English
Wentwood 50k Goshawk Enduro 2011
This weekend I travelled to Wales to stay with Matt Page and have a pre season catch up and ride some of his local trails. Arriving on Friday afternoon it was a glorious sunny day so after a quick coffee and a chat we headed off to Matt’s local trails for a few laps. The trail is a ten minute ride up the road from Matt’s house (jealous much!) and is only short taking 25minutes a lap. It’s mainly fire road to the top but is all downhill from there with a couple of short flat sections in the middle. The single track descending is great and the addition of some new berms in the middle section had me smiling each lap. 3 laps done, we headed back to matt’s and I was remembering why I like Wales so much.
The next day I awoke to a slightly colder morning but the sun was starting to break through so looked like we were in store for another great day. Today’s agenda involved heading off to Builth wells for the second round of the welsh xc where Matt was racing in elite followed by a 35mile road ride back with Matt including climbing the devils staircase, a 25% gradient climb with two hairpins on the way up.
The race was 7 laps but at 15minutes a lap they were short and fast. The course was fairly dry with just one muddy section and Matt said it had a classic XC course feel to it. He finished 4th in elite and 5th overall on the day. After the race we headed off on the road bikes pretty quickly as Matt didn’t want his legs to relax too much and start getting cold. The route we were riding was 37 miles from the event back to Matt’s house. The roads were rolling and dead quiet for a Saturday afternoon which made for a great ride taking in some amazing views. After a few long gradual climbs we arrived at the devils staircase. As we started to climb I was telling myself to be reserved and take it easy but ended up getting out the saddle and hammering it to the top. As I exited the second hairpin I could see the top and even though my legs were screaming I pressed on and made it, what a relief! The remainder of the ride involved riding round the lake of a reservoir on some super smooth fast roads. The route and the views were amazing and another great afternoons riding was in the bag.
Sunday morning we were up early for the 70 mile drive to Chepstow for the Wentwood 50k Goshawk challenge mtb enduro. Arriving at the event the organisation was good and marshals were doing a great job of organising the parking. After signing on it was off to the van to get out of the cold wind and get changed ready to go. As it was a clod morning I went with my dhb Roubaix bib tights, 2XU long sleeve compression layer and my dhb windslam jersey. Feeling warmer and surprisingly fresh from the last couple of days riding I headed off with Matt to the start line.
The ride started with just over 2 miles of road to help string out the field of 300 riders. Then it was off into the woods! The trails
were a mix of technical climbs and descents with some fire road sections linking them which was a great chance to recover the
legs and take on some food and drink. The trails were riding well and I really felt at home throwing my Focus Raven Pro around on the singletrack and powering up the more technical climbs that had some people off the bikes walking. It seemed to take no time at all to reach the first 25k marker and feeling fresh I decided to press on rather than stop for a rest. By the time I reached the 40k (which was actually at 34k) split I was starting to feel the weekends riding in my legs and slowed the pace, aiming to gain time on the fast descents.
After another amazing descent and a long fire road drag the course rejoined the main roads and I knew the end must be near. The tank was running near empty and my determination to finish the event was keeping me going. After a long road climb I reached the last checkpoint and the lady there told me it was 7k to the finish and was all down hill. This lifted me and I turned back onto the fire roads and gave it my all to reach the finish. After a final short fast singletrack section it was back on the road to descend to the finish. I flew down the back roads pedalling for all I was worth and even tucking down get the fastest speed possible (which on the Garmin was 39.4mph) and arrived at the finish relieved to have completed the full distance. I soon found Matt who had already changed and washed his bike and after a chat discovered he had finished 3rd in a time of 2hours 45minutes. Great result for him considering that he had just finished his longest training week of the year.
I completed the course in a time of 3hours 45minutes and was very happy with this. After looking at my Garmin Edge 500 I discovered that the course had covered 4700 feet which made me even more pleased with my result. Nutrition wise I used 2 750ml bottles of Zipvit ZV1, 2 Zipvit ZV7 energy gels, 2 Zipvit ZV8 energy bars and a Zipvit ZV9 Protein bar when I finished as well as a 500ml bottle of water with a scoop of torq ribose to help the muscles recover.
Thanks again to Matt and Nia for having me stay with them, had a great time.
