Dyfi Enduro 2011

This weekend I returned to North Wales for another pop at the Dyfi Enduro. As I have said on many occasions, this is one of my favourite events of the year because of the technical and punishing nature of the course and the great atmosphere throughout the weekend. We arrived on Saturday lunchtime and set up camp before a quick rider around the Mach3 trail. Unfortunately, the usual tour guide was busy faffing so we set off without him and his replacement got us lost. Lesson learnt; never rely on a group of Norfolk singlespeeders.

After a quick tour around the fields above machynlleth we headed back into town to hit up the local pubs and fish and chip shop for some tasty and nutritious carb/protein loading. We tried in vain to get into the town comedy festival because we heard on the grapevine Rhod Gilbert was in town. Being a dedicated athlete I hit the sack at a reasonable hour. Unfortunately this meant I missed the 3am arguments about the merits of goats cheese which seemed to wake half of the campsite. I also missed Chief decorating the inside of his campervan with stomach contents… well someone had to carry on the tradition!

The next morning, while some people were dressing up as fairies and space men, I donned my bright orange lycra and headed to the start line. I had forgotten that people start queuing about half an hour before the start so I was pretty close to the back and orange kit isn’t the most discrete when trying to push in! I didn’t see the front of the race at any point in the day and while I tried to make up places from the off the leaders were long gone by the time I even made it out of the gates.

I felt strong for the first half and up until the feed zone I was making up places nicely. My Bikefood doing a good job of keeping me hydrated and energized. Unfortunately, it started to go down hill from here. I was forced onto a competitors energy drink because I forgot to pack my Bikefood sachets and my stomach was not happy with it. Despite it being a hot day on exposed trails, in the last hour and a half I only had about 2 gulps of drink because I was close to throwing up. I started to struggle with cramps and by the last 5 km climb I was losing ground with those in front.

I finished in 32nd with a time of 3hr12 over the 60km with about 1600m of climbing apparently (i forgot to charge my Garmin so I have no data to back up this claim). Although the event was a success in terms of my back holding up fine and beating all of my mates, I can’t help feeling a bit disappointed. There were about 7 people in sight in front of me with 10km to ride and I would normally have been confident that I could have reeled them in but my lack of endurance really showed. On the plus side, my normal races will be about 2 hours from now on and up to that time I felt fine. My technical abilities also seemed good as I only had to dab twice on what was a very technical course.

Next up is the Southern champs at Wasing Estate where I am planning on entering my first Expert race. I have a couple of weeks to prepare for this so I can see some intervals on the horizon!