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Wiggle Enduro 6 2009

This weekend I entered the Wiggle Enduro 6, along with my team mates on Team Wiggle. Although I’ve done a few shorter events this year, this would be my first real endurance test of the year. The build up in the week before had been quite turbulent as we were moving house, from Llandovery to a small village right in the heart of Brechfa forest, which just happens to be my favourite place to ride!

We arrived at Catton Park, the venue for Enduro 6 on the Saturday afternoon. I was really exited about the event, not just because of the race but because I was also because I was collecting my new race bikes! The afternoon was spent adjusting the bikes ready to ride and also taking part in a photo shoot with the other Wiggle athletes. It was clear just from the photo shoot and hearing other riders thoughts that punctures were going to be a serious risk, with hawthorn bushes lining several parts of the course. I managed to pick up a puncture just riding a tiny part of the track during the shoot.

I had decided not to enter the night time trial and instead allow myself the time to finish preparations for the 6 hour and relax while watching the action track side. The temperature was starting to drop very quickly as it got dark, which meant a very cold night in the tent! With new bike built I wasn’t totally sure weather ride it during the event, as the amount of time spent riding it was fairly minimal. I decided to start on the new bike with my Raven Pro in the pits just in case something wasn’t quite right.

Like many similar events, Enduro 6 starts with a run around a separate loop before grabbing your bike from the pits and racing off. I was fairly happy with my run and came through within the top 20 riders. Setting off fairly quickly my first lap didn’t go too well as I slid off on one of the first corners. Luckily there was no damage to myself or the bike, but my confidence took a knock and for a couple of hours afterwards I was riding like little miss daisy around the bends, especially where the surface was wet or loose. It took me quite a while to get warmed up and into a good rhythm and until then I wasn’t feeling particularly strong. The fact that solo and pairs were racing made things harder, as I didn’t really know who I was racing against. My first pit was after 4 laps and by that point I was starting to feel a little better and more confident about my pacing. For the first half of the race I was hovering around 7-10th place, which was several places lower than I had hoped but I kept lapping consistently and slowly I was gaining places.

With the warm, dry weather I was trying to drink as much as possible, but that was fairly difficult without pitting too often, which cost at least a minute with the closed pit arrangement, unique to Enduro 6. At the start of the penultimate lap I was in 5th place, but with 2nd only 30 seconds ahead I pushed hard to try and catch them. Within 10 minutes I had caught 2nd and 3rd, but almost as soon as I had caught them they both pushed harder and I decided to stick to my own pace, rather than blow a lap early and hope that they would tire. At the start of the final lap the riders ahead were still within touch, so I put all my effort into catching them. I would occasionally glimpse Phil Morris, who was in 3rd and half way round the lap I got within 10 meters of him. He looked back and saw me and kicked harder and as much as I tried I wasn’t able to catch him, so reluctantly finished in 4th place.

Overall I am happy with the result, although being one position from a podium is a little disappointing, but the competition was tough but I kept my head and stuck to riding my own race throughout while others started fast and faded. I’ve not seen my lap times yet, but I am confident that they are all consistent. A massive well done to Lee Williams, my team mate who was totally unstoppable in the 6 hour, a very convincing performance!

No rest for me now, another busy week of training before competing in the Dyfi Enduro next Sunday. I’m really looking forward to this event, it is my favourite enduro of the year being very technical and fast.

More photo’s to come. Watch this space…

This entry was posted on Monday, May 4th, 2009 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Athlete Diaries, Matthew Page. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.