Anyone know of XC/Enduro events at Afan this year?

springtide9

Looking for something like the Afan Monster Anyone know of any planned events?

welshkev

i haven't heard of one this year, i hope they do it though, i'll be tempted. you thought aboiut the brecon beast?

springtide9

BB looks very interesting, although looks very close to my holiday.. which might not be ideal.

Ideal is something hard(ish) in South Wales, with a bit of Endurance and All Mountain..... Love riding at Afan, so seems an ideal location, Cwmcarn would also be great,
As for date, ideally looking for early August (or maybe even July)

For what's it's worth, I will be doing the Bristol Bikefest event as it's very local, and expect the 12hr solo event to be very taxing for me. Did the 8hr last year and it was a struggle, but hoping this year I'lll be fitter.

Ideally, don't want the event too far from B'stol.

welshkev

just found this:
http://www.macride-afanmonster.org.uk/

springtide9

welshkev wrote:

just found this:
http://www.macride-afanmonster.org.uk/

Bugger! I will be on holiday and out of the country!

I wonder if they'll do the Mash Ups this year? [missed out last year on all the timing issues]

miss notax

welshkev wrote:

just found this:
http://www.macride-afanmonster.org.uk/

Oooh, I really fancy this

Will talk to Notax tonight, but I think we'll enter this and i'll try to get a group of us together. It's for a very good cause too

welshkev

miss notax wrote:

welshkev wrote:

just found this:
http://www.macride-afanmonster.org.uk/

Oooh, I really fancy this

Will talk to Notax tonight, but I think we'll enter this and i'll try to get a group of us together. It's for a very good cause too

yes it is 8) so far there's about 5 of us interested down this end, i'm gonna enter as a boost to try and encourage me to ride more :shock:

miss notax

Which one are you entering? The 100km? The slightly mentally-unstable side of me wants to enter this one, but the more sensible side of me knows there is currently bugger all chance of me riding that far off road! But then again, what a challenge....

How far is that in miles?

Bloody hell, that's over 60 miles :shock: :shock:

welshkev

ha ha...2 of us are doing the 100km...i'm going for the 75km, that's way further than i've ever ridden before but i've got about 130 days of training!!! :shock:

miss notax

Well, Notax and I have gone and done it and entered the 100Km :shock:

128 days to get myself up to speed!!

welshkev

oh no, you've robbed me of 2 days of training...ha ha

springtide9

Enjoy! Will be wishing I was there!
(and not stuck on an aeroplane for 5 hrs with two small children!)

welshkev

springtide9 wrote:

Enjoy! Will be wishing I was there!
(and not stuck on an aeroplane for 5 hrs with two small children!)[/quote

i think at around the 50km mark i'll be wishing i was in an aeroplane....i was gonna say with 2 small children but that just sounds wrong

Northwind

There's an Afan leg of the 661 Enduro series- though it's a proper enduro not an endurance XC race so possibly not what you're after.

welshkev

Northwind wrote:

There's an Afan leg of the 661 Enduro series- though it's a proper enduro not an endurance XC race so possibly not what you're after.

you got a link for that? i'll have a search but if you've got a link that'd be cool

Northwind

Aye, info here:

http://www.ukgravityenduro.co.uk/public ... px?id=2067

They seem to be mainly using their facebook page and southerndownhill though

Andrew_J_Heard

isnt there anything easier for us people in not such great shape to enter?

100km is somewhat painfull in the car let alone on a bike

welshkev

Northwind

cheers dude, i'll take a look at that 8)

Andrew_J_Heard

i'm in no way fit enough now to tackle 75km but it's something to aim for isn't it

Andrew_J_Heard

id be up for 7.5 if there was a pub at the end lol

i think 75km would kill me at the moment.even if it was flat tarmac!!

Northwind

Andrew_J_Heard wrote:

isnt there anything easier for us people in not such great shape to enter?

100km is somewhat painfull in the car let alone on a bike

Not at Afan, but you could consider Deg Yn Llandegla- first time south (and west) of the border for No Fuss Events, famous for 10 Under the Ben. Format is a 10 mile lap, 10 hour event, and you can enter anywhere from solo to a team of 4 (2 or 3 is a good number but solo you can ride, take a break, ride again...).

(I'll be honest and say I didn't enjoy my 10UTB much and I'm in no hurry to do another but that's not a criticism of the event at all, it just didn't suit me that well. Lots of people consider them among the best XC races out there. I'm just not much of an XC racer so I've entered their endurance downhill event this year instead )

weeksy59

I did the Afan monster last year, my time was 7 hours 20 mins. It's certainly an Epic ride... that was for the 75km.... I intended to do the 100km, but to be honest, i wasn't up to it.

There's just SOOOOO much climbing it's almost not funny... climb climb climb.... obviously there's downhills... but they're over a lot quicker than the climbs.

The event itself was brilliantly organised, great feeding stations, great route, great bunch of lads out there slugging it out with the hill.

I made 2 BIG mistakes last year...

1. Set of in the first group out and tried to match the leaders for as much as i could... stayed for the first 2 hours in the top 10 people out there... BIG mistake...

2. Only ran a middle ring.... needed a granny ring.... won't make that mistake again.

This time i WILL be doing the 100km event... and completing it...

It was quite funny as i pulled up to the cut-off for the 100km and the woman said to me "100km or 75......"

Bloke next to me at the time said "look at him, what do you think ""

miss notax

Crikey! Some good advice there though!

I'm entered into the 100Km event - I don't have any great time in mind, but would just like to finish it in one peice!

We did the full Skyline (well, as full as it can be with all the diversions) on Sunday as a bit of an early 'test' as it's about half the distance, and did that in 3 hours 33 mins I'm not kidding myself that i'll do the 100Km in double that time, but at least it gives me hope that I might be able to finish it somehow....

Am planning to get lots more miles in before August!

weeksy59

I'd think it's somewhere like doing Skyline 2.5-3 times for the 100km.

By the way, just because you're entered in the 100km doesn't mean you can't do the 75km. The extra 25km is just a loop off at the last feed station (55km or so). You'll get there and be given the option of going down to the right (assuming same route this year) or straight on for the 75km. From what i gathered the extra loop for 25km isn't terribly exciting, mostly uphill lol... (from a time context anyway).

3 hours 33 for Skline in it's current format is decent enough yeah.. i think i was about 30 mins maybe 40 inside that last year.

You shouldn't need anything in the way of food or drink (apart from teh camelbak) as the feed stations were great last year.

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