2005 Dfyi Enduro - May 05

3 marked trails to follow tooThe Dfyi Enduro this year was MENTAL. Why oh why do so many riders do the Merida Enduro's and miss this jem. OK its only a short one at around 36 miles, but this allows you to have a full weekends riding rather than one 100Km slog.
Its in a fantastic area thats going to hit the big time soon due to the trail buiding going on here, and the event is so chilled and laid back.

That's more than can be said for the trails mind, up some killer forest road climbs to bomb back down some amazing descents that make the Adams family at Coedy look like the chicken run, 2 ripped tyres (don't use Panracer XC's here) and yet still smiling. it was superb, no it was better than that.

There's three waymarked trails called mach 1,2 and 3 to the south of the town, while the new Clymax trails are to the North.
Saturday saw some locals from the Holey trail bikeshop leading us out for some sneaky local fun bits, followed by Sunday race/Enduro over about 36 miles.
Patriots enjoyed the steep bits down at least
Saturday was a great opportunity to ride the area, one that has three natural way-marked trails the mach 1/2 and 3. How have we managed to avoid these so far, especially with there close proximity to Coed-y-Brenin.
So 2pm it's a trip into the easy to find Holey Trail bike shop on the main street to meet up with some shop workers and riders from Machynlleth Mountain-bike Club who are going to show us some fun.

We head in a Southerly direction, following the start route of the Mach trails and climb the hills past the golf course. Its a great open moor top ride and surprisingly firm under wheel. We nipped across between the way-marked trails and took in some superb descents in the woods, plenty of arse rubbing rear tyre moments, the locals always know the best bits.

Lots of pointing into yonder hills and stories of the Infamous Chute at the end of the Mach trail had us checking the diary, eager to return and sample more already. The final golf club descent is loads of fun with a few riders being swallowed in some of the bog crossings.
The view of our fun Sat desent - right into town.
Overnight there is camping on the Rugby club field right next to the event HQ which is in the towns leisure centre. Saturday see the guys based in the Holey trail shop, but Sunday this is the event hub.

There's food and showers available to riders, so its quite civilised. 2 mins walk and your in town for Curry, Chinese, ample provision shops and several fine pubs. Sat was spent renewing old acquaintances from previous Dfyi's in the unofficial event pub: the White Lion. Followed by a bitterly cold night in the van. At least the view of our rides great final descent was cool.
the climbs can go on and on and on Sunday and its a rather relaxed start.

8.00-10.00 am sign on and collect numbers at the Leisure centre but the 11.00 am event start means a nice lie in, even if the bike is covered in crap from Saturday.

The event starts with a police escort way out of town, its more sedate than the Kona/Merida ones which is good for your hangover. This does seem to lead to a lot of crashes though due to numty riders who feel the need to squeeze it all up, hitting each other.

A few miles out of town and the start proper is quite a shock to the system, it's one monster long drag that seems to go on for ever. Entertainment comes in watching the singlespeeders grinding up there (faster than me though) When you can hear music the end is near, a Brass band on the Summit is a Dfyi tradition to send you on your way.
2005 Dfyi route


The riding here is awesome to say the least, there's a great amount of serious descending to be done on some wicked slate bedded trails.

Bog and ditch jumps and some real arse on the tyre moments all add to the fun. The start hill really stretches riders out and even the slower riders can have fun on the descents without fear of bottlenecks.

This is a real downhillers Enduro, well as long as you can climb aswell. The ride is short at 36 miles but doesn't suffer for it and I'd recommend the weekend experience for next year. 		dfyi
   The Trails used for the Dfyi Enduro are on Forestry land and are all rideable year round except for the top moor section ( thats where bizarely those rugby lads were training ??). Watch out for a future What MTB edition, they have been doing some epics in this area for a future route guide, along with the new Clymax trails.
click for bigger view - mud clearance no problems OK

One plastered bike, 2 ripped tyres, a heaving washing machine and big grins all round. (click for full view)
No time posn name cat +posn
136 2:41:20 1 Christopher Purt M1840
154 2:43:00 2 Mike Harper M1840
17 2:44:30 3 Paul Murrin M1840
122 2:48:30 4 Simon Turner M1840
187 2:49:45 5 Martin Swanson M1840
464 2:50:00 6 Jean Van Der Vaken 1st Singlespeed
123 3:22:57 58 Jack Peterson 6th M40+

Results from Summit here (no times allowed)
Dfyi Article and Pictures from BikeMagic Bikemagic