fastened it neatly together only to discover it wasn't then running through the front derailleur. Mike's bike was eating disc brake pads. And Richard's saddle kept coming loose. Like us, the bikes had gone to seed a bit over the Christmas break!

Nigel led us on a winding route through some of the best bits of Wykeham. There was a lot of logs and fallen branches, but luckily no one did an endo from a stick in their front wheel and no one tore a mech off either. I'll be glad when this wind dies down and there's less tree litter to ride through, however. Apart from that, the trails weren't too bad - bit muddy, but nothing like last February after the snow had gone.

How did you social riders get on?