Welsh 2 Day Enduro 2005

Snippets:

Ian Vessey had a close encounter with a stick (And he is not using it as an excuse! ed.)
Happened near the end a couple of miles before the second test on day two. It isn't leaking and I daren't pull it out!
That little twiglet was attached to a much larger stick which had forced its way between the rad and the tank, and had come through the hole in the back of the tank and poked me in the knee. Good job I had my knee pads on eh?!!!!!
Vess.

Taff wins the new award which is given to the Best Club Member in certain events where there is a substantial club entry. (The details aren't finalised on rules yet.) Sadly he wasn't there at last club night to receive the framed certificate or receive the tremendous round of applause, or indeed the free drinks! It is so difficult to get him out to a pub nowadays! 

Experience has finally come with age for Roy Breakwell. He had the pleasure of watching the comparatively youthful Jules Bish paddling through the 1st test on day 2 with clouds of blue language coming out of his crash hat before succumbing. Perhaps Roy is right, "quit while you are still smiling", but we all know what Geraint says about quitting and he certainly didn't with the Over 50's win. Hang on! didn't Roy win that about 10 years ago though? He beat you there Geraint!

Do you believe Haines & Co. Boss Anthony Moore DNF'd on that fabulous Sherco 450? No, we don't either, so when quizzed he admitted to having lost only 3 mins, the same as Taff. But then again, Taff was sure he had handed in a zero penalty time card. Whichever way things get corrected it still means Taff was our Best Club Member in the Welsh. It is very hard to criticise the W2D team for what might be minor cock-ups when they have done an incredible job in this day and age and when compared to previous W2D's. With 500 riders they are virtually organising a third of an ISDE!

Got more snippets? send them in.

Day One... Day Two... Other Year's reports: 2007, 2004, 2006

TWO very different days made the 2005 Welsh 2 Day one to remember – dust and fast going on day 1 and a wet and muddy slog on day 2. (Phew! I was getting getting concerned there. I thought he was going to say it was a 'game of two halves'. ed.)

So congratulations to the organisers for overcoming all the red tape and putting on a proper enduro which was just the right side of testing on day 2.

The full results are on Cambrian Timing's website but how did West Glos members get on?

Sportsman: Lee Hook and Mark Hanchett both bronzed, losing 23 and 29 minutes on day 2 after cleaning day 1. Both were in the top half.

Clubman: Alan "Taff" Davies silvered, once again showing his W2D pedigree.

Bronzes went to Ben Falconer, Ian Vessey, Peter Neale and Mike Allen.

Anthony Moore is down as a DNF but we reckon he was up around the same end of the results as Taff.

Julian Bishop and Guy Calderwood retired on day 2.

And Roy Breakwell is not down in the results but he was spied out on day 1 at least.

Our fuellers – step forward Angela Neale, Drew Moore, Rod Jones, Tony Falconer and Stan Howitt – also kept four Cheltenham Home Guard MCC members topped up. Guy Smith and David Johnson took golds, and Steve Venn and Sam Wilson bronzed.

Day 1 report is below with Day 2 to follow very soon.

 

Day One:

THEY say there's only one thing dafter than riding an enduro, and that's watching one. "They" might be right. After all, spectators don't have a clue who is winning and see the competitors once or twice a day. Sky Sports won't be bidding big bucks to cover it, that's for sure.

Then there's the re-fuellers – how about hanging around in a layby with the smell of petrol to keep you company? Well our fuellers – Tony Falconer, joined by Stan Howitt on day 2, Angela Neale and Rod Jones and Drew Moore deserve all the West Glos (and Home Guard) riders' thanks.  Not only did they re-fuel, massage our egos and tend to our bikes, but they were out there on the course too, cheering us on. 

And no more were they appreciated than on the last tight check in the Irfon Forest. Up the forest road, up the switchbacks, and there were Rod and Drew, jumping up and down in the wet, yelling encouragement. It really gave us all a lift, and a much needed one. 

This check caused grief on the first day and more on the second. Some of us stayed clean on day 1 by the skin of our teeth but on Friday the thick mud slowed most of us down.

In fact, it's where I took my first of three trips over the bars of the Gas Gas 200. Rattling along the grassy speed ripples, I could feel the damping going out of time on every bump till I hit one fully compressed and went over. Charging on to make up lost time, it happened again 50 yards from the end of the test, which meant losing 1 minute and running on my allowance. (If you are new to this then this means he doesn't lose any penalty points for 1 minute late only 2 or more, but he must remember to add that minute to his original times from then on! ed.)

But the big story of day 1 was the dust. The powder-dry fire breaks were thick with it. The trick was to stay up front and make it someone else's problem because hanging back just meant losing your place in the "queue".

Still, it was a great day's riding with new off-road going to compensate for the loss of the Hafren Forest because of the forthcoming European round.

All the West Glos and Home Guarders made it home in one piece with the odd minute dropped here and there.

My only hiccup was losing three of four top yoke bolts ½ way round but a quick call to dad saw him rush off to Steve Plain's Gas Gas dealership and we had new bolts tightened in by the start of the second test at Abbey Cwm Hir.

I have a suspicion the driving motive behind some of the West Glos member's urgency to get to the finish was to resume the apres-enduro they so richly enjoyed at Penybont's Severn Arms the night before. Just for good measure, they put a good effort in on Friday night too – the landlord held off on noise testing (they were kept outside most of the time) because he was coining it in on the beer.

An extra 64 pints of Reverend James was on tap, ready for the return of some thirsty enduro riders.

Day 2

Just reaching the special test at Abbey-c-h' was a trial in itself – if one rider got stuck, you either waited while others charged past and did the same, or you just pinned the throttle and hoped and became one of the lemmings.

That was the story for most of the hard checks of day 2, which did ease as the weather improved. The rain had stopped by the time I reached A-C-H test at around 10am. So covered in mud, I had to acknowledge Drew and Rod, who like most of the spectators were watching one brown rider after another tiptoe round the grassy cambers.

Like a few others, after the test I stripped off my filthy goretex trousers and draped them over Drew Moore's Jaguar.

Then the fun started on to check 2. A sidecar outfit stuck in the forest transformed a difficult climb in to an uphill "black run". Trying to manhandle around it sapped energy reserves, so I throttled off a bit to conserve what I had left. I lost around 15 minutes here, in a 70 minute check. The top clubmen got in by a few minutes or so. To find out how to ride that check quick, ask Taff.

After Wennalt Bank (which used "Tommy's" playground), rider 216, who'd hauled me out of a bog a few years ago saw his favour returned when I towed him part of the way back to the petrol stop. His KTM 200 seemed to be doing about 13mpg, which doesn't go a long way in the Welsh.

We met Rod and Drew near St Harmon for Snickers bars and petrol before heading off for a 17 mile road ride to Sweet Lamb. Then before Strata Florida, where we met Tony and Stan, we covered a slack check combining road and track.

Strata had not risen much at all, and taking it steady took me 19 minutes, within a 22 minutes time allowance.

The last tight check of the day saw me lose about 4 minutes, because by now, frankly, I was knackered and I'd taken the 3rd and final trip over the bars.

Because the clubmen entry was swallowing up large parts of the sportsmen section, I thought I'd gathered a second wind, I must have ripped past about half a dozen up a steep shaley climb when the bike turned 90 degrees left, down over a bank and chucked me over the bars.

Down in the ferns, no-one else could see me, so I hauled the bike back, then up the bank about 6ft, before pushing and heaving the bike further up the climb.

It's only human nature to have a little chuckle when a "faster" rider comes a cropper after passing you, and I felt like a right pillock. Funnily enough, no-one helped but I don't blame them – everyone was tired by then. ("Better" riders pass you but there is a difference – they don't fall off and you don't see them again at tricky parts of the course).

To give the Forest fuellers a rest, we topped up at Beulah, where a cheerful garage boss seemed completely unfazed by several hundred muddy riders filling up with £3.74-worth or thereabouts, of juice.

The special test was a bit of a ride-through before the finish, with one tricky ditch, which Taff had apparently jumped one-handed the day before.

Day 2 looked like it was going to be hard and anyone who felt like jacking it in on check 2 would have looked to have made the right decision at the time, but the weather eased which made it tough enough but not too much.

Thanks again to the W2D committee. See you next year.