Last night, riding home from the Bikemagic office in central London, it was hammering with rain on the pavement outside the front door. I did what any man would do and waited. And waited. Some five minutes passed before it relented (but didn’t stop) enough to warrant venturing outside.

Five minutes into the ride, and getting pretty damp, the unbelievable happened: a hailstorm started. Huge hail pounding down out of the sky, bouncing off the roads, even cars slowing dramatically such was the limited visibility during this biblical downpour. Pain being inflicted on the exposed skin of my face. After a few minutes of this, I was drenched through. Wet socks, gloves, hat, the lot.

By the time I reached home two hours later, it had turned into a lovely evening. A dramatic skyline, low slung clouds embracing a blue sky and a beautiful setting sun made the earlier events seem a distant memory.Just my frozen feet and fingers the reminder.

We’ve seen some spectacularly unpredictable weather recently. Casting my mind back just three weeks ago, I was enjoying one of the best weekends of riding in South Wales I can ever remember. Unseasonably hot weather had dried the trails out more than I’ve ever seen them in this part of the UK, at any time of year, and the result was the very best thing of mountain biking, dusty trails. The holy grail of trail conditions. And the riding was fun.

Good things eventually come to an end though, and what seemed like a ages of enjoying summer weather, the weather turned with dramatic effect. I’m just glad I made the most of those dry and sunny trails while I could, because I would be kicking myself now if I hadn’t. it’s not the bad weather that I have a problem with, I don’t really mind getting cold and wet, it’s just how quickly and often it swings from one state to the next. At least we haven’t had any snow down this way yet.

But I’m fed up with this weather now, roll on summer.

Photo © Creative Commons