Fox Anti Freeze Shenanigans
Sunday 4th of March was the first official outing of the new Pedal & Crank cycling club mountain biking team for 2018. New kit arrived early on in the week and as a key sponsor of team, I must say it looks really professional and eyes catching.
Eight entered the event, which with the Siberian weather in the week wasn't looking likely. When we got there was only a slight sprinkling of visual snow left around the visitors centre, and with it due to warm up later on in the afternoon, conditions look ok for riding.
Bike choice early on in the week was a big debate, with either Fat bike or trail bike, I opted for fatty with later in the day I would regret.
Race went off without a hitch, P&CCC went of in the second group with some excellent photos being taken and great PR for the team and sponsors. Course was kept a secret all week, but once we were on it it was clear it was for the XC whippets. Lots for firewood climbs, fairly tame decent's apart from the final one. Which is challenging in the dry never mind covered in snow. The fatty was great on all the snow and slush but on the final rocky decent fully rigid was a bad idea, my arms and shoulder felt like I had be on a nematic drill all day, on a positive note shook off my bingo wings! Ieuan wasn't impressed with the course and bailed after lap 1.
Lap two was similar pace to the first with Ben, Sean Rob and I chasing down Corporal Castleton who went off like he had sh*t the bed or on a promise or something, he wasn't going to ride with us. My pace was good until the final rocky decent. Same shuddering feeling, but this time my tactic ride it faster, great idea if you can see where you are going with your bike bouncing off all the rocks! Two laps enough for me, so my job was club cheerleader.
Jay Jay was next in two laps enough for him with him falling off a few times, so brew was needed to warm up the cockles and cheer the lads home. Dan was the quickest on the day, followed closely by Ben and Sean racing for the line, and not far behind was Rob. Last in from P&CCC was Phil who was cheered home by all the team and made it onto downhill camp 'Rachel Atherton's' instagram story for the day.
Poor Phil looked like a broken man, but a strong black coffee and haribo's he was soon on the mend.
Overview of the Event
On the whole the event was put together well. Sign on was easy, facilities were good at Coed-y-Brenin, which they always are. The one thing I would say is the route could have been better, it was a pure XC course, it could have done with some technical climbs and more technical decent's to make it a more level playing field for the trail riders. Was it like this due to weather? I ma not so sure, while it was a good first event of the year, more challenging Enduro's are on the horizon.
