Dyfi Enduro

The Dyfi enduro has become a bit of an annual tradition, a reunion for former Newcastle Uni bike club boys and the odd tag along. Another tradition is the weather forecast to be 62 hours of rankness sandwiched between weeks of sunshine. There are generally 2 sides to the weekend, one is drinking local bitters in the Coach House (note to self – 6% Bleddyn doesn’t sit too well at the top of a 5 mile climb out of the village) followed by gallons of homebrew cider provided by the NORCS boys and ending up watching (and depending on if your name is Ben Dean) joining in with the local hippies dancing in the marquee!

I limited myself to 3 pints before the professional athlete in me kicked in and I took on a high carb, high protein meal at the best chippy in Wales (that was official in 2004 but since then a mixture of bribery and stupidity has robbed Hennighans of this award). Some of the chaps weren’t so sensible with one (mentioned earlier) not making it to the start line and one making it there 5 minutes late.

The ‘challenge’ starts with a fairly leisurely warm up behind motorbikes before letting the 700 registered riders loose on a 60km loop around the Dyfi forest with 1800m of climbing. The next 3 hours plus consists of some massive climbs – mostly on fire roads – and some of the most technical and sketchy descents I have ridden. After the first climb I was sitting in the middle of a group of about 8 riders in about 12th place. Over the next hour this groups spread out a bit but by the feed station at half way I was still in 12th and could still see 3 guys in front. About ¾ of the way through I got my first puncture, 20 meters up the road, the second. By this point I had lost over 10 minutes and about 20 places and most of my motivation to push on. I caught and passed a few people over the next 10km until the final descent was in sight, that 2km sign at the top of the best bit of singletrack on the route. 10 meters in and bang goes the third tube! No more tubes and 2 km of slippery slatey descents – oh and carbon soles! Safe to say it is not the most enjoyable run I have done, especially seeing all the people re-passing me!

I think I came in about 34th, pretty much the same as last year, only with 3 more punctures! I have to try to take positives from this so while the result was not ideal I am happy with how I performed prior to that.