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West Glos & Dean Forest
Motor Cycle Club

Celebrating 72 Years of Motor Cycling 1953 - 2025

Wyegate Trial 14th Apr 2024

Info

Final Results now posted. Click the link on the right.

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Video

A bit delayed is an understatement, but here's just a little bit of what Viv recorded!

I think it's a no-brainer for the 'Pear-shaped' award (for when it all goes Pear Shaped unexpectedly) - A certain person had only dropped one until that point. Votes to admin@wgdfmcc.org.uk

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Gallery

We have some Video footage too but needs some editing first. The stills below are in Section order.

All shots by Colin Jones (There are about 800 other shots, some aren't rubbish, just email if you'd like one or two, if I caught you. I'll email them back. admin@wgdfmcc.org.uk)

Click to step through the shots.
Last year's Wyegate Cup winner Simon Welch lines up beside polar opposite biked Chris Morris to compete on the same sections. You may think 'how's that going to go?' but 2 Enduro bikes were piloted into the top 4 rides! Rod Jones, resplendant in club's colours, runs the start line before dashing off to observe too.
Sec 1. Andy Foot confidently crosses some hidden roots.
Sec 12. 3rd in Trail, Rob Breakwell scatters and splatters Video Viv and Observer Darren.
Sec 12. Mark Woodward had a tough day keeping his lad Ryan on course, and beat Ryan here when everything went pear shapped for Ryan's only 5 of the day.
Sec 12. Paul Whitehouse gently trickled the TLR through for a clean.
Sec 13. A miserly dab here took Glyn Moses up to 2 and in contention for the win until Pant-glas.
Sec 13. Amory Falconer fared worse than Glyn here losing 2 and matching Simon Welch's first loss too. Only Rob Breakwell, Andy Frost and Martin Gilbert were able to record cleans of Georgina's first section (She's off to Pant-glas next).
Sec 13. Oliver Pekala and his brother are Wyegate newbies and learning new bikes but held onto mid-pack positions.
Sec 13. Nathan Pekala was winning the battle of the brothers by one at this point but Ollie's clean at Mork gave him the win by 2.
Sec 18. Gavin Moore gets brownie point for bringing an observer. After winning 3 times on the trot 12 years ago, a good ride with minor dabs went wrong when Nannies and Mork took him out of the running.
Sec 18. Richard Jenkins is another newbie from our local centre and an organiser, like the Pekalas. This Sunnyside section was his undoing having arrived with only a dab to his name.
Sec 18. Tom Pike was also caught for a 3 on his KDX here but thanks to only having dabs elsewhere held on to a first Class Award.
Sec 18. Simon Welch cleaned here and was one of only 12 cleans. Have you seen the section statistics?
Sec 18. Robbie Breakwell always seem to have his wheels off the ground. He's about to ride wall-of-death style on that narrow ledge on our right to an applauded clean.
Sec 18. Newbie Lloyd Roberts and his dad Mike showed fine form here using the ledge tidy like. Although dad came unstuck with a 3.
Sec 18. Fred Rist LDT Sec Peter Joseph took the safer line to avoid any risk of a maximum.
Sec 18. Amory cleaned but had to jump off the ledge early and go to the far side to recover. His dad had his only 5 of the day here, and he's paid me not to show the pic.
Sec 18. Ryan was still unsettled by his ground tasting episode in sec 12 and the rocks took his second and last 5 of the day. He cleaned here last year, so he knew what he was in for.
Sec 21. It's hard to believe Dave Maslin's one of the newbies with his 2nd in Trail on a 300 like Robbie, though just to be ready for any ties he pulled out 2nd fastest test time.
Sec 21. Chris Harvey is a regular helper with course prep and he knows how to ride clean here but he got over the step then the front wheel found a stone to stop the Triumph dead in its tracks. A sigh ran through the picnicing audience.
Sec 21. Chris Padfield coped with the step but resorted to footing to navigate the remaining rocks higher up.
Sec 21. Robin Looms took his 2012 Cup winning Alp through for a nice steady 3.
Sec 21. Rob Pike had a good steady ride avoiding any 5s.
Sec 21. Ollie Alford is another of our Observer/Riders that make this event go well, and he went well on the test, with 4th fastest time and not beaten by Ross, but slower than a certain Pre65! I bet he hasn't heard the last of that!
Sec 25. Ross Truszkowski had already observed you riders through an earlier section and might have thought that this is as tough as Romaniacs.
Sec 25. Robbie Breakwell's suspension works wonders on these steps.
Sec 25. Abergavenny club's Mike Roberts found getting up the huge step was fine. The landing was the problem, but a 3 saved the day.
Sec 25. Simon Welch chose the safer less committed left line.
Sec 25. If Glyn Moses had been half a degree more upright he might have avoided the frustrating 3 that ruined his then 2 total. But he clearly won the Eddlestone-Dike Award for Over 60s and a 1st class award.
Sec 25. Andy Frost was a newbie last year but came back very determined. He stayed clean all the way until Nannies where Darren's mud rut section and Graham's rock step exit took surprising maximums. What would he have dropped if he'd cleaned them? One!
Sec 25. If you've seen the results, you'll know Amory Falconer dropped a dab here. You'll have to wait for Viv's video to see how he got out of shape.
Sec 25. Nick Williams got a round of applause for his ride here. His fears were unfounded as he trickled up for a single dab.
Sec 25. Ian Thompson fails to bribe Georgina and settles for a 3 on the only Pre65 with built in SatNav.
Sec 28. Chris Freestone turns as tight as he can ready for the next turn but a 2 was recorded. I'd like to have seen how the KTM barges at the front of the results got around that final left turn.
Sec 29. No pic shows how long and steep this is but our reporter Ben Falconer has no trouble launching the big Pamp over the logs and safely getting the power on again.
We shamelessly include a shot of our course opener Anthony Moore who had to ride the section and has pre-ridden the course many times and here, cleans Merv's section 21. Some of our team also try cleaning sections ... with their faces, for some reason, they get very muddy! I'm not supposed to say that though, am I? Of course, some Fantics could probably clean every section today, although it might be in someone elses hands.

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Ben's Press Report

The 37th annual Wyegate trial tested riders and bikes to their limits in the lower Wye Valley, across 29 observed sections.

Of the 90 starters, 17 failed to finish the 100 mile course which started and finished at the Orepool Inn, Sling near Coleford.

For many, the day was a matter of survival, faced with daunting rocky gullies including Pant-Glas, Sunnyside and Craig-y-Master. These proved to cause few problems for the front runners, who saw the trial decided at a very slippery Nannies Lane section.

Until reaching section 23 at Nannies, former winner Rob Breakwell and Andy Frost were still clean, Rob having deftly piloted his KTM enduro bike through New House Farm’s tight sections which were studded with angular rocks and Andy doing the same on his Sherco Trail bike. Disaster struck for both at Nannies however, with a maximum five mark loss, allowing Amory Falconer and Simon Welch to battle it out for top spot after the only other challenger, Glyn Moses had to foot at Pant-glas Steps. Both had already double dabbed at New House Farm’s second section and both recorded an additional dab, but Amory took the overall win on a tie break of furthest travelled on the least marks lost.

It means that a new name is on the Wyegate Trophy, and last year’s winner Simon will see his name etched on the Pre 65 trophy won by his brother Matthew in 2023. Simon has coached Amory for more than 10 years in the ACU Western Youth Trials Development Squad, and this was the second time that Simon has been beaten by one of his pupils, albeit by the narrowest of margins.

Third placed David Maslin pipped Rob to third place, with a very assured ride for just five marks lost, and other riders of bigger trail and enduro bikes also put in some impressive performances, including Tom Pike (Kawasaki KDX 220) on 9, Chris Morris (Husqvarna TE 300) on 12 and Roger Brain (Beta X Trainer 250) on 14. The class for trials-based bikes which are not eligible for the overall win, was won by former 4 time Wyegate winner Chris Koch, aboard his Fantic Seven Days model.

The club wishes to thank all volunteer observers, landowners, and Gloucestershire and Monmouth Councils for their help in assisting with the event.

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Clerk of the Course says

Well there goes another Wyegate Trial and it appears to have been a success but a week before the event I was doubtful. For the last six months it has rained almost every day. When I rode the course on Monday with the openers and closers we had to cut one lane as the water was too deep to send the trial through and two others were borderline. We also had to arrange for several trees to be removed that had been brought down by high winds and sodden ground. The field used for the test last year wasn’t available due to being waterlogged, even though it’s on a hillside but the all weather track at New House Farm proved to be a good alternative!

It was hoped we would use the section at Llwna again this year as we haven’t been there for a long time and although we initially had the landowners permission, with two weeks to go and no let up in the rain forecast they asked us not to go there. So I decided to put a simple section in at the start of Nannies Lane, as it had been suggested as a section by Chris Harvey when we had ridden through there a few months ago. A few roots across a muddy track, it was supposed to be full width of the lane with just Starts and Ends but ended up as one of the hardest sections of the trial! Darren's first section at New House Farm also proved to be a bit of a killer.

Our only hiccup on the day was the failure of Ivor’s petrol pump which was a shame as he looks forward to us going there. Luckily there was an alternative fuel station in Usk and hopefully everyone got the message. Plans for next year- do exactly the same!

Ian Wixon, Clerk of Course.

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Marshals

Thanks to our chief Marshal, Guy Calderwood, for taking on the unenviable task yet again and he and All of us, including the riders, will thank the many Marshals who step-up and come from far and wide to provide a great service for us and get a ton of free entertainment for themselves!

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Snippets

More info to come.

Entries had piled in this year (100 at one stage) with some new faces and wow! 2 under 25's. Sadly, the Sport:80 system was still not perfect so we couldn't force riders to enter the registration of the bikes. Even though during the entry process we persuaded you to promise that you would type it in manually a few more clicks later, then about 50% either forgot or thought it didn't matter. Well our event sec did need them to comply with RTA for road events of this sort.

If you liked our Wyegate then you will also enjoy Neath club's Fred Rist Trial, usually held in JUly. Also Andy Foot and Kevin Stannard and team run the Derbyshire Dales Long Distance Trial in April.
Info on their website: www.bemrosetrialsclub.co.uk

Local Jim Delahay won the first Wyegate event, on a pre65 Greeves. (Pre65s were only 18 years old then.) It took 21 more years before another local won the Wyegate Cup. Steve Grindle on another Pre65. From then on we've had a consistent mix of Bendalls, a Breakwell and a Brown keeping the Cup close. Ok, they were all on much newer bikes but those Pampera's are surely more than 18 years old, much like Jim's Greeves was when he won! Jeez, does that mean we need a Pre2006 class! (Only joking, honest. But ... maybe a Twinshock award through all the classes might be interesting, so the 'Others' class on TL's etc. would be up against the Pre65s and some older trailbikes like XL185s, leaving the 4Rides and other more modern Trials frame bikes out. What do you think?)

We said before the trial, that in 2023 we had another local winning the Cup, with Simon Welch. Any bets on whether the Cup stays close for 2024? 3 time winner Gavin Moore was in to ride and Chris Koch was campaigning an old trail version of the Fantic trials models of the 80's, which left him elligible for the 'Others' win, thanks to wheelbase. But if the 2023 Fred Rist winner can borrow Grandad's bike again then at least the Cup will, and did, stay in the ACU Western Centre, and with a West Glos member? And finally beating your coach Simon at something? (Other ambitions are available.) And, unfortunately, nobody wanted to prove a totally electric bike can be a contender ... They'll get there, eventually, surely! (I didn't see a charging point on the way around! ... And will we need to factor in a compulsory lunch break for a recharge in the future? It's difficult enough to find Petrol!)

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Riders Say

Ian Thompson: Thanks to all for today I think it’s my 14th or 15th (Just checked, 15 Ian, ed.)

Richard Beale: Thanks for a fantastic event on Sunday, we really enjoyed it!

Chris Padfield: A big thank you to all those involved in organising and marshalling the wyegate yesterday. I had a great day but will not be troubling the leaderboard. Please pass on my thanks to all concerned especially the marshal who lifted the bike off me at Sunnyside, and the marshal who lifted the bike off me at Pant Glas, and the marshal who pulled my bike out of Nannies Cheers. (Sorry Chris, I've only got a gallery pic of you feet up cleaning the first big step at Craig-y-Master. ed.)

Roger Brain: Great event yesterday. Extend my thanks to all involved in the club with the huge amount of effort involved with running the LDT. I thought the event sections and difficulty were pitched just right considering the appalling weather that we have had during the run up to the meeting. I was totally chuffed to go clear on Pant-Glas which has eluded me since the Sherco X Ride days. Not sure how many more times this old pensioner body will be able to tackle it. Ha Ha Cheers Rog. (I'm sure there's someone in your family who could take over should you choose to put your feet up! ed.)

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Section Statistics

Apologies that the graded hill climb is not catered for in the stats, work in progress.

Section Score Incidence Tot
No. 0 1 2 3 5 10 Marks Sec. Name Avg
Trail Bike
1 39 4 5 4 9 0 71 Forge Wood 1 1.16
2 28 8 3 16 4 1 92 Forge Wood 2 1.39
3 41 5 4 5 6 0 58 Forge Wood 3 0.95
4 23 8 6 16 8 0 108 Forge Wood 4 1.77
5 38 4 4 2 13 0 83 Forge Wood 5 1.36
6 42 5 3 2 5 1 52 French Lane 0.74
7 44 6 2 3 4 0 39 Lords Grove 1 0.66
8 36 2 4 11 6 0 73 Lords Grove 2 1.24
9 31 13 7 6 4 0 65 Lords Grove 3 1.07
10 42 2 2 3 10 0 65 Lords Grove 4 1.1
11 42 8 3 1 6 0 47 Village Farm 0.78
12 14 7 4 14 20 0 157 New House Farm 1 2.66
13 3 8 6 32 10 0 166 New House Farm 2 2.81
14 19 14 10 8 6 1 98 New House Farm 3 1.54
15 57 1 0 0 2 0 11 The Graig 1 0.18
16 50 3 1 3 3 0 29 The Graig 2 0.48
17 56 1 1 0 0 0 3 New Barn Lane 0.05
18 10 8 3 10 25 1 179 Sunnyside 3.02
19 43 6 3 4 1 0 29 Tregare 0.51
20 47 4 0 1 3 0 22 Trostrey 0.4
21 39 5 1 4 3 0 34 Craig-y-master 1 0.65
22 45 1 2 2 2 0 21 Craig-y-master 2 0.4
23 3 3 1 27 18 0 176 Nannies 1 3.38
24 25 10 4 4 8 1 80 Nannies 2 1.37
25 13 15 1 9 12 0 104 Pant-glas Steps 1 2.08
26 31 7 2 7 3 0 47 Pant-glas Steps 2 0.94
27 39 5 1 5 0 0 22 Madgetts 0.44
28 19 10 5 9 7 0 82 Mork 1.64
29 41 2 0 3 1 1 >40 Forge Wood Hclimb 0.34
Rte Tot: 960 175 88 211 199 6 2053 1.21
Other Bikes
1 6 2 3 2 6 0 44 Forge Wood 1 2.32
2 9 1 3 5 1 0 27 Forge Wood 2 1.42
3 10 2 0 4 3 0 29 Forge Wood 3 1.53
4 3 4 2 8 2 0 42 Forge Wood 4 2.21
5 13 0 1 3 2 0 21 Forge Wood 5 1.11
6 9 1 2 2 5 0 36 French Lane 1.89
7 13 1 1 4 0 0 15 Lords Grove 1 0.79
8 8 3 0 4 4 0 35 Lords Grove 2 1.84
9 8 4 3 4 0 0 22 Lords Grove 3 1.16
10 13 0 2 0 4 0 24 Lords Grove 4 1.26
11 14 2 1 0 1 1 19 Village Farm 0.5
12 3 1 2 10 3 0 50 New House Farm 1 2.63
13 0 2 1 13 3 0 58 New House Farm 2 3.05
14 2 5 2 6 4 0 47 New House Farm 3 2.47
15 18 1 0 0 0 0 1 The Graig 1 0.05
16 14 2 3 0 0 0 8 The Graig 2 0.42
17 17 2 0 0 0 0 2 New Barn Lane 0.11
18 1 1 0 6 11 0 74 Sunnyside 3.89
19 15 0 1 2 0 0 8 Tregare 0.44
20 15 0 1 0 2 0 12 Trostrey 0.67
21 8 0 2 6 1 0 27 Craig-y-master 1 1.59
22 12 1 0 0 4 0 21 Craig-y-master 2 1.24
23 0 0 0 7 10 0 71 Nannies 1 4.18
24 3 3 0 4 7 0 50 Nannies 2 2.94
25 3 4 0 2 8 0 50 Pant-glas Steps 1 2.94
26 2 2 3 7 3 0 44 Pant-glas Steps 2 2.59
27 10 1 2 2 0 2 31 Madgetts 0.73
28 8 0 1 4 2 2 44 Mork 1.6
29 14 0 0 0 0 3 30 Forge Wood Hclimb 0
Rte Tot: 251 45 36 105 86 8 942 1.65
Pre65
1 2 0 0 1 1 0 8 Forge Wood 1 2
2 1 2 0 0 1 0 7 Forge Wood 2 1.75
3 1 1 0 0 2 0 11 Forge Wood 3 2.75
4 1 0 1 1 1 0 10 Forge Wood 4 2.5
5 3 0 0 1 0 0 3 Forge Wood 5 0.75
6 2 0 0 0 2 0 10 French Lane 2.5
7 2 1 0 0 1 0 6 Lords Grove 1 1.5
8 2 0 0 2 0 0 6 Lords Grove 2 1.5
9 1 2 0 0 1 0 7 Lords Grove 3 1.75
10 2 1 0 0 1 0 6 Lords Grove 4 1.5
11 3 0 0 0 1 0 5 Village Farm 1.25
12 1 0 0 2 1 0 11 New House Farm 1 2.75
13 0 0 2 0 2 0 14 New House Farm 2 3.5
14 0 1 1 1 1 0 11 New House Farm 3 2.75
15 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 The Graig 1 0.25
16 3 0 0 1 0 0 3 The Graig 2 0.75
17 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 New Barn Lane 0
18 1 0 0 1 2 0 13 Sunnyside 3.25
19 3 0 1 0 0 0 2 Tregare 0.5
20 2 1 0 1 0 0 4 Trostrey 1
21 1 1 0 0 1 0 6 Craig-y-master 1 2
22 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 Craig-y-master 2 0
23 1 0 0 0 2 0 10 Nannies 1 3.33
24 1 0 1 1 1 0 10 Nannies 2 2.5
25 1 0 0 1 1 0 8 Pant-glas Steps 1 2.67
26 1 0 0 1 1 0 8 Pant-glas Steps 2 2.67
27 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 Madgetts 0.33
28 2 0 0 0 1 0 5 Mork 1.67
29 2 0 0 0 0 0 6 Forge Wood Hclimb 0
Rte Tot: 51 12 6 14 24 0 192 1.74

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Bike Statistics

Make. Qty
Gas Gas 17
Beta 15
KTM 14
Sherco 12
Montesa 11
Scorpa 8
Honda 3
Husqvarna 3
Triumph 2
TRS 2
Kawasaki 2
Yamaha 1
Royal Enfield 1
AJP 1
TM 1
Greeves 1
Fantic 1
Bultaco 1
BSA 1