2013 Welsh MTB Series – round 1 at Margam Park – Port Talbot.

By Lee-Michelle Jones

The 2013 Welsh Mountain Bike Series got under way this weekend at Margam Park on verywet and blustery welsh winters day.Racing started at 09.30 with the under 8’s, followed by the under 10’s and under 12’s battling on the lower section of the muddy, and very technical course.Garan Jones and Freya took second boy and girl in the under 8’s with a steady and controlled race, while Cian put in his usual gutsy skillful performance.

In the under 10’s Gruffydd Daniel raced his way to complete his first WMTB race with a solid performance and is now looking forward to the next battle of the series. In the under 12’s, Iwan Evans, Cian Roberts, Iwan Godfrey, Adam Thorne & Tom Butterworth all braved the blistery rain and mud to battle the longer lower section of the course to gain 4th, 6th, 7th, 10th & 13th respectively. 

Racing started for the longer course riders at 11am – with the women, vets and gran-vet riders braving the 3.5kms muddy swamp. As the course preview stated … there were some muddy wet areas but overall the course was riding well. As a spectator, there were a number of “over the handle bar falls” and looking at the state of the competitors – it was clearly mud, sweat and tears!! Clearly a tough course physically with little way of rest and certainly with some muddy challenges!

In the veteran race both Wayne Davies and Wayne Jones battled the mud well to complete in 14^th and 16^th positions respectively. In a spectacular race, Nick took the youth A win completing a speedy second fastest first lap of the race on the full course, with Matt Thorne finishing in 10^th position. Both boys met the mud well following “over the handle bar” falls and still came out smiling. Hefin also braved the full course in the youth A category but sadly retired following a puncture.

In the juvenile male, Ioan Thomas also had to retire due to a mechanical problem soon after the start, so will eagerly await the next round.

In the Youth A female category, Ffion James from Abergavenny took the overall win, with our own Tanwen coming in second position with an outstanding ride knee deep in mud, sweat and smiles.

In the second race of the day, which started at 1pm – we saw the junior racers battle the mud with Carwyn Davies completing the challenge in a respectable 5^th position and Geraint Godfrey taking a superb 9^th.

There were clearly some serious challenges out there today, with the rain, mud and the challenges did not stop there. For I am sure some washing machines also braved the onslaught, cleaning the kit ready for the next round of the WMTB series. 

 Full Event Results

All Photos : Courtesy of Craig Fawkes (Follow this link to view more)

MTB racing - A young riders view!!

By Matthew Thorne

The weather was as usual wet, cold and windy and signing on may as well have been in a different country! It was so far away from the car and the marathon of a walk was made twice as bad by the fact the road leading up to it had more water on it than concrete! Resulting in people and bikes dodging about the whole length of it. Enough of the moaning for now! The racing was fantastic and the atmosphere was great considering the amount of mud and water that seemed to get absolutely everywhere! The course was very muddy which made it a lot more technical to ride. On the first lap, before the field had spread, it was just a line of riders strung out on the first climb up the singletrack. The first bit of technical descent was a straight rocky section which wasn't particularly steep but had enough loose rocks to give you something to think about! Having the bonus of a full suspension MTB with powerful brakes is that there's no need to brake too early, but obviously the spectators standing at the bottom of the descent didn't know that when they all scrambled to the sides with a look of shock on their faces - when I started screaming at the bloke in front who decided he wanted to stop and walk the last bit! The last sections of the course was just mud, mud and you guessed it, more mud!! On the first lap a rider came flying face first past my shoulder and straight into a wet, gooey puddle of mud and I laughed, probably loud enough for him to hear (ooopsy)!! But Karma got me back on my second lap as I suffered the same fate as he had and went straight over the bars and got a face full of dirt! overall a fantastic race!!!!!