Round 3 of the Welsh Enduro Series took place at Llanfyllin over the weekend. Here’s Aran’s third report of his enduro race season.
Llanfyllin is a venue that’s always been on my ‘To Race’ list. Llanfyllin always seems to receive a disproportionate level of hype for a small venue that isn’t as well known as places such as Llangollen, Dyfi or even Llandegla.
It turns out that Llanfyllin isn’t exactly sparse of good riding. The area houses some semi-secret jump spots which provide a playground for the likes of Kade Edwards and Kaos Seagrave and – as you’ll see – is home to some very solid Enduro racing terrain.
One of the common criticisms of these Welsh Enduros – and UK enduro events in general – is the length of the stages/ races. I do understand where this is coming from. When I started racing enduros, the fastest finishers would finish with total race time of 14+ minutes+. With costs of racing going up, as with everything else in the world, I can understand the frustration. The fastest cumulative times of the first three rounds of the WES each came in under 8 minutes.
However, I would be tempted to make the case against this being a negative. From my experience, these shorter race times make for tighter racing and it raises the stakes of crashing or making a mistake. And the argument that these shorter, punchy stages take the focus away from fitness and ‘pedal strength’ can be rebutted by the Llandegla round being one of the most physical races I’ve ever taken part in. Stage 5 at Llanfyllin (see below) consistently saw finishes under two minutes yet proved significantly tough on the legs and lungs.
Also, I think most riders would agree that a race weekend is more than just that the 10 minutes or so of race stage time. For me, these shorter races allow for a more thorough and enjoyable practice on the Saturday and race day morning.
Llanfyllin Enduro report
Onto the race itself.
Llanfyllin featured some very fun tracks with a diverse set of challenges, attracted some big-name locals and all in all made for another top-quality event. Overall, an excellent weekend with the added bonus of the Leogang World Cup and more Jackson Goldstone heroics as entertainment the night before racing.
Driving down on Saturday morning the weather was threatening to be pretty miserable for the weekend. Thankfully the heavy showers gave way to some lovely sunny conditions for Saturday. The precipitation did return for a brief flurry on Sunday morning but kindly left us by the afternoon, making way for some dry and fair-for-everyone racing conditions.
Most riders were able to get a full lap in of practice plus a repeat of a few stages on Saturday and one or two stages in the morning before the race itself. If you were really keen for it you could fit the full 10km lap in the morning of race day. As ever, the balance of knowing-the-course versus being-rather-knackered is a fine one!
Stage 1
This started fast and pretty much stayed fast the whole way. The start felt not too dissimilar from a motocross track with two or three nicely supportive ruts for each corner ,allowing most of them to be hit pretty much flat out.
A really fun start to the day which saw many riders get over excited and pretty sketchy within the first few turns. Crossing in and out of ruts then led you over some blind crests into some more tight singletrack before a couple of drops fed you into the woods.
The woods began with a wide, rocky feature which then led into a left turn and a traverse. Holding speed was crucial for the traverse here, so the clearest line through the rocks and the corner was to stay right into the rocks and try and keep the brakes as open as possible into the left hander. The track then suddenly steepened up but with not much support in a muddy right hander before a sprint to the finish at the bottom – riders had to be careful not to carry too much speed in here.
Stage 2
After a short push through a field, riders arrived on a scenic ridge at the top of Stage 2. This stage began with a short, rocky chute into some steep and precise bikeparky corners. Here the recurring challenge for the whole day appeared: blown out corners.
Once you were into the bottom section of the Stage 2 woods, the corners seemed to be stable, well defined and predictable. However, a crucial rutted right hander with a steep run in toward the top of the stage was not so well defined or predictable! It was definitely crucial though; another sprint-cum-traverse section followed this corner, so getting it right was vital to not wasting energy getting back up to speed on the sprint.
Stage 2 was the shortest of the day but still provided an opportunity to lose serious time, so a smooth and safe run was favoured by many riders.
Stage 3
Where Stage 2 was more about being smooth and calculated, Stage 3 was definitely much more flat out. The stage started with a fast sprint off the start ‘mound’ into a long grassy right hander which tightened enough to catch some people out. You were then spat into some loose shaley singletrack tight between bushes making for a challenging set up into some fairly blown out ruts.
After this tighter singletrack you were spat back into a really fast grassy right hander which was immense fun to ride flat out. It was also nice to imagine that added points were awarded for how close to the inside pole you could get.
Riders then had to take a bit of speed off to enter a steeper and looser short woods section (I didn’t get this memo and lost a couple of seconds here as a result). Another grassy right then spat you into some lovely loose loamy corners that were really tricky to get right. These corners then led into the bottom woods which featured some delicate off cambers and some nice small and flowy jumps. Stage 3 was a personal favourite, purely due to its diversity.
Stage 4
Perhaps one of the best stages I have ever raced, stage 4 similarly to 3 had it all. The stage started with some flat out singletrack, a fun v shaped rock chute and then some jumps that could be ridden smooth and slowly or tripled up. This start quickly allowed riders to get carried away and get some showing off out of their system. The fast pace could be held through a field but then had to be shaved off quickly into the woods. From blown out ruts fading away underneath the tape, awkward roots, tricky off-cambers and steep turns the bottom of stage 4 provided a real challenge to riders across the categories. Perhaps one of the most focussed on sections of the whole race was the rooty and rocky end to the off camber in these woods. This provided not only a challenge for the novices but even the lads at the sharper end were struggling to get this precise section right. The stage then finished with some more open and supported turns into a relieving finish.
Stage 5
Stage 5 started fast and open across what felt like fresh and unmanicured fields and ferns. The key here was making wide entrances to avoid stalling out. After a chunky chute through the ferns, riders were found sprinting towards the slab…
Often at races as riders look at an impressive feature it attracts a swarm of even more curious racers, all keen for a little puzzle. Within five minutes a heavy debate has started on how to ride this feature (in reality, the gains to be made here are slim to none). The slab was this kind of feature.
In the real world, the ‘quickest’ way down this slab was to ride however you felt most natural and then forget about it. This said, it didn’t stop me puzzling over it for a few minutes (no one is immune to a puzzle). After the slab, riders were taken over a couple of rock rolls/drops and back into the woods. These woods were consistently off camber. Seemingly the best course of (tr)action was to go slow and stay up high setting up nicely for each corner.
The stage then finished with some steep dusty corners over a rock drop and across the line.
One thing to note on Stage 5 (at 3m59s in the vid) was an accidental straight line we took in practice. The tape here had been broken and we just didn’t notice. Fortunately, on a track walk that evening we spotted our transgression and learnt the proper way down in time for the race
Even with this knowledge I still frustratingly missed the braking for this corner and had to get off and push back on track. Discussing with Adrian at the end of the race revealed we definitely weren’t the only riders to make this mistake so hopefully anyone else that did make this error on race day had the honesty to return back to the track.
Wlesh Enduro Series Round 3 Llanfyllin results
With some good variety of riding throughout the race and close times separating the top 4 riders by a mere 2.5 seconds, Llanfyllin made for some excellent racing.
Kaos Seagrave took the fastest time of the day followed by Emyr Davies and Kade Edwards (all three of whom raced in the E-Bikes under 40s category). No shortage of top riders at the third round of the Welsh enduro series.
The fastest regular bike was piloted by Jack Sunderland who took 4th overall; just 2.5 seconds off the win and impressively over 3 seconds up on Max Eddon (U21) who rounded off the overall top 5.
Charlotte Kay of the Under 21 category built on her wins at the Scottish Enduro Series last weekend and the second round of the Welsh Enduro Series to place herself firmly as the fastest woman over 40 seconds ahead of Becci Skelton.
Heather Dring finished off the top 3 for the women’s overall, a further 40 seconds behind Becci. Becci was within touching distance of Charlotte for Stages 1,2 and 4 but bigger gaps opened up on stages 3 and 5 between the two (suggesting potential mistakes here from Becci?) Overall, a remarkably impressive performance from Charlotte; winning every stage.
A stand out performance in the hardtail class from Rob Loomes saw him win this category by almost an entire minute.
The Youths once again proved quick. Alex Carson took the win in Under 18 from the rapid Haris Meikle by 5 seconds. Alex Sitting 12th overall with Haris taking 16th. The Under 21 cat was won by Max Eddon, closely followed by Sam Powell.
A particularly impressive result from Lucas Smith claiming 3rd in the Under 21 cat after a spectacular crash took him out on Saturday’s practice as he attempted to triple the rock slab on Stage 5 (see pics above).
Will Hart won the Seniors (21-29) by just over 5 seconds beating out Louis Joseph-Meade (2nd) and Harry Barret (3rd). Jack Sunderland took the win in 30-39 with Jamie Johnson and Myles Baldwin joining him on the podium.
As for myself, I was happy to build pace through the day but crashes and mishaps on stages 4 and 5 took me down to 6th in Senior. Overall, I am chuffed to walk away with a top 10 in a very competitive category after two costly mistakes.
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I’ve enjoyed each of these so far. Good work
some impressive riders in the field on Ebikes :O
If that car really is serving as a tent we need to see the sleeping arrangements.
It takes some logistics to fit human and bike in the back. Will include a photo on the next outing…
It takes some logistics to fit human and bike in the back.
unless I am mistaken there is bugger all riding at Llanfyllin as it’s all private land
I could ride there from my house but been told not to bother