Welsh Enduro Round 4 - Dyfi Forest

Round 4 of the Welsh Enduro Series headed to Mid Wales and the epic terrain of the Dyfi Forest.

The 4^th round of the Welsh Enduro Series made a bit of a change from the previous rounds which have been pretty much exclusively on trail centre sections. The Dyfi forest near Machynllyth in mid Wales has so much awesome and legitimate riding that it was rude not to have an event there and make use of some of that brown pow natural goodness.

Having spent a couple of days in the area already, riding with Dave from Bike Corris, I was excited to get to some racing. The previous 3 rounds have been held at the Marin Trail near Betws y Coed, Penmachno and Coed y Brenin. While out in the woods practicing there were definitely a few people for whom the natural stages came as a shock, while for others they were an opportunity to get loose and filthy!

Sign on was early on Sunday morning to give enough time for a practice lap, and racing kicked off before midday. The format was super-relaxed with a little transponder worn on the wrist that triggered you in and out of each stage with no need to “dib” in, or worry about start times. It meant that you could ride with your friends for the day and embrace the fun side of racing.

After a spin up the fire-road to the first climb, stage one was a long pedally singletrack, starting from midway along section 7 of the Climachx trail, following that in reverse and linking into one of the earlier sections. The challenge here was all about carrying speed, pumping everything and pedalling as much as you could. Quote of the stage “I’ve done XC races with less elevation gain”. Perhaps a little unfair but certainly not a stage representative of what was to come.

A short traverse lead to the top of Dicko’s and stage 2. A flat out shaley gulley lead to a fresh and loamy mid-section with more off camber roots than you could shake a stick at. This definitely took a few people by surprise, and the dark woods caught a few people out. Quote of the stage “I was just trying to open my eyes enough to see”…

From the bottom of Dicko’s it was another fire road spin up to the top of Bulith, another steep and natural stage with a seriously wild rut-fest to finish. Quote of the stage “I feel like Danny Hart at Champery……. Hahahah that’s a lie”

Stage 4 was a hearty fire road climb away, up past stage 3 and onwards up to the top of the hill again. Taking in all of the final descent of Climachx it was riddled with sharp slate and blind rises to huck and hope, before some excellent switchbacks, perfect for getting your drift on. The proximity to the car park and the open hillside made it a great spot for spectators. Quote of the stage “How come they got airhorns? Why didn’t I get airhorns?”

From there it was a quick roll back to the car park for coffee, bacon sandwhiches and the results. As you handed your transponder back you were given a results slip, as well as screens giving the live times and riders came back in.