30

DYFI Enduro

Last weekend I entered the Dyfi Enduro, one of my favourite events of the year. It is a relatively short enduro at 55km but it is relentless with long fire road climbs and very technical slated descents. Each year it grow in popularity as the word spreads, with over 600 entries the event sold out within 48hrs!

It starts from the town of Machynlleth in Mid Wales with a procession type start through the town leading to a 7km controlled but spirited lead out through some country lanes. The race really gets going when you hit the first fire road climb. I was close to the front at this point and tried to stick with the leaders, who included Nick Craig and Stu Bowers. The pace kept creeping up and I could feel the lactic building in my legs. I slowly lost contact and a group of 5 got away. Cresting the top of the first climb I was in 6th place with a long group of riders strung out behind me. I wasn’t feeling fantastic on the climbs, but I was hoping to make up for it on the descents as I was riding my new Focus First Extreme which I knew would suit the course.

The first descent was quite short, but a real taste of what the event offers. Steep, rutted and slated with plenty to avoid and very little time to choose a line. To be fast down the hills it was a case of being slightly out of control, holding on tight and hope your line choice was good. As soon as I reached the bottom it was straight back up another long climb, cresting a moorland section was I really hated. I dropped back a place as a strong rider past me. Luckily it led straight into a mega fast, steep descent and by the bottom I was up 2 places, passing troubled riders on the way down. This sequence of long climbs and technical descents never ceased and by the half way point I was starting to feel good and still in 5th place slowly loosing touch with 4th but trying hard to keep the riders behind at bay. Around 15km from the finish a rider behind, Rich Landsdown caught up with me on a technical climb. We stayed close almost to the finish, I’d gain a bit of the fire road climbs and faster descents and Rich would close the gap on the slower, more technical climbs and descents, amazing considering he was riding a rigid singlespeed. I know Rich well and know that he is an exceptionally skilled rider so I was pushing constantly to get away. The final 3km was almost all downhill and I used a fast section to try and get a gap. I pushed really hard and scared myself silly going down, throwing the bike into natural berms, jumping and dropping the rocks on the way down. A quick glance back before the very final downhill section and I had pulled a good minute or two over Rich and managed to keep that until the finish, to come home in 5th place in a time of 2hrs 52min. Exactly the same place as last year!

I’m fairly happy with the result and had a great time at the event. I felt a little slower on the climbs than last year, so at least I know what I can improve on. Looking back on the last month or so of training I feel that it has become a little static and I don’t think I am doing as much as I could or should be doing. It is a real worry, especially as my major races are approaching fast. I now have a 4 week block of training until Bike Radar Live. After that it will be mainly recovery and preparing for Mountain Mayhem, so these next 4 weeks are very important. I’ve changed my training about in an effort to get more out of myself, I just hope it all works!

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Athlete Diaries, Matthew Page. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.