Race Blog – 2016 UK Enduro Series – Rd 1 Crychan

“I haven’t spent enough time on the bike through the winter and my fitness isn’t good enough.” are the words that kept cycling through my head during the four and a half hour drive to Llandovery, South Wales, just North of the Brecon Beacons. Fear and excitement were battling for dominance but either way I was happy to be heading towards my first race weekend of the season. This would be my first National level race event and my first race wearing the Army jersey. I was definitely feeling the pressure.

 

The sight that met me on arrival at Sennybridge. Team kit and equipment from our supporters laid out on a good old Army bed!

Friday was spent tavelling and erecting our pit area. The entire journey accross the country had been in various shades of mist and low cloud, yet just 5 miles from the venue the clouds cleared and blue sky and sunshire bore down on the beautiful rolling hills of Wales. Sadly it didn’t last the entire weekend, but it did stay dry! We had been allotted prime position in the event village amongst the race sponsors and vendors. Being a relatively small event village we got a lot of passing traffic and interest. I was really good to see and speak to some other serving soldiers and some old and bold ex servicemen. We also interacted well with some of the event supporters and exhibitors. My friends from the ‘Shire’ were also in attendance, camped in the Enduro Magazine gazebo. All in all there was a really nice friendly vibe around the whole event.

 

Stage Map for Crychan Forest Rd 1

Saturday morning started early. We had expected it to be quite hectic at the 0800 registration opening time, so started the 30 minute drive from Sennybridge Camp at 0730 having already been up for a shit, shave, shower and some nutritious breakfast. To our surprise there wasn’t much activity when we arrived and the morning was all pretty relaxed. Stages didn’t open until 1000 with just 4 stages being practised and raced on the Saturday.

Le poseurrrrr!   [Credit Scott Tomblin]

The format was quite unique in that for each round there are two race options, the 2 day option of practising and racing 4 stages on the saturday followed by 6 stages on the sunday (no practise), or the 1 day option of turning up Sunday morning and racing all 6 stages blind (not literally, blind racing means no chance to practise the stages ahead of the race). The majority of the Army team were participating in the 2 day races, but some joined us for the sunday only. As it happened the Sunday stages were mainly repeats of the Saturday stages, but as the trails were constantly evolving they continued to be a challenge.

 

 

Martin and I about to head off on our practise lap.  [Credit Sureen Thapa]

The Saturday consisted of 4 stages that had to be run in order. Stage 1 started just up and around the corner from the event village, on a brief fire road climb, so most people felt as though they were racing cold, having not really had much time to get their legs warm and move the bike about before having to battle nature’s minefield of roots and stumps. There’s no real point in me describing each stage as they were all very similar in their theme; Almost entirely off piste, some pedally sections but generally plenty of gravity to allow them to flow. There were some very steep areas and lots of off camber sections that really tested your bike handling skills. The trails were constantly evolving with more and more roots appearing from beneath the loam. They were the most technically challenging trails I had ever raced. Only Glentress and Innerleithen had come close for me, but I haven’t raced there.

 

My Saturday went relatively well. I didn’t ride as well as I could have, too many occasions of both wheels sliding out on the off camber roots, leaving me laid on the floor and scrambling to get back up. But no major incidents. Everyone, including the preened gods of bikes that are the Elite riders had been struggling to get totally clean runs in, so I wasn’t beating myself up too much. I was however adamant that I must improve my times on Sunday.

This corner eventually turned into a root garden, impossible to navigate without dabbing or lying down.

 

Saturday night was spent down the road in Brecon. Pub grub and the England Rugby on the telly box gave us an opportunity to bond a bit. The team is pretty well established but being a newbie I was a bit out of the loop, so it was nice to be able to chat to the other guys about work and life, rather than just bikes. I carb’d up and stuck to Coke (the Cola version) all night to ensure I wasn’t going to bip the next day.

 

Crazy cambers everywhere

 

Sunday started much the same as Saturday, but now knowing the score, we had a more relaxed start, arriving at the venue a bit later. The event village was a little busier today as many of the one day racers arrived.

 

The Sunday stages could be raced in any order so we took a calculated approach trying to plot the most efficient way around the course whilst hitting the more technical stages early (assuming they would get cut up and more demanding as the day went on). There was one stage that we hadn’t seen yet (S5) but had heard it was pretty pedally. What an understatement!

 

Sadly my race ended on the penultimate stage, when I had a big OTB resulting in a suspected bruised Rotator Cuff and meant I didn’t have the strength to hold myself on my bars on the steep stuff. So I wished my colleagues well for their last stage and limped my way back to the event village. This also meant I clocked a DNF; All that effort for nothing!

 

Driving home from the event I had time to reflect. Never had I ridden a race that was 100% off piste, usually they incorporate some sanitised trail centre sections. This was some of the gnarliest, yet rollable, riding  I have done, and in a race environment was bound to crashes. I guess I should be thankful that nothing was broken and I should be mended in a couple of weeks. It also highlighted that I need to find somewhere local with gnarly off piste action to get some more training rides in. Eventually the lighter evenings will allow me to get to Wharncliffe mid week. But really I need to find somewhere within 30 mins of my home.

 

I now look forward to the Army Cycling Union’s riding camp in April and Round 2 of the UK Enduro Series at Triscombe.

 

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