Event Reports

.......and slept in the van due to it being a 5 hour event for two man teams and ironman classes. Also due to family commitments I had no pit crew to worry about and it was a planned 10am start. 

Llandrillo is situated about a 15 minutes drive from Bala lake, it is personally one of my favourite WOR regular courses, as it has a mix of very fast fire road, a small amount of open moorland (which has the strangest surface to ride on as its very loamy and even when dry acts like deep mud, yet when sodden remains the same texture) and my favourite bit, heavily rooted, rutted forestry.

Steve Ireland had also included a section of forest that was a pitch black tunnel as the trees were only 2 meters apart, the section was possibly 300 meters long with a couple of kinks in it. Once your eyes adjusted to the dark the tunnel through the trees were a treat to ride.

I had entered in the ironman A group as this was for the faster riders, B for the slower riders, however there were lots of classes in the two man teams, including a “dad an lad” class

I awoke at around 0.800 after a good nights sleep (the rain only woke me 3 times) and sorted myself out getting well hydrated, got my pit and bike sorted, fortunately the start was put back to 10.30am as at 10.00am I was still cooking my bacon sandwiches.

The start at Llandrillo is the only let down to the venue, as you have to start from the fire road, bikes lined up at 45 degrees on the fire road with the back wheels in the drainage ditch. As I was possibly the last down to the start (by choice and the need to visit the toilet for the fourth time!

I had no choice but to go to the back of the ironman A group, who were to be

away first! Rudy Austin lined up by the side of me and we chatted about all things GNCC as the start was further delayed

At the drop of the flag I missed the kick start and had to reboot my bike into life, I was not too bothered as I was riding for 5 hours and had time to reel people in. I set off and every rider went up the road, leaving the gulley free for me to use as a motorway route to the first corner, which in turn led uphill through the trees, I came out of the trees possible in about 15th position due to the good start. My race head kicked in and now I wanted to get to the

front, we passed the pits and then entered the real forestry section, later this section would destroy you if you got it wrong as killer roots and ruts came out of the ground, at the end of this section I had probably got up to about seventh, but the riders ahead were way faster than me and I was not going to attempt to catch them.

The course flowed really nicely and once you got through the above section there was no real sections to make you breathe through you’re backside.

After 2 laps Lincon Brewster came flying past, followed by most of the expert team riders, which was quite pleasing as this meant that I had held them off for 25 minutes, they had set off 3 mins behind ironman A.

On my 3rd lap Jane Daniels in a two “person” team came past me like I was stood still, this girl has really improved quickly in the last year and I think she will have a great future in the sport.

On my 6th lap I pulled into the pits and fuelled and took a 5 min breather, if my pit crew (wife) were there I am sure I would have been sent out straight away. The pits were very crowded due to space restrictions and a lot of pushing and shoving was going on, riders were just pulling in and blocking your exit, not good and very frustrating,

The forrest section was becoming very gnarly and line choice was crucial to save energy, get it right and you could sail through, very, very satisfying and for me enjoyable, get it wrong and you ended pushing, shoving, and legging through, really not nice and for me extremely tiring!

At 3 hours I pitted again and Carlo Corroto gave a very welcome hand passing new gloves and much needed sustenance.

Energy was by now running low and riding well was becoming more difficult, at about 4 hours I am sure I started hallucinating, but still smiling as my mind lost concentration, I entered Steve Irelands tree tunnel of love and “pinballed” my way off what felt like 8 trees before I managed to get the bike under control (ouch). I also started to miss turns or miss time my braking points, fortunately there were no large drops after corners and the only damage was to the course tape I ploughed through.

Some of the fire roads became very interesting when the stones started to come out of the road, its no fun being pinned in 5th gear and your front wheel skips from under you??????????

On passing the pits it was nice to hear Andy Cook and Carlo shouting for me.

I took my last pit stop with 45 minutes to go and I figured a long pit stop plus 2 further laps would take me too the end, I really missed my expert pit crew (wife), doing the basic things, even just being handed things makes a difference! If she reads this I promise too try too not run her over in the future either by accident or because she has placed herself between myself and the course!!!!!!!!!!

The last 2 laps were just a trail ride really and I was really glad to see the Finnish flag.

I managed to get 4th in class and missed 3rd by only 3 minutes, the top two were however  4 laps in front, I think a lot of the expert riders crashed or pulled out!

All in all a excellent event and I urge any rider to try the longer events either as a ironman or in a team, you could see lots of banter and talking going on in the pits, it would have been nice to do the event in a team, to chat to other riders etc. but I really enjoy the long events, as just getting to the end can be just as satisfying as getting a really good result.

Keep up the good work Steve Ireland

Rob McLeod