Well it was great to see over 50 riders turn up and take part in an ‘entirely dry’ Wentwood event following the downpours from the previous year. In fact so dry that the fire on Bica Common on Saturday evening (attended by at least 3 fire tenders) had me worried that if it spread into the main wooded area we would be looking at cancelling the event at very short notice. Luckily that did not happen and we were blessed with some lovely riding conditions. Wentwood has had some major felling over the past few years due to a combination of disease (in the extensive Larch plantations) and The Woodland Trust aiming to harvest softwoods and replant with native hardwoods. This has opened up some great views and helped some of the muddier areas dry out. It is now possible to enjoy fine views of the Black mountains to the North and Severn estuary to the South from a number of locations and I tried to make use of some of these for control sites if you took the time to stop and stare.
During the final recee the previous weekend I also encountered some Road Closed signs and a few helpful locals who told be the road had collapsed into some void below the reservoir. Good news-works due to be finished by the 12th so road due back open for the weekend. Bad news signs still out on the 13th. A closer inspection showed the road passable to bikes/walkers so luckily not a major problem.
We were also fortunate to have access to the Bertholau Craig part of the forest (previously we were excluded as felling and extraction was still ongoing) which opened up a few new route choices with the associated climb. Next event we will try to arrange access to part of Grey Hill too which has a number of really nice single tracks on it.
I thought that although the distances were not massive the climb needed to do a total clearance would be significant as there are very few ‘flat bits’ and with red and blue controls towards the bottom of both the North and South sides it would need a cunning plan. Well done to Ifor, Mark R and Mark M who all managed a clearance inside the three hours. Red first was clearly the order of the day with the first 16 riders all opting for this. In fact only 5 riders chose to start on blue.
Well done to Ifor Powell for overall win in the 3 hour SAF, Rachel Drew first female and 4th overall and just 1 short of a total clearance and Tasneem and Carys who won the 2 hour score.
Thank you to Chris for help on the day with parking, starts and downloads. Having a second person really makes a massive difference and reduces the stress significantly.
Thanks to Sion for SI set up, Amanda and Verda and for excellent catering and to Simon, Rachel and family, Ifor, Nicky and Jon for control collection. We collected £96 on the day which will be going to Woodland Trust who manage most of the Wentwood area.