Welsh Champs (Builth)

I entered the Welsh Champs race in Builth this weekend because I don’t feel like I have done much serious racing recently, and with Dalby less than a week away I wanted an opportunity to push myself. My previous experience of Builth meant I was expecting some pretty serious climbs and technical descents; I was not disappointed!


For the practice lap and the pre race preparation time the weather was typical wales (except the rain)! No Sun, no 30 degree heat, no improvement on my tan lines! As soon as we hit the first climb for real though, the met office prophesy came true, the sun broke free and I was dehydrated within seconds! The course basically consisted of a steep fireroad climb and a nice singletrack descent before hitting the proper climb. This took us all the way to the top of the course via some steep and loose slate fireroads – very hot work. After this it was pretty much downhill all the way. The singletrack was rooty off-camber and pretty steap in places until we were dumped back at the start.


From the start I let the pack go and was fairly confident I could catch at least a few later on. Sure enough half way up the second climb I gained a couple more places and got back on terms with a few more. By the last lap I felt like I was nailing the descent but was still wishing I had a full suss, my back is pretty sore as I am writing this! I was happy with my ride over all, I don’t think the result was amazing but I think I kept a reasonable consistent lap time and wasn’t too far off the leader. Hopefully I can improve a bit more for next week and get some good points on the board at Dalby.


In other important news, the pronghorn is due to arrive early this week so hopefully that will be up and running for the weekend! The pro’s may have preferred a hardtail at Dalby for the world cup but for me, this full suss can’t come soon enough!