Superb event well done Rowan and crew,can see it going the Dyfi way and selling out in hours next year!
Superb route with a bit of everything, moist in a few places but some of the trails through private land were great.
Decided to ride non competatively and had a hoot taking in the scenery and lots of banter,broke a lever in an off early on so was hampered with some braking issues,a chap fell on some very dodgy singletrack and broke his arm 😯 strapped him up and got him and his bike down the hill only to find a long old way to the next marshall point.
Medics @ the end told me he had been taken in the meat wagon to Bangor! so healing vibes to him.
The camping experiance was ok with Cafe Seren supplying the tunes,food and beer shame the tunes were of a select choice and the bar emptied fairly early.
Howies did a good job with random gifts to riders, bit to beardist for my liking 😀
So how did you get on ?

PA023959 by Richard Munro, on Flickr

PA023951 by Richard Munro, on Flickr

PA023954 by Richard Munro, on Flickr

An excellent route! Much more diverse and rewarding than the Dyfi, in my opinion. A shame that we couldn’t pitch our tent at the event – we just had to have Des drive us from/to the campsite down the road on the Saturday evening so we could enjoy some beers at Cafe Seren. Well done to all the dressed-up kids, you made me chuckle!

I did the 30k, originally my mate and I were planning the 60k but based on my lack of training 30k, was an achievement, loved the atmosphere good banter on the trials, rewarding course when done, would have liked to have more singletrack down hills always a shame to loose that height on the fire road.

The feed station should be a snack station, I had a vision of chilli, potato wedges and soup only to find flapjack, biscuits and what looked like sausage rolls 🙂

Any idea where to find the pictures from the two guys taking pictures one on the climb and one near the very end,

Organisation was slick and the dressed up kids and people dotted about was a nice touch.

Battled with cramp towards the end which I haven’t had for some time.

Yeah – I enjoyed it, agree with the whole singletrack aspect but on reflection, 500+ people on a bit of single track – could see that not working out so well, erosion, hold-ups etc.

The sections through the trees (white peak esq with slippy, muddy grass) would of been truly amazing if the ground was a bit dryer, but that’s just unlucky.

My mate wasnt sure about the whole event, would i do it again? yeah maybe, but not on the Alpine 🙂

Also the guy who fell off at the startline due to forgeting he had spd’s on… that was me. Howies/enduro people – please tell me you have some video of that.

PS i’m, really sorry to the woman i fell on, hope your ok.. (i wouldnt want me falling on me, if that makes sense..)

I saw you fall at the start, good start and on the flat 😆

Yes I guess the long non singletrack down hills help to separate the pack out.

Great fun, two of our group did put up their tents in the car park and took them down early morning – no problem.

It was good to ride in the area and discover there was more to CyB than just the trail ctr.

Loved the two sections that had a “Caution” warning – finally my bike came into its own on those bits.

struggled with all the roads on my 160mm, but i havent got another bike to choose from! completed the 60k in just over 5hrs. i enjoyed the experience, and its a nice personal achievement, but im not sure id fancy another!?

pics will be here in a day or two.. http://www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk/events.html

Thanks will keep an eye out for the pictures.

Funny each to their own I guess, I was really disappointed by the amount of height lost on tarmac and forest roads. And that field push in Rich’s last picture was miserable. The bit through the woods and the slippy descents were all fun though. Not sure I’d do it again.

Great event & like the Dyfi,but better !Only did the 30k route after my powerlink snapped on a descent,then the chain wrapped itself around the rear wheel & twisted,luckily this happened just before the 30-52k split so called it a day.Only had 3 gears working & the chain had to be in the big ring for them to work.Anyway loved it,just gutted I couldn’t do the whole loop,roll on next year !

Hi Rich, spoke to you a couple of times. Thought it was a good route, better than the Dyfi, owing to the more varied terrain. Had some great “landspeeder” moments down the man-made stuff, enjoyed the long, earthy singletrack section with the big drop to the left, the steep rooty stuff was ace, and most of those climbs WERE rideable!

Was a bit hacked off with the feed station though; it had been suggested by the organisers that folks doing the long route should use the feed station on their second pass (because there was a cut-off to make !!) When I got there (and I’m sure there were many, many behind me)there were only biscuits left 🙁
Gutted, as I had been craving some flapjack and sausage rolls for ages. The organiser seemed to be blaming this on the paying participants, saying that there was only one feed station, people had used it on both passes, etc.
Surely they should know by now how much food is required at these stations? And if a station is used twice, then increase the amount of food there?

And yes, I did take enough food with me (boring gels and bars) but if a feed station is advertised then it should have enough goodies there for the last rider to pass through.

yeah there was literally nowt left when i passed the 2nd time, thanked my stars id filled up first time. tbh, i was elated when i reached the feed station on the way out, i proper filled my boots! didnt feel the need to stop again on the way back, which was a relief.

Huw Thomas from Loco BM won 😀 Go Team 😛

I must have eaten your flap jack then – I stopped twice 🙂

Trimix,
Quite right; if you pass a food station twice, then you SHOULD be able to grab a snack or two twice.

Maybe some people were unexpectedly greedy; maybe that is why they then had to walk up anything steeper than a crown green 😉

It was great route enjoyed the mix of glorious scenary high up on the climbs and the singletrack both man made and natural, especially that off camber bit with the drop to the left 🙂 But boy was it humid sweated loads!

Nice pics and it sounds like a great event! 😀
Did the route head off north, towards Bronaber / Rhiw Goch (where the Log Cabins are)?
I’ve ridden that way in and out of the forest before and some of the scenery in those photos looks familiar…

Yep I enjoyed it. Course was ok, like the OP mentioned a bit muddy in places, which I guess is my reservation about holding it in October. Bearing in mind we have had a week of record temperatures and dry weather it was still suprisingly boggy. I fear the worst if we have a regular Sept weather wise.
Otherwise a nice event, tough for a 52 k’er with 1500m of climbing, which is usually par for the course on a 75k course, well signposted, well marshalled, good vale at £25 and accurate to the distance, so many thumbs up. Pretty technical in places (a couple of times I wished I had my 140mm bike, rather than my 100mm epic) So that should keep a lot of people very happy. Some bits were unrideable, like the drop into the stream, but you cant have it all.
Saw a guy come off over the bars on one of the rocky step downs on one of the earlier sections in the actual trail centre. I cant remember its name but its one of the most technical sections if I remember and comes quite early on in the beast, and has a number of 2 footish rock step downs, maybe someone can help me out with the name of the section.
It was a real nasty one and I cant believe he seemed at first unscathed, his head was inches away from smashing into a rock wall. Hope he’s ok, I think he was on a yellow coloured hardtail. I think he was ready to get up, but his mate kept telling him to take 5 mins, to check collar bone etc.

That section was Abel.

It was a good event but the communication was pretty poor. All prior updates on the website were a bit scant, and the facebook page was the main channel of communication.

The information about the distance of the routes kept changing, as did the information about the feed stations – if its advertised you expect to get fed – it was only on the startline that any mention was made that there were different feed stations for the different routes, not that you could only stop once.

How many people did the long loop compared to the short one? It seemed quite busy until the split, but then the two of us ended up riding on our tod for quite a distance before seeing anyone else doing the long loop. There was a lot of road and doubletrack in it, but the really steep bit towards the stream was great (I got as far as the last drop before bottling it, more by luck than judgement!) and the straight line descent through the trees was just amazing.

We camped just up the road at Cae Gwyn so could ride there, do the event and ride back to make it a proper bikey weekend. We thoroughly enjoyed it and will no doubt be back again, even if the weather will almost certainly not be anywhere near as nice – I bet some of those grassy trails would have been awful after a few days’ rain…

i did full distance and used the feed station twice as it said on the facebook page that this was the idea but now it seem i was being a cheeky bugger doing this and i was only supposed to use it on second passing.
at 42k
sorry like but i dont see much point in a first feed station at 42k when the ride itself is only 52k.

i had a great time though and will be back next year so i dont want to be seen to be moaning.

sorry to anyone at the back that didnt get fed though if i ate your flapjack. 😕

Two more here that did full distance, as above I thought it was very well marshalled and signed, a bit much road and double track but all the private and woodland stuff was great, I’d have liked a bit more of the Beast or MBR towards the end once everybody had thinned out some what.

For £25 it was mint. Had a great time and will prob do another.

Loco – I was chatting a to Huw just before the start, thought it was you as he was all logo’ed up. Nice guy.

I know its not competitive, but there was at least one rider who finished the short loop and told the people at the finishing line that they’d done the long loop.

Also a lot of confused riders not knowing to go right at the very last stage on both short and long loops.

Carlos – Loco and Huw, in appearance a starker contrast has there never been 😉

Feeling guilty that I used the feed station twice! but surely you should bring your own food for £25 what were people expecting, all I craved for was a cup of tea and I could have easily popped to the cafe for a cuppa. The pic in the grassy field was perfectly rideable untill the marshall, took the pic because I was amazed @ the amount of people walking so early on 8O.Agree on the ending should have been more of the manmade trail as people were really struggling! 😈

Ps Rowan do a proper winter event like in January!

Rich

I visited the feed station on the way out and back in but only to fill my bottle first time and had two bits of flapjack on the way back as that was all that was left,the choice could of been better and as the 52k riders were told that their feed station was the return one then there should of been enough to go round
I saw loads filling their pockets/packs with biscuits etc,I guess some people are just greedy or don’t bring any food
I would never take the risk of your only food gels or drink being at a food station for obvious reasons

Ok hand up the feedstation was stocked using Dyfi enduro feed per rider levels,it was the first time we had run a double dip station and that course left the riders very hungry.It’s an oversite that won’t occur again, really sorry to all that missed out.

http://summit.smartdata.co.uk/results

61st in catagory, well chuffed. Bike cateye has it at 4hrs 16mins ride time so if you include stops to stretch and two visits to the feed station 😉 it’s about right

Edit – Long route and 40+ cat

Position 69th out of 254 normally I am holding up at that back my highest finishing of anything bike related ever so very happy 🙂 what better position than 69 😆

Yay, 1st in my category and 108th overall, feel knackered today though, that was a bloody hard course. Cheers to the organisers – Mrs SS Stu.

17th overall and 9th in 18-40 category. a real milestone moment for me as i have had lyme disease for the past two years.

happy as a happy thing.

i know… it’s not a race 😆

Agree with most of the comments above really. Unbeatable atmosphere both the night before by the firepit, and during the race. Marshalls did a top job and I loved the halloween randoms 🙂 .

I was almost cursing the course given the amount of road/fireroad (especially the wasted descending) but the gems of singletrack that were uncovered made up for it. The steep drop down to the waterfall then singletrack to the off camber descent were some of the best stuff I’ve ridden in the UK. Does anyone know the legality of riding that outside the event?

Another happy Enduro entrant here…… Great event and good banter and atmosphere around the course!!!!
Opted for the 53km route and I’m glad I did ,some absolutely killer climbs were rewarded with some absolutely fantastic off piste singletrack…. As previously stated the super steep descent down to the stream was brilliant and the the narrow singletrack that cut down the side of the hill was superb!!!
Only criticism I have is waiting at the top of the ‘Abel’ descent due to the bottle neck effect and people walking down it…. Such a shame as it’s one of my favourite sections of CyB!!!
Great event though will be returning next year for sure!!!

I came 36th out of 420 overall and 21st out of 254 in my category (53k).

Total time 3hr 34m and 46 secs.

Great Route and event – but where was the brown sauce for the sausage rolls?

kick a man when he’s down why don’t you dti! it’s the first thing i said when we started setting up.all will be resolved by dyfi ; )

No problem – Thanks for a great event. The course, marshalls and organisation was first class. The variety of on and off piste riding was spot on particularly the singletrack section accross the steep wooded cliff.