[Closed] Anybody doing the dyfi round of the WES on Sunday?

Yep. Weather is looking good & first race in a while, let’s see how it goes 🙂

We did a pre event ride last Tuesday
Great course

We did a pre event ride last Tuesday
Great course

Was it easy enough to find? Planning to ride over tomorrow for a quick look see as I've zero idea what or where* to expect. I see in the email they're due to be out taping the course tomorrow so hopefully I'll get a chance to see some of what I'm letting my self in for, even if it's only from a distance before I head back over the hill and do the last few sections of the climachx on the way back to town.

Yep. Weather is looking good & first race in a while, let’s see how it goes 🙂

Yep, weather looks promising and a quick wander out today makes me think it'll be good underfoot which will be nice.
I've not raced since last summer and even then my racing isn't what most folks would call racing - I usually put in a decent lap time but I don't think that counts in an Enduro does it 😂

*To the extent I was thinking it would be over near Machynlleth end of the forest when I booked it and accommodation so I've a bit of a warm up to get there!

Good luck mate! Pity you never mentioned it in advance, I'd have been tempted

Pity you never mentioned it in advance, I’d have been tempted

The Mrs and I have made a bit of a week of it so in Shropshire for a few days before this and Cheshire before that. Few days in Machynlleth now then home Monday (so that'll be a slow run 🤣).
Thought I'd best not arrange too much else round this one barring maybe a coffee twixt practice and race proper, lest she starts to think I only invite her along so I've an excuse not to sleep in a tent.

I've foolishly signed up for the Llanfyllin round too though, that one's me and a riding mate heading down so more chance for a proper catch up and the like then if you find you're looking for "something for the weekend".

Well that felt like harder work than the numbers suggest!

Good mix of stages, should make for some good racing tomorrow, I expect I'll still be last

Well that felt like harder work than the numbers suggest!

Yep, their suggestion of the loop was significantly more climbing than they made out to be.

I’m a bit conflicted by the stages, as I guess they had to pick sensible stuff in case the weather didn’t hold but they have picked some ‘ok’ options when there is some absolute gold in those woods.

Ah well, we will see what tomorrow brings.

I'm in the area visiting but missed out on an entry. Took in 1-3 on today's ride. All very good trails but seem very short for a 4 stage race.

@Hob-Nob how easy are the other bits to find? On Strava or trailforks?

1 & 4 felt reasonable in terms of length 2 was very short mind (I enjoyed it but it really didn't feel worth the hike back out!).

I guess the issue with stage choice as well s weather resilience hobnob is picking stuff which suits a grass roots series. I don't know the area but I can imagine that at least some of the "gold" in them there hills wouldn't exactly fit a broad field.

Anyhow, enjoy today folks (hopefully there will be a coffee van or something today!)

14.05 start, that'll have to be a bit less relaxed on the uphills than I wanted today then 😂

Not a bad day of racing. Ended up 4th with a big old crash on stage 3. Can’t complain about that given I’ve done about 3 races in 2.5 years.

Probably time to do a few more now 😆

Congratulations! Top job.

Bloody good show @hobnob

I didn't finish last, neither in category nor overall which is a nice surprise.

Stage 1 went reasonably well when I finally got there. Out at two, and I was queuing until near 4pm to get to the start.
I lost a chunk of time waiting to be passed - first pass was fine, he shouted in good time just as we came to the fire road crossing.
Second one the Marshall shouted just after the second fire road (seemed to surprise the other rider at the time too, then when I got to the bottom and he said it was a pants thing for the marshal to have done) and I ended up on the side in the middle of the two drops which wasn't ideal.

Stage 2 was OK, difficult to see where I was going mind as I'd stupidly gone with sunglasses rather than contacts and clear lenses, was fine yesterday but just not quite today.

Had a small off on stage 3, realised I'd taken the wrong line into the penultimate corner but couldn't do much about it and high sided into the trees. Largely just couldn't get any rhythm on that stage at all, much slower than yesterday's run.

Stage 4 was just starting with the rain when I finally got there. All went OK barring one near disaster, just dipping into a shaded section in the woods I lost sight of the track briefly, caught something I couldn't see, ended up facing pretty much 90 degrees across the track with the rear rapidly over taking the front, rear wheel caught a tree trunk I started to have for impact but but somehow just got wedged across the line.

Mostly enjoyed it, but i remember now you're much people annoy me, after half an hour in a queue they got to the front then needed to spend a few minutes more taking a swig from their bottle, positioning their goggles and so that or leave a ferkin huge gap between them and the bloke in front who left scorch marks on the trees before they bimble in at a pace barely better than mine.

Well done both.

I did another lap Sunday evening. Stage 1 was a muddy mess but the others all ran well. Shame I left it so late to get out as I would have liked to play on the other trails next to stage 4.

Second one the Marshall shouted just after the second fire road (seemed to surprise the other rider at the time too, then when I got to the bottom and he said it was a pants thing for the marshal to have done

Agreed - it's for the chasing rider to shout, not a marshal (unless you really are in the way)

half an hour in a queue they got to the front then needed to spend a few minutes more taking a swig from their bottle, positioning their goggles and so that or leave a ferkin huge gap

Ties in with your grip about the queues for stage one and is the biggest PITA with enduro. I'd like to see organisers taking a more proactive approach managing this, I love racing but hate all the unnecessary faff!

Surprised nobody has mentioned the 'transition' from stage 3 to 4...which involved descending on road from virtually the top of the mountain all the way back down to the campsite before setting off up hill again. The organisers seem to have overlooked the original cardinal sin of mountain biking. I don't care what the reason that was an unforgivable loss of height which we ended up doing 3 times over the weekend. There will have been a better route / combination of tracks possible. Not sure why this route was chosen, clearly not an issue for E-bikes, was that a factor..?

Otherwise fun weekend

Surprised nobody has mentioned the ‘transition’ from stage 3 to 4… which

Was infinitely better than the one from 2-3 😉

Looking at a map I think 3 easy just a "bad" choice to be honest, no good way there or back and heatmap suggest not much else to tie into over there either.

Surprised nobody has mentioned the ‘transition’ from stage 3 to 4…which involved descending on road from virtually the top of the mountain all the way back down to the campsite before setting off up hill again.

Frustrating, was the polite term I used. Especially as once you got out of the top of 2, and along the fire road to the main junction there was an absolute belter of a trail on the right.

Annoyingly, if you dropped out of the bottom of 3 & turned left up the fire road, after about 100m on the right there was also a peach of a trail which took you down to the river. After it was a flat fire road commute back to the road which the other fire road transition joined. They could literally have tripled the length of the stage if they added that in, and I would have forgiven them for a short little fire road sprint, it was that good.

There was also another trail that started before 3, higher up on the fire road & ended further down the hill, which was significantly better - however, all were a significant step up in terms of gradient & tech, so might have been a bit much for some...

Appreciate organisers can't please everyone, but it seems as though they just went for four logistically easy stages rather than making the most of the area.

I was planning on entering the Llanfyllin WES/BNES but if it's the same organisers and apparently less technical terrain than Dyfi, it doesn't seem worthwhile for £80 or befitting of a British round?