I was sitting on an airplane fairly recently contemplating the fresh wounds on my legs and the grin on my face as I flagged the flight attendant for an over-priced beer.  The thoughts were the unusual way in which I had met Kim Jones through one of those “six degrees of separation” moments that went something like this;

1. Bought new Kona PhD bicycle
2. Registered bike at www.konabikes.com
3. Found that Kona has registered MTB parks worldwide
4. Clicked web link for bike park in Wales
5. Clicked web link local bike shop
6. Clicked web link to Mountain Bike Wales (www.mountainbikewales.co.uk)

And that is how I found myself knee deep in a Welsh bog, filling my shoes with all kinds of primordial ooze, bonking hard whilst gasping, head in hands in 2°C (35.6°F) temperatures with clear skies, bright sunshine, and grinning from ear to ear.  I never thought it was possible to bonk with a smile on my face.  Kim Jones and Wales taught me that.

Kim is a local guy in southern Wales (Swansea) who was sitting in a pub one day with his friends after another day of mud, sweat, and beers who after a few pints of bitter turned to his mates and thought, “Gee, wouldn’t it be great if I could show other people how much fun this is?”.  Kim not being a greedy gus when it comes to sharing his favourite local trails and such started Mountain Bike Wales about a year ago and barely a weekend goes by when he does not find foreigners, some stranger than others, at his doorstep to have their brows glazed with the therapeutic dirt that only Wales can claim.

Well, that’s how I see the story anyway.  I have asked Kim how this all got started and he just replies, “I don’t know, it just seemed like a good idea.”  I could not agree more.  I hired a car in November last year and drove from the Netherlands to Wales with my bike and gear stashed in the back.  I got to see parts of Belgium, France, and England along the way and used the very cool EuroTunnel (English Channel Tunnel) to get there.  I think that everyone should do it once.  All of this in order to see what kind of abuse the Welsh countryside could provide.

I told Kim what my plan was for Primal Quest and why I was heading all that way to visit him and partake of his services.  As excited as he was to think about the experience, I think he was the first person, besides myself, to see the insanity of what I have chosen to do and to actually say so to my face.  Not to be thwarted, he took me out with some other local riders he calls his friends and proceeded to kick my ass into the realisation that when it comes to conditioning on a MTB, I had a lot of work to do.  For five days, we rode on two track back trails littered with miniature frozen ponds, rock strewn singletrack, night rides in freezing temperatures, lung busting climbs to see a local quarry, as well as the hilly jeep trails on the way to check out a bothy that they were planning on using the following weekend for a good old fashioned boys weekend out filled with good food, better whiskey, and a plethora of lies; not to mention more MTB riding.

“Hey Todd, it would be great if you could join us next weekend?”  Which is how I have found myself on this airplane for a last minute flight from Amsterdam to Cardiff where I will rent a right-hand drive car for the first time (a whole other story) and beat feet to some location pinpointed on my TomTom for a 6 pm departure for, literally, the geographical middle of Wales for the weekend.  Now, to tell the whole story would violate the “what happens in…” policy that is an unspoken rule for most guy’s weekends, but lets just say that it included a sideways snow storm, a heart-bursting romp/ride knee deep in several bogs, an uncomfortable thigh-high river crossing,  a geocache (www.geocaching.com), brake-squealing downhill, and an unfortunate incident with a pet duck.  It was the best time I can remember having with new friends.

Needless to say, I have been sworn to silence about the duck…..QUARK!!!!!

Until next time…..TODD

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Primal Quest, Todd Phillips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.