Inside Stories from the Wyegate 2005

There was one extra award that the Wyegate team choose. The 'Spirit of the Wyegate'. This year Roy Breakwell earned this. Not only did he miss the first 2 sections so he could move loads of sheep out of our sections on his land but he also spent 20 years helping at the event before finally getting his first ride in it. He also took on the public relations role on a new patch of land, allowing the farmer to sample the delights of his Honda CRF. He also spent time running around to get clutch fluid from his own stock to keep an otherwise stricken Mike Wells on the move. Don't get fooled by Roy's final score. He put all of you slowcoaches to shame in the special test with fastest time of the day. Not bad for someone who said goodbye to his 60'th birthday a number of years ago! (What do you mean he practices there everyday! It doesn't count if you use a John Deere!) If only we would all take on this attitude and responsibility for our sport.

Just got these extra photos in from Ben which means all of us who never got to see the rock step that caught everyone out at Chepstow Park can have a look.

This year we saw many more road book holders being used plus a number of GPS's. Only one of whom took up our offer of uploading a GPS route to confirm where they were going. He later confirmed the upload was spot on which was quite helpful as he was the course closer and would have been highly embarrassed getting lost on his own club's event. Have a look at his fully equipped cockpit in the photo. (Uh! I did phrase that correctly didn't I?)

With the new road book style used this year there were many different options to choose from, some of you chose to receive Kilometre versions, others chose enlarged versions up to A5 width. This is very easy to provide as long as you all use email which is of course an unfair restriction. The cost and effort for us means we will always post out the smallest amount of sheets. Those wanting a bigger version, would mean posting out possibly 14 sheets. Riders able to receive emails can take on the responsibility of printing them out themselves if they want to take these options. We have also learnt some valuable lessons in this first use of the system as we could also show lesser junctions on the private land, which are normally signed with arrows, in the road book to backup when awkward persons choose to disrupt things by changing arrows. Thanks to Mike Rees for putting an experienced eye on that.

Heard what happened to our Irish contingent? They booked the ferry and should have had 2 hours spare for signing on. Sadly the Captain was running the engine in and didn't tell anyone until they were on the boat. Not defeated, Phil Gunn and the 'Wandering Paddies' accepted 5's for the first 10 sections and joined in at everyone's favourite Pant-glas Steps. Phil Purcell had a really good ride dropping only 7 real marks for the rest of the day. The Irish sure know how to treat their organisers as they very kindly donated a presentation box of Whisky and Glasses to the Event Helper's draw. By a pure fluke we managed to catch both Phil Gunn and the eventual Whisky benefactor Rod Jones in one photo. To finish the day off they had to make another quick dash to catch the Cork ferry home with no time for a drink or meal.

Gavin Bailey, like Roy, has long been a helper of this event and finally booked a ride for himself and his immaculate CCM. Gavin gave the bike a tough time throughout the day, making sure of a finish which often eludes many first timers. Surprisingly there was only one real retirement this year when Sam King seized his Pampera. Some borrowed water from Old Hendre Farm didn't improve things, so rather than risk wrecking the engine he was sidelined to watch with the Gunn Family.

One more of our faithful club members also had his first ride as a solo competitor. Ian Hannam normally rides with a stabiliser on the side and has been known to win the sidecar version of the Wyegate, uniquely named the Sidecargate which runs in December. Ian freely admits he's better with 3 wheels.

Glenda Smith failed with her prediction of dropping the most marks. While partner Nigel Smith fresh from helping run the Caerphilly Club's Spring Surprise the previous weekend was pleased to find no Ice for a change. And while we are talking about the Spring Surprise, the Caerphilly lads were hoping to take the route over Grwyne Fawr, Not an easy climb by anyone's standard however this pass was part of the original Beacons Enduro run by Bob Perring and WTRA and if you think this is difficult for modern bikes then one of our observers rode this pass in the 70's on a bike he rode to the Wyegate. That is right, it is a ruddy great big Royal Enfield. A bit of a hero is our Julian. (Hang on! that is a very heavy bike, shouldn't we change 'hero' for 'sucker for punishment'?)

Some interesting lines were tried at Pant-glas Steps. Many wanted to follow what the person in front of them did and just hope they could keep the bike pointing the correct way. Jimmy Marshall went to the right of the big step and gave the requisite big handful to wheelie over it. Zack Pegler looked for an alternative that should have been easier to paddle up if it all went pear shaped. Sadly it didn't work for either of them as Jimmy ended up paddling out and Zack took a 5. However this obviously had the right effect on them as a much more determined effort on the top section say Jimmy clean it and Zack got through with a paddle. That's progress lads, you'll clean both of them next year!

Just in case you are wondering why people would choose to run an event like this this, then lets consider the options. It could be that they care about their fellow riders and wish to see them enjoying themselves, or they would like to be able to ride such an event but don't have the ability, or they have bowed to pressure from their so called friends, or is it that they want to make others suffer and see them struggle in the mud.  Somehow, I think there is elements from all of these that power Matt Neale into taking on such a role and pulling it off so successfully. Oh and just in case you are one of those who felt you suffered, then consider this sequence of shots as revenge. I certainly do, as he intentionally tried and succeeded in splattering me with mud too! Gotcha Matt!

It would be very unfair to leave you all with the thought that Matt is the only one to fall off amongst our valiant team of organisers so here are a few more, this time captured by the EDP Photo team.