Cwmcynydd H&H - 18th March 2007
Results on www.rdmcc.co.uk and EnduroNews.com
Words by Steve Biddle.
With only the Snowrun and a Wiltshire H&H so far this year, I entered the Rhayader club's Cwmcynydd H&H and good it was too.
Travelled up on early on Sunday morning on my tod. I was first there and thought it was cancelled because the weather was really bad 100 mph winds snow hailstone and rain we had it all. The toilets were even blown over! Eventually met Ross rider Phil Gardner. Quite a good turn out as there were 143 riders, expert, clubman, sportsman, and beginners plus o/40s.
The event started a bit late because there was a few trees down that had to be sorted. The laps were approx 7 miles and were really hard going. we had a 2 mile warm up lap first, and then the start was up a really steep hillclimb, most of the clubmen just stopped at the bottom, but I managed to get by and up the climb okay.
Half way round the course there was another nasty climb which did get too bad so they shut it off. Towards the end of the lap there was a really deep bog, which I believe is quite famous, and yes it was deep everybody just had to wait their turn to get through. One marshal told me that they had a new Clerk of the Course and he'd reversed the track which according to him he shouldn't have done, I caught Phil up at one point but I had a little off and I never saw him again. I pitted after 2 hrs. My KX seems to be running better now I have sorted mixture out and no longer blowing plugs.
The course just got worse and worse, you were paddling all the way round. There was 65 riders that retired and some people didn't even do 1 lap! The top boys managed 7 laps, I managed 5 and I think Phil had done 4 then dnf'd so he must have had problems. I think we were averaging 20 mins a lap.
The club did a good job running it, fair play to them, they said it was one of the worst conditions they ever had. Keith Bowen the Photo man said he's never been so cold and never seen so much mud. More info on EnduroNews.com. I came 10th which I'm quite pleased with really .. it was a hard enjoyable day.