Singletrack

ADVENTURE
SIMPLy
tHE quest
Barney heads off to Shropshire to try
to answer a question which has been
bugging him – why are there so many
good riders from such a quiet county?
WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY BARNEY MARSH
Quests are nebulous things. The definition is suitably vague
– “the search for something”, but it’s fair to say that journeys
are involved. An uncovering. And perhaps, if you’re very
lucky, a big reveal. I’d not go so far as to require an epiphany,
but something hiding in plain sight that suddenly becomes
obvious? That’ll do nicely. I fancied a good quest. I fancied
sallying forth to uncover some age-old secret or two. Perhaps
I could amass a motley crew of latter-day knights with whom
I could gallivant around the countryside, righting wrongs
and rescuing people from peril? Or, perhaps it might be more
accurate to replace the word ‘people’ with ‘beer’. And the
word ‘peril’ with ‘fridges’.
It had long niggled me that I knew so little of Shropshire.
I’d ridden the Long Mynd, sure – and a wonderful thing it
is too – but I’d always skirted over the county’s other charms
en route to more conspicuous trails in either North or South
Wales. But gradually it dawned on me that Shropshire seemed
to be rather over-blessed with good riders. Very, very good
riders. People like Helen Mortimer, Marc Beaumont, Neil
Donoghue, Andrew Titley, Neil Halcrow – and there are
plenty more.
This seems odd, considering it’s not blessed with huge
mountains or an overabundance of people – in fact, it’s one
of the least populous counties in England. So what is it about
Shropshire that breeds competence on a mountain bike? A
need to investigate rammed its way into my brain like an
overlarge pimento into a particularly dense olive. A quest!
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