Howies Dyfi Enduro

Once again the Howies Dyfi Enduro was run under favourable weather by the usual huge collection of enthusiastic volunteers down in deepest Machynlleth in mid-west Wales. The event had sold out in under 20 minutes, with over 800 riders signing up for this 60km ride through the steep Welsh countryside.

Singletrack is a proud supporter of this event, as it’s been going as long as the magazine has, so it seemed natural to lend a hand. Not that it seemed to need it, with everything, from marshals on motorbikes, boxes full of flapjacks and sausage rolls to a great finish line mug for all riders well catered for.

Many riders chose to make a bank holiday weekend of it and, with the Machynlleth Comedy Festival going on all round town at the same time, it made for a great, lighthearted event for all.

The course contained some new parts, but it still included the mass lead-out of town behind the Summit Cycles van and the never-ending fire road climb to weed out the unfit and the hungover. Several new sections of singletrack made their appearances and queuing seemed to be reasonably minimal this year.

There were still some rider favourites, like ‘World Cup’, the weird and wonderful world of Willy Wonka and the disco bar with free beer near the end. Faster riders were ‘rewarded’ with extra mileage, a sloughing, muddy descent and a crushing climb just to punish their keenness…

Results can be found here: summit.smartdata.co.uk/results and photos can be found here: http://www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk/

And here’s the ever-commentful forum thread: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/dyfi-2