Hafren Rally - 10th December 2006

The club have sorted the Results. Click here. There are some photos up on Jack Stringer's site

And here are th direct links to some of our guys. Rikki, Steve, Guy, Vess.

Results are now up. The club had to scrap one of the tests. Seems like Rikki Lane came out as best club rider on 34:15 followed by Steve Biddle 36:17, Guy Calderwood 41:00 and Vess was our last finisher on 43:45 but that still put him as 16th in his class.

I suspect the Pugh-Jones and Lee crowd were pretty happy about having to withdraw after reading this lot. I'm glad I wimped out thanks to a full entry too. ed.

Simon's Report

Glenn Thomas, Dave Pinney, Vess, Guy Calderwood, Steve Biddle & Rikki Lane and I travelled up to Sweet Lamb to take part in the Hafren Rally.

A huge field of over 300 riders fought against the elements while trying to complete the 65 K course, wet weather gear was essential, or maybe scuba gear would have been more appropriate, rain & wind lashed down, up, across, in, out and generally shook us all about.

Out on the sighting lap I followed Vess & Glenn up & over the moors, (not Anthony or Drew!). Pinney started 40 seconds behind but was soon on my elbow on his gas-gas or should that be smoke-smoke, time for a top end rebuild Dave!.

The course was largely gravel roads, very slippery with some massive drops, see "cliff" beard. On the first wooded test I found Glenn taking a mud bath to cool down, I wish I had a camera. After this we settled into a pattern of long tracks interspersed with periods of panic braking, some steep climbs up through trees, steep descents through trees and back out onto the gravel roads, still showing evidence of the recent rally G.B.

As we were on the sighting lap, it was untimed, but there was still a lot of waiting around. This unfortunately carried over into the timed sections, so riders were kept waiting in the atrocious weather.

My race finished on the first lap as the RMX developed an ignition fault, only giving me half throttle, Glenn & Dave stopped after the first timed lap, absolutely soaked, Glenn's waterproof socks holding the water in, I think he had them on inside out. I think Vess, Guy and Rikki carried on, Steve completed his 3 laps.

I don't like to moan but the weather was a real downer, making riding extremely difficult, even loading the van was hampered by the wind & rain driving across the pits.

The Chairman Vess's view of the Hafren 2006

An early 5am start, picked up Guy at his home in Monmouth, then had a nice steady trouble-free drive up to SweetLamb arriving at 7:30. It was still a bit dark, but we signed on and scrutineered, then had a bacon butty and a cup of tea, a quick chat with Glenn and Simon, and then returned to the van to get changed.

Then it started to rain.

The first riders left at 8:30, by which time it was piddling down and the wind was starting to blow. I put on all my waterproofs, including my old wax-cotton overmitts, but all to no avail. By the time I got to the second test I had wet fingers and a wet elbow. By the time I got back to the van at the end of the first lap, my 'waterproof' jacket had given up the fight. I put on a dry shirt, and a bin liner I found in the back of the van which helped a teeny weeny little bit on the second lap. Halfway around the third lap, my waterproof socks gave up as well, so by the end I was 100% wet!

You may gather from this that it was a wee bit wet! Glenn informed me later that Wales had had a record 4.5 inches of rain in 12 hours. Seemed like a lot more than that where we were!

Apart from the weather, the Hafren Rally was a very enjoyable event, mostly firetracks but enough going on singletrack paths as well to make it interesting over a 40 mile lap. I decided to use my newly acquired CCM 604, which was (nearly) ideal. Great handling, nice and stable and great gobs of torque, ideal for the shaley tracks on the special tests. It did however let me down in the second test, when riding through a deep puddle where it cut out and wouldn't restart for a minute or so. By the third lap, the weather had got so bad, that serious consideration had to be given to the effect of the wind, particularly on the exposed first test which was whipping up spray from the surface water and also threatening to blow rider and machine offline.

The third lap was cut short by about 15 miles to just 25, which I don't think many people complained about. Mind you, there weren't a lot of riders left. When I returned at the end of the second lap, there were significant numbers leaving. Significant enough to ensure that there were no queues at the remaining checks on the last lap where there had been 20-30 waiting previously!

At the end I met up again with Guy who had finished without mishap on his Sherco, and who I hadn't seen since the start (he was no. 58 and I was no. 178). We both agreed that the third lap had been the best, possibly because there were no queues so there was no standing around, and possibly because the end and the nice warm dry van was in sight!

As for the others, Simon gave up after lap one with a Suzuki that wouldn't rev. Dave gave up after the second lap because he'd run out of oil (any oil – including stuff for the van's diesel!) for his 'needs a top-end rebuild' Gas Gas, and Glenn gave up at the same time 'cos he was cold and wet – what a wimp!

Steve Biddle and Rikki Lane's Report

Much the same story as the others really, really wet and windy but great fun.

I started quite early No.54 and Ric No.158. I'd seen the weather report the night before, so I expected rain, but it never stopped all day. The queues were qiute bad on the first lap, I think I waited nearly 30 mins each check. Ric had all his waterproofs on so he wasn't too bad, but me on the other hand I was soaked to the skin, fingers were quite numb, goggles were useless really and I used every pair of goggles and gloves I owned, Ric too. Aside from all that, we carried on and finished all 3 laps.

The fire roads were quite fast and a bit scary sometimes and the smaller tracks were really good. The small motocross track was a good little blast. All the pits and refuelling were all back at the van so that made life a bit easier. On the second and third lap the queues were not so bad due to people retiring. I did feel like stopping as well sometimes what with being so wet and cold, but I don't like giving up.

Up on top of the mountain the wind was really bad it was even holding the bike back and it felt like it was going to blow you off. I saw Guy most of the day as our numbers were close but didn't see Ian, Dave and the Thomases at all until the end and they said that they retired because of problems, but I think Ian finished.

The parc ferme was a welcome sight. Ric said that he really enjoyed the event. He's only done 2 rallies so I reckon he will do a few more.

A well run event all round, well done to the Jones brothers and dad Geraint.