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Who's playing and show us your steed's!
Camping or going posh?
I'm camping with a couple of mates (Scott fitz+1), and riding my heckler, pic to follow. Be there Sat afternoon
Worth checking but think you have to sign on saturday by a certain time either morning or early afternoon. Seeding usually starts at 3 on Saturday. So if you want to practise the course you need to get there in the morning.
Looking forward to it and hoping its drier than the last round 🙂
at least 100miles nearer than all the other rounds in the series and the only one I cant make 🙁
weather should be good enough to camp too!!
Register by 12, seeing from 15:30
We'll be there for registration.
Not many from stw going then?
Yep. I'll be there.
Group of us going down Saturday morning. Nice to have a reasonably local race,rather than a 10 hour epic drive to Scotlsnd 🙂
Map is up
Stage 3 will be really tiring! Well, not that the rest wont be, but 2/3rds of it are non stop rocks! I dont recognise stage 2 though? Windy point doesnt go that way?
Just realised it must be a typo for stage2. Its not Windy point from Whites, its the open blue type trail of Blade and into the woods for the tight berms.
The Twelve50 guys and girls will be there but not in our usual force.
Russ, Ross (me) and Des the Chef aren't there, although Russ will be there Friday to set up the pits.......so if you see any of them wondering around looking lost without their ususal loco parentis supervision on hand help them back to our pits and make them a sandwich
Yeah, I'll be there with 2 other locals.
Though I raced a few years back this'll be my first enduro so looking forward to something different though I've no idea what to expect!
What sort of bikes are people taking? I've the option of a 456c (riden more often for xc/trail) or a Spesh Enduro that I use for everything from trails to uplifts and everything in between.
Are people heading down Friday night or Sat morning?
As super fli said 3 of us racing all on our single pivot 26ers rocking the old school. Can't wait.
[url= https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7412/12037176725_3eb9a92bd4.jp g" target="_blank">
[url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/37582372@N07/12037176725/ ]IMAG0402[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/37582372@N07/ ]scottgolfgti[/url], on Flickr
Are any of the stages the same as last year? I don't really know Afan, so the map makes no sense to me, looks like a reasonable sized loop though.
I'll be on a Nomad. Not camping though, hotel down the road. Although there might be 6 of us in a room, so it will be cosy.
Gotta be better than riding through fallen trees at QE!
Nice Prophet 🙂
ZigZags and 373>Graveyard are the same as previous years I think (not done them, but looking at the old routes). Stage1+5. 2+3 are new trail.
Stage 4 looks like a new trail, so expect that one to be fresh and soft 🙂
Ah now I know the names of some of the trails I can look back on my strava from last year.
Looks like stage 5 is the same, hopefully not as bogging in the middle section before the 4x track. Also looks like the zigzag one is the long trail from last year, that one will be really physical, I seem to remember it being ~8 minutes.
Stage 4 looks like it might be in the bike park somewhere? That's a lot of guessing though...
Naa, Stage 4 goes straight down the hill, its not up in the bike park. It will be steep, look at the contours!
I assume that qualifying will be down stage 5 to the 4x track.
Yes, stage 5 is qualifying.
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Since changed my wheels for my ArchEXs. Thought Crests might be risking it a little. Oddly the Crests are no lighter anyway? Also got a Fat Albert front instead of the HD (couldnt be arsed to change over)
Decided on the Enduro after seeing what you guys are riding. Gave it a quick check over and now ready for the weekend.
What's the tyres of choice then?
Fat Albert's for me.What's the tyres of choice then?
How cool was that then! Well, not cool, it was fkn hot 🙂 and a midge fest in the campsite!
Loved it. Fantastic trails, all of them. Met some great people, and my first time to Afan in dry conditions!
Gutted I dropped my Garmin FR 305 on Stage 1 zigzags, cost me time to pick up and attach. I then dropped it somewhere further down 🙁 anyone finds it, please message me! Thanks
Still, 27:27, 23rd in Vets, pretty pleased. Only issue was my Garmin dropping 20secs or so on S1.
Had a great time! The final climb up to stage 5 was brutal, must have been at leat 100 degrees, fairly sure all the water boiled out of my camelbak!
Stage 4 was amazing as was stage 2. The newly cut bits made the other stages flow really well. Wasn't sure how 373 into grave yard was going to work but it was fine (well apart from the up hill pedal on graveyard but that was expected). I would have preferred windy point to grave yard to be honest but I think they wanted to keep all of whites open to the public.
I was surprised that I made it round the 28 mile course in that heat amazing what a bit of competition can do to you. Managed a 32nd in the senior which I was happy with, as I was thinking of bottling the whole thing the week before.
How did everyone else get on? Hands up who crashed on stage 4! I was lucky to make it down alive I think. Lots of very sketchy foot off moments.
I broke my bike! Gutted!
Rode S4 once on Sat and then on raceday, both good, no falls. In fact I walked it sat night and looked at some tight/faster lines, which I managed to hit 100% somehow on raceday! S2 was excellent, as was 3/4/5! A tough day in the heat and pleased my old 2009 bike managed with no mechanicals (although it is a bit like Trigger's broom!)
What a fantastic weekend, my 1st gravity enduro and loved every minute (well, apart from being eaten alive by the midges)!
Think the weather played a large part but the whole event had a great atmosphere and great mix of stages - loved the steep, natural stage 4, not so much love for the pedal on stage 3 - must get fitter!
Didn't get over to practice stage 2 on Saturday so rode it blind and missed a line up over an off camber rock slab towards the bottom but kept it upright and got all my lines on stage 4 so happy with that.
Hands up who went straight on at the 1st corner of the freshly cut, off camber/loamy section of stage 1 (just before the 1/4 stage split). Not sure if it was red mist on the 1st stage or if it had been taped in practice and a previous rider had wiped it out but a lot of people I spoke to had done the same.
I snapped my chain out of the start gate in seeding, which se the tone for the rest of the weekend for me. Rolled down about tenth from last in masters.
Overtook 2 on stage one, and was sat on the third guys wheel down along the flat bit and the last descent, made the decision not to pull a dick move and risk taking us out. Wasn't worth it.
Slogged out to stage 2, crashed my brains out trying something stupid within about 20 seconds of starting. Medic came and peeled me out of the undergrowth, and sat with me for a while as I'd smacked my head, rolled down the rest of the stage & decided to call it a day.
Not my finest weekend, just thankful I didn't break anything with 2 riding holidays coming up shortly.
Jamesfts - yes I did the same, the tape had gone AWOL.
I snapped my chain out of the start gate in seeding
What a nightmare! surprised you managed to get any result off the bottom at all in that scenario! Did you have to stop and fix it on the start line?
I stopped to pull it out of the mech & cassette, I'm waiting for the guy on the finish line jump to upload his pics, as I just laid it over the bars & it was flailing around everywhere!
I ended up about 40 seconds back on what I would have expected, think I rolled over the line with something stunning, like 4.16 🙂
Had a little run with my bike at a few points, which was great fun...