Event Reports

Normal life is boring, why can't I live in my van and race every day from dawn til dusk

That's pretty much how I feel after returning from the welsh, I've had a whale of a time riding for a full 2 days in a manner that could be best described as "reckless".

The welsh is a bit of an oddity, being on a Thursday and Friday, and you need to be there on the Wednesday to scrutineer, walk the tests etc, so really you need to be there Tuesday night to get yourself a sweet spot by the lake, which is exactly what I did, joined by Heather & Stu Owen, and Craig Reynolds, Graham Howes joined us on Wednesday Morning. It's nice to get a bit of a crew together for these things, it's supposed to be fun after all.

Despite my immaculate bike prep I managed to arrive at the Welsh with handlebars that had split open so the throttle wouldn't turn...... luckily Stu had a spare set, cheers Stu. Otherwise the bike was mint though, so once the bars were swapped I put it in park ferme and received numerous brews from Heather, bunged jock 30 quid to fuel me, and chilled out. Craig & Stu walked the tests, with all my messing about I didn't have time but they did tell me the first test at crossgates was "like ice".

Race day saw Graham off first in the vets, trouble with his bike on the line saw him pushing it to get going, but when he went past the vans he stood on the seat so I'll let him off. I was still in my PJ's then so thought it was about time I got ready, nerves were kicking in.

The lads weren't wrong about the first test, heavy rain overnight on top of clay soil was a bit of a devil, hard to keep any speed up, even harder if you lost speed and it was a case of battling through, catching the bike when it span round, jumping back on and getting the job done. leaving the test everyones bike looked fooked and clagged up, welcome to wales. 5 miles in and only 260 miles to go.

Despite the overnight rain the forest checks were good, a bit sloppy in places but generally an absolute hoot to ride, the welsh is an odd mix of roadwork, then some immense forest checks of about 50 mins, then roadwork to the next check or test so you get a chance to recover between the tough bits. Strata Florida was a bit of a gamble after the rain, rivers very full, so much so that the track we rode up was underwater for about 1/4 mile, there's about 3 or 4 deep river crossings, one that pretty much swallowed the bike, water coming up to the top of my boots stood on the pegs. Well marshalled though, with plenty of pointing going on to give you a line, and Bob Mullins himself waist deep in water pulling bikes out. I think this section killed a few bikes though as the far side of the crossing was like omaha beach with bodies and machinery everywhere, bikes upended with water coming out of the exhausts and so on. Anyway.... mine made it through without missing a beat so happy days. Strata Florida was also a fairly tight check given the conditions, 22 mins and i made it with 2 mins spare and I think a lot of people lost time here.

Fuel and lunch from jocks mum came next, and there wasn't a lot of time spare here either so it was a brief affair of filling the tank, quick brew, buttie, cake & jelly beans, then up the road to the next check and more forest with an extra bit for clubman/expert/champs just for a laugh, nothing daft, just more climbs and descents, really good fun to ride quick, and I was leathering it now and getting a bit giddy, I love fast forest trails.

Next check was the mx test that they use for the wed evening mx (Rhayader I think), I was dog slow, despite going well on the course I couldn't get my head round the MX test, maybe I need to go back to peakdale for some wednesday evening sessions. A bit more roadwork followed taking us to another forest check, 55 mins was the allowance, I had an idea that it would be tight so I wasn't hanging about but still lost 15 mins. I call it the "bastard" check. pretty sloppy in places, but mostly rideable, you had to really nail it everywhere to make time up. I lost the front end a few times and only saved it by kicking hard and nailing it to pick the front up and turn the bike, scary stuff, called for some agressive riding. I've seen the results and all the clubmen lost at least 8 mins here. Separates the men from the boys though so fair play.

One more test at abbey-cwm-hir and the day was pretty much done (much better this time), plenty of time on the way back to fill up at the petrol station and pull some of the clag off the bike before returning it to parc ferme.

Heather played an absolute blinder cooking dinner for everyone and generallly looking after us, she's amazing, it really helps if you've got someone there that will take care of you and get you fed and watered. It was a late finish anyway, probably 7:30 when I got my bike into parc ferme, starving after jelly beans and half a sandwich all day, heather pulls out a massive pasta meal, garlic bread, onion rings, cheese & biscuits. nom nom nom.

2nd day began with another breakfast from Heather (cheers!) and was more of the same, direction of the course reversed, and a few bits cut out, but all familiar stuff. Arms and legs were burning a bit to begin with but settled down as the day went on though, not as strong so couldn't go so hard, but strangely my special test times were quicker at all 3 tests despite the rain coming down for the last test, and I managed to stay on time all day.

To sum it up, I had a blast, if you've never done this evet make sure you put it in your calander for next year, it's mint

Provisional results I saw at the pavilion, Craig 2nd Expert E2, Stu 3rd Expert E1, me 22nd Club E2, Graham down the bottom of vets due to his bike refusing to start all the time. Good result for me, 84 in my class, some good riders too, I'm made up with that