We had decided on a GT Karakorum but as soon as I walked in the shop it was Pro-Flex love at first sight and as ALL cyclists know we simply couldn’t afford to pay the extra £100, haha! Despite the fact that it weighed almost as much as my skinny self I raced that for my two best XC seasons and took loads of Casio KOMs on my local Mid Wales trails to boot. Earlier that week I came down for breakfast and on the table was £450 in cash from my grandad (he didn’t believe in inheritances!). It was 1992 I think, we bought it from Dave Mellors in Shrewsbury (now Trailhead!) and it was DEFINITELY one of the greatest moments of my life. My first ‘proper’ MTB was a glorious metallic grey and blue Pro-Flex 550 with a Girven elastomer flex stem. It was all downhill from there, ah I’m sorry! Actually sadly for my coolness, I quickly found out that I was far better at going uphill than down and began racing XC when I was 11. I grew up in this little village in Mid Wales called Meifod, it was surrounded on 3 sides by these beautiful big, wooded hills and we just started taking our bikes up there when we were about 10 years old. If by riding you mean mountain biking then it was kind of a natural thing. I really want to tell the story about me and my oldest buddy Rob Leighton playing Top Gun (I was Ice Man) on our bikes for an entire summer but I guess my first memory was Christmas 1983 and the unwrapping of my first real bike, a bright red BMX with all the racing pads a boy could ever need! Sadly it’s a bittersweet memory as my Dad got really pissed off with me for not being able to ride it (I was 3 or 4) and that’s my overriding memory (I also found out later in life that my Grandad had bought from a chap in a pub for £30 and it was almost certainly stolen!). Oh man, there’s so many vying for a mention. The oldest I’ve found is a Golden Wonder crisp packet from 1967. I guess the fact that I’m a ‘retro rubbish’ or ‘vintage litter’ nerd is fairly unusual! I like hunting for and collecting things like bottles, crisp and confectionary wrappers that (because plastic takes so long to break down) have been preserved in the dunes or underwater. I surf as much as I cycle but that’s not so interesting. What’s your secret hobby/passion away from the bike? I’m not the best with secrets as I tend to leak feelings all over the place, much to my family and friends’ amusement/embarrassment, so I don’t think I have one! I’ve lived in Cornwall for 15 years and I’ve worked for the marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage for 10 of those years, so the ocean and coastal environment is very important to me. Ice Breaker! Describe yourself in 3 words – Compelled, emotional, worrier (not warrior sadly!) We caught up for him for a quick chat here is what he had to say. Dom is one of the founding members of Trash free Trails a charity working tirelessly to keep our trails and areas of natural beauty just that. But be careful: The way all the way back to the valley is long.We are super excited to announce that Dom from Trash Free Trails is now riding on a lovely set of XCwide's. The descent to the Dom Hut lasts about 4 hours. Once on the summit, the breath-taking panorama proves worth the effort many have the feeling of overlooking the entire world. The climb takes about 6-7 hours from the Dom Hut. The requirements for this climb are excellent physical fitness, experience in using crampons and good acclimatisation. Below the summit, one comes to a large drift that one cannot recognise as such from the top. Since one climbs parallel to the crevices, great care must be taken. The trail then makes a large circle below the glacier calving. Once here, one makes a short descent to the Hohberggletscher. During the tour, one goes over strongly cracked glacier sections until the Festijoch. It was Canon Berchtold, who gave this peak its name when he undertook the first survey measurements of the Dom and Täschhorn peaks. Wheelchair users & visitors with reduced mobility
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