Is there one? Has anyone heard of anything?

Cheers,

Matt

There was definitely a national Welsh XC series this year and I’m sure there will be again next year.

Here’s the link where last year’s series was posted:
Welsh Cycling

I’d keep an eye out on that site in the New Year.

I want to do the CyB round this time for a giggle. Only got a long travel bike bike but I love having a crack at XC when it’s local. I’ve done the Llandegla Fire Service Charity XC twice and it’s loads of fun testing your own fitness. I surprised myself this time and came 4th in my category. I wouldn’t come anywhere near at a national level event though but I’m sure it’d still be great fun. As long as the Coedy round doesn’t clash with an Enduro I’ll have a go.

Cheers Gelert,

I did the first two but have heard nothing. Plenty of time though. Just being a bit keen.

Matt

I bloody hope there will just built up my bike to be properly xc focused especially! I’m sure there will be, only four events last year so hope there are more. We’ve got two British events in Wales too next year (Pembrey and Fforest Fields)
As Gelert says it was some time in the new year that races got announced. Can’t wait 🙂

Come on ferrals, lets see this new XC machine you’ve been teasing us all about for weeks!

Here you go mr blobby, hadn’t torqued saddle or seatclamp properly so post slightly slipped and saddle at an odd angle in picture :

Scott scale 740 2016 frame, SID RCT3 forks, fizik gobi Kium saddle, Easton ea70 70mm stem are the new bits (oh and ti calliper bolts).
Existing kit is xt brakes and xt8000 drivetrain (xtr shifter), raceface turbine cinch cranks, Easton flat wide bar, race face half Nelson lock ones, dtswiss350/ryde trace xc wheelset, rocket Ron tyres for the mud.

Absolutely love it so far. Can’t wait to ride it a lot over the next couple of weeks off- shame it’s so bloody windy and rainy though. I even like the orange more than I thought I would!

Nice. Like that. Looks fast!

Feels fast 😀

Only bit I might change is the seatpost as its really heavy and the clamping mechanism is poor. I’ll need to pay off the credit card first though!

From the Welsh cx Facebook page, not sure if this is provisional or finalised.
13th March coax llandegla
17th April rwas showground
8th May fforest fields
31st July Aberywystrth (venue tbc)

Hopefully will be a South Wales venue in June too.

Those venues have changed a bit over the years in the 90s they were mostly in South Wales there was some cracking courses over the years.

Welsh MTB XC – Round 1 Entry / Info Page

Round 1 at Llandegla is open for Entries now. Also from the FB page they’re going to be using some of the Fireman XC course which is great news as that’s an awesome loop.

Are you local to there? I’m guessing llandegla drains pretty well? wondering if I’ll need full on mud tyres or to save money and stick with rocket rons? from the video I’ve seen of the firemans charity route looks like a fair bit of gravel fire road interspersd with loamy stuff and not a massive amount of clogging mud (said hopefully!)

Slightly disappointed the mens races are now in the afternoon going to have to re-think my eating strategy!!! Although more time to get places and practise without staying over 🙂

Yes, I’m local and it might be my video speeded up to a million times as it was just a practice loop.

Llandegla’s normal tracks are all weather and apart from some big puddles in a few places they drain extremely well all year.

However the XC race won’t be on those tracks and that’s partly why I enter. You’re not allowed to ride that route at any other time. Going by what’s been said on FB the XC will likely use a few hard pack fire roads to join up fresh cut sections of the woods which can be very muddy if it’s been wet and gets cut up quickly during a race day.

I’m not an XC rider and I don’t have an XC bike but I like the personal fitness challenge so I’m using it to get ready for the Enduro races. I’ll be getting well out of the way of anyone who’s trying hard. I’ll be in the fun category so go off in the morning.

I saw other riders at the Fireman race riding with Rocket Rons for sure. They managed ok. Some people didn’t like the muddy / loamy descents though and I heard a few racers actually walked away.

For me though as a more Enduro / DH rider I made up tonnes of time on the descents and absolutely loved the muddier parts. The really fast girls and guys are fast up and down, though.

I had more mud friendly tyres on. Magic Mary and Minion DHR II’s on 26 inch wheels. It was muddy in the loamy stuff and I had absolutely no issues with grip or clogging so I could rally those parts. My heavy draggy tyres aren’t going to be fast on the fire road back up though but I’ve tired myself out on the way down anyway so it doesn’t matter much. I’ll just do my best! 4th place in Masters was pretty cool though. Still a long long way off the Elite times (20 minutes +), 3-4 minutes off 3rd Master.

It had rained heavily leading up to the Fireman race but it stayed dry on race day.

I’m looking forward to this race. I hope the weather is kind on the day.

If I was to buy more XC orientated tyres to run tubeless what would you recommend looking at? I used to use Maxxis AdVantage LUST but they were terrible in the previous Fireman race, I didn’t have any rear traction on wet dirt / mud on the flat sections near the reservoir. With the DHR II on the same section I had no issues a year later and could put the power down with spinning.

From the Welsh cx Facebook page, not sure if this is provisional or finalised.
13th March coax llandegla
17th April rwas showground
8th May fforest fields
31st July Aberywystrth (venue tbc)

Hopefully will be a South Wales venue in June too.

A south Wales venue in June you say? Hmmm, let’s just say it is being looked into 😉

A south Wales venue in June you say? Hmmm, let’s just say it is being looked into

I hope so 😀 I was trying to see if my club could organize something but we don’t have a ready venue (well I had a perfect venue apart from footpats and wildlife designations :cry:) and have never organised a mtb race so think we’ll aim to look at offering something next year.

Gelert, I don’t have enough tire experience to advise really, I’ve just been using the classic racing ralph, rocket ron combo, switching to double rocket ron now its really mucky. I think I’ll stick with Rons, I was thinking to get some more mud specific tyres but £100 for a set for one race doesn’t seem worth while! fingers crossed its dry till March!!

@Ferrals, you’ll be fine on Rons/Ralphs at degla.

Annoying that this clashes with Round 0ne of the Midlands series… which to do?

Looking at the Rocket Rons they’re only 525g for PSC with Snakeskin 2.25 x 26.
I can’t imagine a tyre being that light! My tyres are 800g+ each.

Tyre I’m looking at:
SCHWALBE ROCKET RON SNAKESKIN PACESTAR 26X2,25″ TL-EASY FOLDING

What’s good and bad about Rocket Rons?
I’d run them tubeless, do they go up easy?
Are they really thin and puncture/rip prone?
Would I have to be super careful with line choice?
Do they clog and hold onto mud or clear nicely?
Do they have ok traction through gloopy patches on climbs?

Clearing mud before the next muddy patch and avoiding front wheel slides is a priority for me. I like a reliable front I can trust into the turns. I don’t mind the rear sliding around though.

Will 2.25 work ok on 25mm internal width Stan’s rims?
2.3 Maxxis work fine. Schwalbe in my experience come up wider than Maxxis so guessing they’ll be ok?

Sorry for all the questions.
Any kind of review appreciated.

My tyre experience is all Trail/Enduro/DH and I’ve been riding just over 2 years but enjoy racing. XC wise I’ve done the two Fireman XCs at Llandegla. I’m going for fun and experience but while I’m there I want to do as well as I can and try to better myself each time.

Happy to have a race only set of XC tyres hanging up in the garage if they’re properly good and reliable.

Thanks.

I once thought XC racing in Wales would be great. Then I found out how bastard hilly it is, as a concept.

Gelert

What’s good and bad about Rocket Rons? – they’re light and the roll fast. Add a racing ralph rear for even fasterer rolling if you prefer.

I’d run them tubeless, do they go up easy? – if you get the snakeskins (TL-Easy) they’re not too bad.

Are they really thin and puncture/rip prone? Unfortunately yes.

Would I have to be super careful with line choice? That depends on your riding style!

Do they clog and hold onto mud or clear nicely? In deep mud you’ll be on a slick pretty sharpish, but for a race tyre I find them really good.

Do they have ok traction through gloopy patches on climbs? Compared to a muddy mary – no. Compared to other xc tyres – yes.

Racing Ralph – I used to use those doing XC races.

They are very fast but still sensibly grippy. I ran them tubless and could manage in moderate mud. As for ripping – Unless you are somewhere really sharply rocky, they’ll be fine.

I find the snakeskin version durable (touch wood!). Gelert, it was your vid I watched, do you have a strava link for the race so I can see the sort of hillyness involved? The more climbing the better for me 🙂

The good thing about rocket rons is I generally find they clear quick if you get onto fire road, more so than crossmarks and X-Kings which I’ve also used. So far I’ve only have them overwhelmed at the soggy bottom race just after new year, but I think most tyres were overwhelmed then

@ferrals link to Fireman XC Race Strava

@Adam – many thanks for the great review of the Rons. They sound great. It’s a risk to change what I know but it might make climbing back up less of a chore which is very appealing. I guess I need to weigh up the bullet proof reliability and trust of my tyres on any track I dare ride verses a race specific set that would save a pound of rotating weight but may not see me finish.

@molgrips – the Ralph looks interesting as a rear tyre. Similar to the Maxxis Ikon.

Cheers Gelert, looks hilly enough 🙂

Two weeks to go, already getting excited having actually trained a bit this year 🙂

Gelert (or other locals) hows the muddyness/ draining of the offpiste llandegla stuff we’ll be racing on? Round here things are starting to dry up fast – beginning to wonder if I should switch the beavers back to rons. Mind you plenty of time for more rain!

I’d imagine it’ll get really muddy as the weather has been a bit rubbish. But then again it might be frozen

It was frozen on Wednesday night.
With 2 weeks to go, there’s still plenty of time for it to turn into a bog.

cheers both.. hopefully they’ll put some course pictures and updates on the FB page.

Adam, if you see it on the week before, would be great if you could post conditions so I know whether to change tyres or not.. i’m getting into over-thinking mode at present!

Just use Rons, then you have your first excuse lined up and ready should it be required!

Along with, the roots – man they’re slippy.

Actually that’s a good point!
If they use the start of the Fire Service loop, it’ll have THAT ROOT* on it where you first turn off the regular trail…

*Anyone that has ridden the FS race will know exactly which one!

from the fb page:
“Hi all, course is now finalised and it’s 5km in length. We have made 700m of new track through the woods, so has more singletrack than the Firemans. Although some bits are re-used, this course is quite different with MUCH less forest road, it’s awsome….”

How rooty is it? from Gelerts vid it looks mainly muddy/loamy with the odd root. I’m actually really liking the beavers at the moment, apart from the nagging fear of high rolling resistance, but on sections of matted roots and rocks I’m less convinced with the front. Maybe a ron on the front at super low pressure, was running rons about 18psi on the front and they grip through everything!

Can’t wait!

It’s not very rooty – or at least the firemans isn’t/wasn’t – just a couple of prominent ones.
That’s unless they’re using the section from the 10 hour they had there a few years ago, but that was more “stumpy” than rooty. And it had an ambulance on it all day!

I once thought XC racing in Wales would be great. Then I found out how bastard hilly it is, as a concept.

The old Rhondda Heritage Park course was great, one big climb followed by one big descent.

The course that they used up near Llandovery way was also good, although with no facilities of any kind!

I’m hoping I can recover from Knee Pain (PFPS) in time to be on the start line 🙁

Too much riding and ignorance towards recovery… noob mistake. Plus powering through the pain instead of seeking professional help when it first started…

Now having some professional help and luckily the knee seems to be physically ok. I’m optimistic it’s just a muscle tightness or imbalance so I’m still hoping to make the start but I don’t think I’ll push myself for the sake of one early season event if I’m not 100%.

Still looking forward to the event. I’ve roped in several fellow Enduro racer friends into the Fun category so we’re all going to bimble round (and stay out of the way of the proper racers) until we run out of puff. Since we’ve put in a lot of effort pushing each other all winter to go out and keep on our fitness it should be a good friendly race within a race.

Gutted Gelert, I regualarly suffer from various knee pain and it is always due to tightness and imbalances, become pretty regimental about stretching, foam rolling and doing supportive glute exersizes and it makes a big difference.

dragon – Member

I once thought XC racing in Wales would be great. Then I found out how bastard hilly it is, as a concept.

The old Rhondda Heritage Park course was great, one big climb followed by one big descent.

I’m starting to look into whether my club can hold a round next year – the course I have in mind is 3.7km long and (estimate) has 200m vertical of climbing 😈 😀 plus the downhill is steep and tech so there is no real recovery anywhere on the lap.

Gutted Gelert, I regualarly suffer from various knee pain and it is always due to tightness and imbalances, become pretty regimental about stretching, foam rolling and doing supportive glute exersizes and it makes a big difference.

Thanks @ferrals. Sorry you get knee pain too but it’s good to hear those things can sometimes be the solution as it’s exactly what I’ve been advised to do and I’m hopeful I’ve made some good progress already but as the pain only occurs while on the bike it’s easy to think I’m fine while sat in the office 🙂

Going to test it on Sunday then the Physio can advise me further on Tuesday – see if I’ve done ok or not.

What I’ve was told by a physio is to activate which ever muscles ou think might be causing an issue by doing the exercises a couple of times directly before cyclign and also to warm and stretch pre-cycling. I’m glad to say being strict with myself means at the moment the worst I’m getting is niggles not bad enough to stop play

I dropped into Llandegla on Saturday afternoon for a “knee test” and to check out conditions on the Fireman XC loop (which we believe is the course to be used for the XC next weekend). Didn’t get very far at all, though.

At Offa’s path where the first tree section is it has several very large impassable trees down (all parallel to the normal climb on the edge of the tree line). Unfortunately there’s a lot of them to clear if we’re to race on that particular course next weekend. I don’t know if the organisers know yet? When does the course inspection take place?

Hopefully someone who knows the forest well can re-route around the trees as deeper in the woods seemed ok.

Fingers crossed for a dry week ahead.

Maybe post up on the Facebook page? What was the bogginess/mud factor like on the bits you did see? According to fb, the course will be shorter than the firemans loop.

Last weather forecast I saw was mostly dry all week so hopefully will be be dryish. Guess if it’s like s.wales it drains quickly?

I quickly looked at the practice loop video from October and quite a few of the trees were blown down in the same place then too. Conditions aren’t dissimilar either. It’s funny how it looks so different after mother nature had re-taken control over winter. There’s a few more down now that block the trail. I reckon a small diversion will go around them.

Bogginess… in the open stumps section it was hub deep water between each stump and fresh snow. Managed to keep moving through it all just about. Will be a pile up there for sure and with more bikes it’ll turn to slop.

1st loam DH fine (bit with the tree trunk jump). Few muddy patches but fine and no trees in the way.

Then the loam back up… not much traction. Very hard going. A little bit worse than October but not too bad.

That was the only bit I managed to do properly as the next straight bit back where you first enter the trees was covered in blown over trees and I didn’t manage to re-find the rest of the route after that.

They could just pop out of the woods after the 1st down… then go along the fire road to the next bit. Cut out one climb and one down in the first woods. That’s what I should have done.

I couldn’t find the next bit across the fire road though. I’ve ridden the lap at least 7 times racing and I just couldn’t recognise the right bit of the woods to go down – it all looks the same! I gave up looking after going up and down the fire road. I found the 3rd short woods section which looked more used but decided not to ride it as I had a lot of climbing to do to get back home and the rest of the lap I know is just along the reservoir and back to the car park.

We know there’s a section of new track too but I definitely wasn’t going to be able to find that!

I don’t think I can go on the Saturday for the practice so a full warm-up loop on Sunday is a must for me.

I didn’t really establish which bike would be best to ride or which set of tyres might work best. It’s a bit of a gamble. I’d err on the side of it’ll be slippy and a bit muddy in the woods.