AFAN
April 2010
Riders were: Tyre and Tracey, Hemlock, Roger, Clone, Silverscoob, Sidge, Ste B, Seb, Noddyryder, Kris GT, Steve C, Tony B, Pabs, Pete, Scotty, Hendy, Julian, Knotty, Mishun, Rod Council, Chunk, Bazza, Kopite, Red Rooster, Edgey, Busystack, Daveyboy, and myself.
Guests were: Hells and bump and Lisa.
Campers were: Turtlekid, Si, Jonesy, Wellsy, Stan and others.
The date was set and many Woollies had been itching to get away for some quality riding after such a poor winter and long protracted cold spells so it was clear that the weather gods had been listening and paid us back 10 fold with fantastic dry bright and super warm sunny conditions all weekend.
After a meet up at Chester services the pack got rolling to the fantastic Strand Café for a mid car trip Welsh Breakfast, the place is heartily recommended as the food was spot on. Another couple of hours in the cars had us rolling through awesome South Wales scenery with fantastic views.
We pulled in to the Lodge, our home for the weekend and promptly got kitted up ready for riding.
Friday saw us hit the Whites Level trail, a fantastic single track frenzy of a route starting with a stiff technical goat trail climb with drop offs and tight twisting switchback climbs the top of this led to a red and black downhill option with all choosing to throw themselves down the black. Long sweeping berms, tight rocky drops and dozens of cameras meant get it wrong at your peril!!
The trail continued with epic single track sections and tight rocky downhill’s, at the W2 split point a fair number decided to link this in and flew across the valley tops to begin the plummet earth bound on the Wall descents. The Wall for me had some of the standout sections of the whole weekend with “Graveyard” and “Zig Zag” being absolute blinders.
Back at the Lodge after a hard and damage prone first days riding saw broken mechs, tubeless failures and weeping fork seals proving how tough these Welsh trails could be. Stack count stood at 2 impressive ones with Busystack landing in a pile of mud and ripping his shorts to shreds and Bazza with an OTB leaving him a couple of inches shorter!!
The lodge once we had checked in proved to be an amazing location with great facilities, smashing rooms, great food and the best staff you could ask for, a true “Bikers Heaven” before and after the great food the beer flowed recounting the days excitement.
Day 2 started with a fine Welsh Breakfast and then the majority had decided it would be Skyline Day, a monster of a route with 37 miles completed and some 2800 metres of climbing. Once on the Skyline after the same climb as day one, we started to get going. Not long after the “Dunce of the Day” award went to Hemlock with a broken mech hanger only to discover that none of his 3 spares were on his person = end of ride for him!
After losing Pabs somehow, the group natural split into faster and slower packets and made good progress in the baking sun, this ride proved to be a real opinion splitter with some really liking it and other finding the balance of good single track to fire road to be somewhat off. From my personal opinion I thought the route was fantastic tiring and elating at the same time, the views and the scenery and the riding for me was first class, the final descent section from the “grand Canyon” and “Jetlag” down was the stuff of dreams, tight rocky and blisteringly fast, I would have no hesitation in doing the route again. Once at the bottom all spent and out of water it was literally shake hands, punch the air and whoop out loud good.
Back at the lodge again for a wash down and more beer and merriment with an after dinner award ceremony hosted by Geoff, it proved to a great laugh with awards for many characters and categories. ‘Noddy Rider’ put on a great show with his fake breasts and pound-land prizes abounded. The night ended with more beers and fun after being joined by the “campers” with some who were a little the worse for wear shall we say.
The last day and time to pack up and prepare for the final days riding that saw plans hatched to complete “The Wall” for the majority with a few choosing to do “W2” the Wall proved to be a great finale ride with stiff but manageable climbing and a fantastic finish to the route. Tired Woollies got to the end truly spent on a weekends amazing riding.
Big thanks have to go to Tracey and Paul for putting together such a splendid weekend in an amazing location, All the members old and new had a belting weekend and thoughts turn to the next one in Scotland and of a return to Afan and the Lodge again in the very near future.
Well done to all for completing some amazing riding and for making the weekend and the club such a great place to be.
|
Homepage
