On Saturday I headed over to Machynlleth for the annual, and by now legendary, Dyfi Enduro. Because of a hangover I was delayed in setting off and didn’t make it there in time for the usual reliability ride around the Mach 1 loop so just pitched the tent and headed to the pub. You might notice I don’t take the event too seriously. It’s a fun event with a great course and I like to do as well as I can but it is also a good opportunity to catch up with people I only see once a year and eat my body weight in the finest fish and chips in the land.
On Sunday morning I was scarily prepared and not rushing around still trying to find my front wheel while everyone else was listening to the briefing. The course is always very demanding on tyres so I made sure I had enough kit to get me through about 6 punctures, you never can be too careful! The event is a mass start of over 700 riders following a motor bike at a steady pace for a few miles until you reach the bottom of the first climb and positioning is important. If you are too far back you have to work hard to make up places before the race is even underway and you need all the energy you have on this course. I managed to get within the first 50 or so riders through the gate and out onto the road and made my way further up the pack during the neutralized start. By the time the motorbikes pulled off I was within sight of the leaders. I wasn’t feeling too fresh at this point (could have been the beer I suppose) so as the pace picked up I made no effort to keep up. I lost a few places early on the climb but I wasn’t too worried as long as I could settle into a pace and ride consistently. Towards the top I was starting to feel comfortable and was in a group of about 6 riders taking it in turns to lead. The first descent is always tricky because it is steep and loose and you are blowing from the ascent. Without my usual Saturday ride to brush up on my scree riding skills I felt slightly unprepared and took it fairly steady. From this point on the course was all a bit of a blur. Unless you are used to welsh fireroad and mental steep scree descents, it all looks the same so appologies if the following events are out of their correct order!
The general theme of the rest next 2 hours was that I would make up time on some riders on the fireroad climbs and lose time to others on the same sections. Then once the arrows pointed down I would gain time on the fast climbers and lose time to anyone wearing a ‘Clee Cycles’ jersey. The result was constant yo-yoing so I never really knew how I was getting on. On the steeper sections of climb I was feeling good and made some good gains. I knew I was approaching the feed zone when I popped out onto the ‘World Cup Descent’ which is basically riding down a steep ridge avoiding the big jumps and trying not to pick up too much speed. At the bottom I was told I was in 19th place so as the yo-yoing re-commenced I was trying my best to keep track of my position. From here there was a 5km climb up to the feed zone where I stopped very briefly to top up with water. The course up to this point had been almost bone-dry, the section that followed was where all the water was! Some of the puddles which spread across the whole track were up to 2 feet deep. What made it hard was that some were only inches deep so you never knew what was going to happen when you hit it. I was quite cautious through this section because I didn’t fancy hitting a submerged rock and going flying over the handlebars! After another descent came one of my favourite climbs on the course up a steep rocky narrow climb which requires power and balance to hop over some rocky steps. At this point I kept getting glimpses of a rider in front so I picked up my tempo with the aim of catching him. Not long after this we came to the 10km to go sign which surprised me because I was still feeling pretty fresh and didn’t feel like I’d been riding for that long. I was still in 19th at this point but each time I turned a corner I could see more riders coming into view. I was pushing reasonably hard but not to the point where I couldn’t sustain the effort and I was amazed at how quickly I was catching and dropping riders. By the top of this climb I was up to 13th but this is where it got confusing. We turned left off the fireroad past a 5km remaining sign and all of a sudden I came across a big group of riders heading into the woods. It seems some of them may have got lost but I’m not sure how or where because from what I could see there was only one track to follow. As I caught these riders I tried to go through a puddle everyone else was avoiding and came to a standstill in the middle of it. The water came to half way up my thighs! The descent from here was carnage because there were a lot of riders fighting over positions and rather than the slate we had been getting used to it was slippery mud and roots. I did my best to avoid running over anyone lying on the floor and by the time I reached the bottom I had completely lost track of positions. All I knew was there was a 3km sign and that the final 1km was downhill. I pushed hard and caught more riders on this ‘2km’ (actually 3km according to GPS) climb and even had enough energy to have a sprint into the final 1km descent. This descent is fun because it is less steep that most of the others and I was much more confident hitting it at speed. Once I crossed the line I was told I was 8th which I couldn’t really believe but I am really happy with even if it was as a result of some people getting lost.
After a few minutes standing around I rode back to town in a group of the top 15 and it seems 29er hardtails was the weapon of choice with only two 26ers! I was certainly sold on my XTC Composite 29er, it was so stiff and confidence inspiring on the descents that they didn't seem anywhere near as scary as I remembered.
The reason I think this event is so popular is the atmosphere around the campsite and course. There was a pizza making competition to win a bike, a dreadlocked DJ playing tunes well into the night, the Luff Bus supplying food and of course the mid race entertainment. This year we had a woman playing a harp at the final hairpin of the first climb and chearleaders at the top. There was a fully stocked bar including beer and DJ with about 3km to go and a battle scene from Star Wars including a cardboard robot thing in the woods halfway round. Add this to the hundreds of spectators watching the 'peleton' leave town in the morning and lots of spectators dotted around the course and it really is one of the most well supported races in this country.
 |
| At the top of the CliMach trail looking super retro! |
I managed to have a shower, a burger and a thorough bike wash session before anyone else from our group got back so I could have a bit of a snooze before we stocked up on fish and chips and beer! Over-all a pretty successful day, even if I did get abused by a Welsh girl in the pub who asked me if I would like to shit in her hat (her words, not mine)!
Thankfully the weather held out on Monday too so I rode the Climach trail with Beamish Odd Socks riders Willis, Chris and Jeff before heading back to the hurricane centre of the UK that is Oxfordshire. I'm already looking forwards to next years Dyfi experience, although with every passing year it gets harder to get an entry with over 700 entries selling out in 20 minutes this time around!
Results
here.
More pictures
here.
No comments:
Post a Comment