Angie takes over the crib:
So this was the final round of the UK Gravity Enduro Series at Dyfi Forest in Wales. The venue hadn't been used before so everyone was keen to get a look-in and see what it was all about.
Steve and I travelled down on the Thursday night, we got there about 1am so pulled up in a layby on one of the windy narrow roads for the night - I'm pretty impressed that we survived to be fair! ;)
Got up fairly early on Friday morning and got set up in the field, it was a lush start to the day with a beautiful blue sky and the sun was just starting to peek its rays through. The bikes were soon sorted, had some brekky and hit the trails with the guys.
It started out on a big old fire-road, little did we know at this point that 98% of the climbs would be on fire-roads. Forty minutes later we were at the first descent, it was pretty short and absolutely flat out! Think scree, shale, loose greasy rocks with a good old gradient and you'll get the drift, literally! Another climb followed, this one was about fifty minutes up and out into the open with some gorgeous views of Cadaer Idris.
Taking in the views on Friday with the guys. Photo by Sarah Newman
Shot down a totally sweet fast descent, probably my favourite section, however I got a puncture in this stage on my race run, damn it! Back up another fire road for forty minutes which was followed by another cool descent ending on a super steep rocky spine. It felt as though I was in a different country at this point, the tracks were crazy, very Alpine. Another (yep, another one) fifty minute fire-road climb to the top of stage 4, and the top of this section was crackin', picture a steep drop into a stump filled city. Off camber, rocky, high lines with lots of roots, absolutely amazing! The middle of this section was not so good however, a steep climb and then a very pedally flat section where I got overtaken in my race run by a certain Miss Newman who seems to have legs with pistons in them!
As for the last fifty minute climb up to Stage 5, oooh I loved this one. You would have loved it Lee, pure old school-style across fields with flat grassy turns and just making what you could out of the land that was there. This was also the qualifying track, awesome!
After we had rode the track on Friday we got some good rest, managed to go to bed at 8pm and get a good 13 hours sleep in :)
Saturday was a scorcher, we practised track 1 and 5 and then made our way up for qualifying. I had a good run and got a 5th with some close times to the other girls.
Showing the lads how to do it. Photo by Dave Ward
Another 12hour sleep followed that night and Sunday morning was an early start. The girls set off at 9am. My legs were feeling OK up until Stage 3 when there was that middle section sprint, it was a killer having already sprinted through Stage 2.
Photo by Dave Ward
I ended up in 6th position overall. Not where I would have liked to be but it's my first year at Enduro and the Elite category is bloody hard! I'm working on my fitness more for next year and have already cut out the chocolate. Ouch!
Sunday night was party night, a good few glasses of red were downed, got drunk and was asleep by 9pm, what a lightweight, it was my birthday weekend after all! :)
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