Wentwood 50 Enduro

After last weeks race in the hail, sleet, snow and mud, this weekend saw a complete contrast as the sun was blazing out with temperatures around 15degrees. The course was taken around the great wentwood forest offering muddy singletrack and plenty of fireroad to transfer over to the next part of the forest.

We started off on the road with 400 odd Entries and continued on the uphill road climb until we eventually turned left into the muddy, rocky and rooty singletrack. Since I didn’t have the best start I played catch up weaving in and out of people to catch my fellow team-mate (also brother) and Simon who was a 12 hr enduro specialist who finished 1st with Jonny Pugh last year.

After just short of 20km Anthony had a mechanical, snapping his chain. After a quick stop and check I was told to crack on and he would try and chase back providing he got his chain sorted. By this time Simon had left us and I had to go off in pursuit to chase him down. After catching him up we stayed together just before the 25km break point.

With gaining my first tag and stopping for some vital fluid, Simon caught me up again and off we went for a further 25km. After a few overshot corners I overtook Simon on the climbs and powered my way up them opening up a decent gap!

Again after some confusion with directions and which was the correct way, my lead was lost and back to square 1 as Simon caught me while waiting at the marshall point for them to point us in the right direction.
We rode together until the next fireroad climb where I was able to power away leaving Simon behind all the way to the finish.
However it didn’t go without a few hiccups as my freehub was playing up and I got a bit of chain-suck which caused it to wrap into my wheel and snap a spoke with 8km to go. However I managed to nurse it home and crossed the line as 1st rider home in the 50km in a time of 2hrs40!

Next race now is the 1st round of the National series at Sherwood pines in 2 weeks time!

First Race 2012- Welsh XC RND 2

So Eventually I managed to open up the legs at my 1^st MTB race of the year at the Welsh XC Round 2(Round 1 cancelled) with our typical weather of hail, wind and rain which turned what could be a pretty good course to an absolute mudfest!

The course was only 3km with a long uphill muddy fireroad before turning down a thick muddy descent that clogged your bike up adding a few pounds to the weight of the bike. Then it was a short ride across a fireroad to a steep uphill that was only rideable to half way up before having to dismount and pretty much run the next km of draining, calf stinging mud!

So after a confusing race start time between riders I lined up at 2 o’clock ready to test the legs. The start for me didn’t go amazing, I think I got into 5^th position to start and the legs hated every second from the word go!

I decided to hit this event with ride at my own pace attitude and slowly bring the legs into it and try and push harder as the race went on. Without realizing it I was moving my way up the field each lap going from 5^th to eventually 2^nd by the halfway point! The next half I was feeling stronger and legs weren’t as shocked and screaming like they were at the start. With 3 laps to go I was closing in on the leader and thought I could catch him since he was only 20 meters or so in front of me on the unrideable climb. However with the amount of mud and no traction it was hard to breach the gap in the short number of laps remaining. So with settling for 2^nd and gaining on the leader every lap I eventually finished 10 seconds behind with a bike that weighed more than a complete steel bike!

Next outing will be at the Wentwood 50km, which will help the legs come on more as I prepare for the 1^st major race that I dread every year, Sherwood Pines National XC!