37

Brechfa Enduro

17th August – Brechfa Enduro

The last few weeks since Twentyfour12 have been really difficult for me as I have struggled with my back injury and motivation. My back didn’t improve in the week after, and whenever I got on the bike I was in pain after an hour or 2 at the most, which made training as I normally do almost impossible. I also found myself in a strange situation, having worked so hard to win Mountain Mayhem and to finally have achieved that I was now half way through the season without another major event to really motivate myself. I had good days when I’d go out for a really hard interval session, but follow it with 2 or 3 bad days with little or no riding.

I went to see a specialist regarding my back and after a long session lots of massage and ultrasound I at least came away with some answers. Some deep muscles in my lower back had gone into spasm and were almost impossible to move. The muscles were pulling on my sacrum and parts of my spine causing all the discomfort. The good news at least was it that it was a muscular problem and should be able to fix with a few sessions and lots of lower back stretch exercises.

With my back on the mend I had to sort out my motivation. First of all I looked for what events were going on and were suitable. I found the Torq 12hr on the Bank Holiday but I didn’t fancy doing it solo as I have some big races in September and October, so I asked Lee Williams if you was interested in doing it as a pair. He was up for it, so I entered us into the pairs category. I’m really looking forward to it and having the opportunity to racing with Lee as he is flying at the moment. Hopefully we will be a good team!

With that in mind I had something to aim for, but something even sooner came up. The local enduro here at Brechfa was run this weekend and I had originally planned to be a marshal, but as they had enough to cover the course I decided to enter. It was a 50km course, which sounds short but I knew it would be far from easy with plenty of climbing and technical descents. I knew most of the route and decided to aim for a time of 3hrs.

This was the second year the event had run, and it had grown nicely with over 100 people entering and I knew plenty of them were quick. The event started with a 1 mile tarmac section and then straight up a long fire-road climb which I found really hard. I’m never good at the start of races, but it was clear that I had no top end power and I was battling up in 4th position. I wasn’t too worried as I was hoping to make up time on the downhills and later on as I warmed up. Into the first singletrack section I caught and passed 3rd and on the next climb I had 2nd place just ahead of me. Our speeds were evenly matched on the climb so I wasn’t able to catch him until the next descent. Soon into the next descent I caught 2nd and we ran/walked up the next steep climb together. We then rode together for a while, although on the next slippery descent I knocked a tree which slipped the brake lever to a vertical angle making it really hard to brake and stay in control.

After a long climb one of the marshals told me I was leading, which was news to me and at the time I had no idea what happened to the guy leading. I kept pushing on and finally managed to get a gap on 2nd. We were now onto the “Gorlech trail” which is my local route and I know it well. By now, just over 1 hour in I was feeling great so kept pushing as hard as I could. At the feed station I stopped to borrow an allen key and was finally able to sort my brake lever out. From here on it was a loop of the black graded “Raven” trail. The first few sections were downhill and I went as quickly as I could without taking any silly risks. Coming back towards the finish there were 2 big climbs. The first was steep, slippery and long. It seemed to drag for ages, but as I neared the top I heard the squealing brakes of a rider at the bottom. I hoped that this was 2nd place, as it would mean a good 3-4 minute gap. After another slippery descent came the final climb, this time it was wide but again long and almost as hard. As I got to the top I knew that I’d win as I just had a few short downhill sections followed by the final 2km long downhill of the “Gorlech” red trail, which has to be may favourite descent ever. I know it inside out as I ride it all the time as it is quite literally just behind our house. The very last section was a flat fire-road blast to the finish, where I looked down at the Garmin Edge and clocked my time, 2hrs 44min to take first place! A full 15 minutes quicker than I had hoped for and 5-6 minutes ahead of 2nd place. The guy who was originally leading missed one of the first way markers which he said lost him around 5 minutes, and finished in 5th or 6th place with a time over 3hrs.

The event and the result has given me a fresh boost, as although I know my top end isn’t as good as it should be I know my endurance is still there and my back is much better. I had a slight ache from 2hrs onwards, but no pain like before. I was able to hold a high HR for the whole race, which is a real improvement from another similar event at the start of the season. I can’t wait for the bank holiday and the chance to race with Lee at the Torq 12hr, it’s going to be painful but fun!

I captured the event using my Garmin Edge 705 and have uploaded it to Garmin connect, follow the link below to see the event data for anyone interested.

www.connect.garmin.com/activity/11379087