Brechfa Frostbite 40 Enduro 2012

40km of riding in Wales, in January?

Seemed like a very good idea about three months ago but me and Jamie rolled into Wales feeling slightly apprehensive on Saturday morning.

We decamped into the village hall and then headed for the pub to get some food and maybe a half shandy for medicinal purposes. A number of hours later we realised everybody else had left the pub and then remembered we had to get up at 7am, a hasty retreat was beaten. A not entirely restful night and a slightly groggy morning followed.

Clothes were chosen and bikes fettled and then came the all important checking out of the opposition, after figuring out they mostly looked keener, fitter and less hungover than us we turned our attention to the rider briefing. Trail conditions meant the distance had dropped to 30km and the fourth timed section was removed, to be honest this didnt seem like a bad thing. Then we were off.

A long drag on the road up to the first off road section wasnt much fun but I guess it did warm the legs up and sweat out some beer. This led onto an equally exciting fireroad climb up to the first timed section, the downhill? A thirty second gap between riders meant quite a bottleneck formed here but most people seemed happy to relax in the unseasonally pleasant weather.

This was the first real fun bit of the ride, three and a bit minutes of typically rooty, twisty and slippy switchbacks and tracks, the route itself mostly used bits from the Gorlech trail so some people may have ridden bits of it. I think we both did pretty well here and managed to pass a few people. This brief joy was then followed by some more fireroad climbs, which would become a theme as the day progressed.
The next timed section was about eight minutes of climbing and descending, sitting watching some guys blast off up the hill left us with no illusions about any possible podium placement. The first section twisted up some steep switchbacks and I’ll happily admit that both of us, plus many others actually walked a small steep section that had an unfeasibly cruel headwind blowing, for small period of time I was engaged in a pushing race to catch the guy in front. As the middle section opened up into some nice rollers and slightly sketchy rocky turns my thighs began to give out a little bit and I had to catch my breath, allowing the guy in front to gain back a little time.

Then the trail headed back down with more sketchy corners and a few little rollers and drops to nearly catch you out before bursting back out onto more fireroad. At the bottom of this section there was a small amount of carnage, a nice blood soaked rider and his mate who had a nice ripple in the downtube of his Boardman. A tree rider interface apparently.

More fireroad……..

Eventually we came to the feed station where some bananas and Mule bars were happily consumed before a fun little woody descent that wasn’t timed but was a lot of fun, this led onto………a fireroad all the way up and round to the final section only interspersed with an extremely muddy section that was pretty chewed up. If this was a rideable section I’d hate to see what the 10km they took out was like!

The climb, eight minutes, or maybe a bit more, of singletrack climbing. I don’t think anyone had been looking forward to this and I’m not sure I really enjoyed it. As far as climbs go it wasn’t to muddy or steep but really did hurt the legs quite a lot and the last few corners were pretty excrutiating, I think the fact that the climb was quite twisty and singletrack meant there wasn’t any room for a quick coast to rest resulting in a lot of pained faces sitting at the top. We both passed a few people and had a few people pass us here, I have my suspicions that some people had been training for this event.
After a lengthy sit down and grimace we headed off back down some fireroad and onto the road to lead us back to the finish.

Overall it was a nice relaxed event and despite not exactly setting blistering times I think we both enjoyed it. The road section and many fireroad climbs were a bit monotonous after a while but thats just what the trails are like I guess.

A return may be a possiblity but with more fitness and less Drambuie.