Red Kite Enduro 2011

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Yep another year and another Red Kite Enduro....EEK! If you’ve read my previous account of this event back in 2009, you’ll know what I’m on about. This event is my nemesis, without a doubt. In 2009 I could only manage three laps before I called it a day. It had been raining all throughout the night and all day during the event. I was physically drained from picking the bike up and paddling the bike up and over hills & through bogs. Coming into the pits at the end of the third lap I was cold, wet and just about finished ......then I spotted Phil eating a Gingsters and dressed in warm clothing! I packed up there and then but vowed to come back and beat this hell of a forest. Ok that sounds a bit dramatic I know, but being a little on the fat side, not very fit and closer to 50 than 40 the conditions just got the better of me.

a pic from the pits across the area - we'd be going the other way though - into the mountains

2010 came round and my fitness was not any better so I skipped it and just as well I did cos it was another wet and tough one. Roll on 2011 and I’d started running on the treadmill and while I’d not got any younger I had managed to get a little fitter – but the weight was still an issue! Still, I’d managed to score a fourth place in the overall result during my first race of the year with CHEC and felt good doing it so I knew my fitness was a lot better......so I sent my entry off for the Red Kite Enduro 2011 then prayed for the dry spell to continue.

Nicky and I slept over at my sister’s place in Little Dew Church and it was a very restless night’s sleep for me that night. Up not so bright but early the next day and the three of us (sister included) headed off to the race venue – the Halfway Forest near Llandovery but without any Easter Eggs, not a good sign.

The drive over was pleasant enough and we found the orange marker arrows without any hiccups and pretty soon we were parked up in the parc ferme , right near the top exit up towards the pits area. We were there with more than enough time to spare but I like it like that as I hate being rushed or stressed before a race, I get wound up enough as it is!

time to race - WAKE UP!

Rob (enduronews fame) we had a good chat before and after the race
here he heads of into the hills to take photos

It wasn’t long before it was time to get the bike checked and stowed in the pits. Checks all done and signed on so it was time to work out the times and get those attached to the bike. This is Nicky’s job but I check them too just to be on the safe side. The laps were all within a minute of one another so there was no massive time fluctuations in the laps. If I could make the first couple it should be plain sailing. The sun was already shinning hot and there was heaviness to the air, it was going to be a hot one. Here’s hoping it would be cooler in the forest once we got underway.

a couple of shots of the pits and Gareth and I chatting about the upcoming race

I bumped into Gareth (he finished in second spot in the chec race) in the pits and it turned out we were on the same minute. We had a chat about what we expected from the day, I just wanted to finish the event so I wasn’t feeling too much pressure to get a ‘result’ so to speak. The fact that I’d dropped out of this event back in 2009 had been eating into me for two years though. I had never voluntarily DNF’ed an event before then, having even finished an event with cracked ribs once. Ok I crashed out on the last lap once having separated my shoulder (type three AC separation), but still managed a half decent result so having ‘given up’ so to speak was a shame hard to bear.

nearly time to hit the road

As we lined up I saw that the other rider with me and Gareth was an older guy on a blue bike (I couldn’t tell what it was at the time but it turned out to be a 300 TM) so I planned to make sure I got past him and to try and stick with Gareth. This wouldn’t be easy as he’s pretty quick but I was going to see how I got on and take it from there.
I was still getting to grips with the Rekluse at this stage and while I had freed the clutch off by the car in the morning, I’d underestimated (or forgotten) just how much it would cool down and start to bind again. So we sat waiting patiently for our minute to come and then fired the engines to go forward..... and my bike died as soon as I selected gear. Bollocks! The Rekluse and left hand rear brake is a great thing but these starts are getting annoying. I felt like a right plonker trying to fire it up in gear (sometimes it’ll start like that and free up) but it refused too so as the other two were heading off into the distance I was selecting neutral and starting up, only for it to die again as soon as I clicked it into gear. Eventually I got away in the end but it was far from the best start to introduce my sister to the sport, as this was her first time ever that she’d come to see me race.

it all goes horribly wrong for me..... as the other two leave

at last i get under way - red faced and spitting feathers!

So much for not getting flustered! I knew it was no big deal in the end as we were on timed checks so I just had to get to the check on time but I did try I little harder to haul some time back. After pulling away from the start the track wound up the hill on a stony track and then followed the same sort of path as in 2009, I can remember the very narrow gully and the stream crossing, these tracks were cut out later and I’m told it was because the expert’s times were too tight. They were losing time in some of the sections that were fast and very dusty.
After a while we joined a dirt road that arced through the forest for while and then we entered the forest proper, again on the same track as before, only this time I was a whole lot drier and there were less places to crash. That did not stop me crashing though and even though I was going well and had overtaken the guy on the TM I came unstuck on a branch that caught my front wheel so I had a slow speed tip off. The TM rider came past and promptly shot off into the distance. Mmmm maybe he was going to be a bit a faster than I thought?

some of the quick guys

Still following roughly the same sort of track we eventually got to the special test and once again this was the same as before. Well the start was anyway as you climb up the side of a hill and I remembered it from 2009. Even though the first lap’s test is untimed I tried to ride quickly to try and suss out the going. The climb went ok and then we turned right and followed the track over very rutted grass covered paths. One section of the test was an undulating, grass covered, but very rutted path. I took it a little easier at first but soon realised that to negotiate it properly you’d need to speed up and skip across the ruts, so I’d try that during the next lap when the ‘special’ was timed proper.

me

no i'm not fat.... it my suspenders - they are too soft!

The test ended in a tight path through some trees before we popped out into the open once more on a fire road. The rest of the lap was a mix of smaller single track with the odd fire road thrown in. Strange but I found it hard to imagine (or remember) where the hellish climbs from two years previous were. As the going was nice and dry it was the complete opposite from my first crack at this enduro. I can distinctly remember a couple of climbs that took forever to crest, as they were just sooo slippery. I remember paddling the bike to the top, but in the end there was more hanging on and trailing legs instead of paddling, as there just wasn’t any strength left in my legs! All change now though as we flew up the inclines, baring a couple that were again pretty rutted, so much so that on occasion you could still get all tangled up and cross rutted.

Eventually (after a short run up a fire road that had an ice like surface) we came to the long run on the road known as the ‘ranges’ or something like that as I believe it’s part of the army training ranges. This road has some rather deep parts as they are reputedly used by tanks. Once again the going was a lot drier so the puddles were not quite so fearsome. Just as well really as I missed the bypass on the grass section on one of them, due to cracking on a bit, and the dust. By the time I noticed the water it was too late, the bank was about two foot high so I couldn’t get up that and it was either, stop, get off and manhandle the bike around or forge ahead. I chose the straight on option and luck was with me, but only just. The water rose up to just under the tank and the soft mud tried to suck the bike down. I gave the 450 a big handful of get me out of here and it responded, first with a low down bbbrrrr then the extra strong (home built) midrange came into play and it burst free of the evil puddle and we were once again on our way. Apart from the last extra long (but quite shallow) puddle, I stayed well clear of them after that.

The track just after the wet road, which was now leading us back towards the pits, was an easy going affair this time round, but I can distinctly remember the beginning of it being a right bastard of a bog the last time I was here. In fact on the third lap I can remember flopping off the bike and laying in the squelchy bog mud (with the bike on top of me) and thinking I’d just lay there for a while to have a little rest, I might as well, as I couldn’t get any wetter or colder! But now it was done dry but a little lumpy, so once again it was best to hang off the back and let the bike bounce along as I tried to skip (flump) over the bumps.
At the end of this part there were a couple of drop offs, the first one needed a bit of caution as there were some nasty rocks on the LHS of the downward slope, but the next one could be jumped and this was where Nicky and my sister situated themselves to get some ‘action’ shots. Only a few bends in the road to go and we were back in the pits area, luckily with time to spare.

Steady!

I decided to keep the tank topped up each lap just in case I was running late the following lap and needed to immediately start the next lap. I had my quick filler on the small 5L can so used that to top up. I’d shown my sister how to re-fill it from my larger 10L container so I knew I’d have a full quick fill can ready at the end of each lap. I had a good few pulls on my spare 2L water/isotonic mix as the heat and dust was already an issue. Heat? Yep it was hot out there and would only get hotter.

The start of lap two went according to plan this time but on the fire roads you had to back right off now as the clouds of dust being thrown up meant it was just way to dangerous to get anywhere close to the rider ahead.

like i said - it was a dusty day!

Starting the special test I tried to get into the middle rut on the first climb but the right hand one pulled me in somehow so I ended up getting a bit wobbly on the way to the top. Keen to set a good time I hit the track hard – no I mean I really hit the track hard! On the grassy undulating bit that was so rutted I was flying over the top of the ruts nicely and then went slightly off line and ended up at the wrong angle to clear some deep (but narrow) ruts. The front wheel slipped into one and stopped dead, while the back wheel and I carried on. I’m not sure what hit the deck first, I think it was my head so I did a couple of rolls up the track going end over end in a ball like a kid rolling down a hill. On the second time round I saw the bike flipping over too. Stop. Adrenaline rush. Run to bike. Pick up bike, feels very light? Start it and head off, only ten or so seconds lost. Slightly cross-eyed I get to the end of the test and stop next to Gareth, “bloody hell, I had a bit of a tumble on the test” I tell him. All too soon it’s time to start the next section of the course.

The tracks right after the second check were very dusty which once again meant that if you got away second or third you had to back off until we got to the more single track sections in the woods. Everything went fine for the rest of the lap a far as I can remember, as did the start of the following lap.

Third time round at the special and I think I got into the middle rut but it didn’t feel any better in that one so once again I struggled on the way up. The rest was taken with slightly less gusto this time round and I was starting to come to the realisation that I wasn’t riding very well. Gareth and the other rider on the TM were a lot faster than me and I just couldn’t get the hang of some of the more technical going, which was annoying, as I excel in those sort of conditions normally.

Another lap started, I’m not too sure which number we were up top by now but I was following Gareth and was right behind him when he started taking a different course. I followed him but was thinking the whole time ‘that the hell is going on’ as I did not recognise the track. Another loop later in the day was also cut out and this shortened the track slightly.
One part of the track that was not cut out was a section of woods that was like riding by brail. Coming from bright sunlight into this very thick conifer wood was like switching the lights out at midnight. A few tens of meters in and your eyes were just starting to get used to the inky light when out popped a wicked little tree stump that you could just about avoid hitting with the front wheel.

i come in for a pit stop - note bike in foreground not looking too healthy!

On one of the laps (I have no idea which one now) I had instructed Anna (my sister) to have the helmet cam ready. Once back in the pits they were both there to lend a hand in the re-fueling of both me and the bike. Anna asked if I was enjoying it as I must have looked a bit tired by now. I replied with a positive, but said the dust was making it hard work. I was so taken up in sorting out fuel and food that I forgot about the cam and my sister thought I was too busy/tired to bother me with it, so I never did get any footage. Gareth did shoot some however so I’ll include that.

like i said ... it was very dusty

By now we were starting to overtake some of the sportsman class and in turn we were getting overtaken by the pros. On one of the laps there was quite a hold up at the special test start as the faster guys were given first priority. I was a little concerned as the minutes were ticking away and I began to worry that we’d be late for the next check. Again I had some wobbly moments on the test and the TM rider overtook me (mid test) which was another kick in the bollocks for me mentally.

coming in at the end of the sixth and final lap

Eventually the sixth lap came and went and while it was by no means as tough as the last time I rode the event, it was still nice to get to the end. The heat and dust were a bit of a problem during the day and that took its toll as I was feeling a bit knackered. It was nice to eventually get the finishers medal though!

me - hot and tired? who me?

Got it at last!

Results wise it worked out ok. I was in the clubman class and ended up 14th and the first ‘silver’ award finisher so not too bad. I did notice that there was only one other 450 in front of me in the clubman class and one more in the next class up. It would seem that the 250 2T or 4T is the way to go with a few 300 2T in the mix.

And the other two on my start minute? Cark Davies the TM rider only went on won the clubman class and Gareth Thomas finished in fourth! So no wonder they were getting away from me on the course. Well done to you both.See you next year. Snow Run anyone?

give me a minute i need a little rest

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