The Black Mountain Series extended into Carmarthenshire for the fifth event in the 2016 series; the furthest west the Series had ever been in its history. The 2014 and 2015 Black Mountain Series Winner, Gary Davies volunteered to plan his first event in the local area where he was born and raised. Brechfa Forest has a reputation for having one of the best trail centres in Wales but he decided to make the event participants explore some forest roads, bridleways and other routes with public access (ORPAs) which are infrequently used by mountain bikers.

Due to a broken wrist, Gary was unable to ride his mountain bike to put out the 25 checkpoints the day before the event. So he had to rely on his wife and father-in-law to drive around the small Brechfa roads to enable him to walk in/out to the checkpoints. It took them from 0930 to 1830 to put them out in a day of heavy rain.

Thankfully, Sunday was a drier day but the ground was sodden from the previous day’s rain. The participants were blessed with good visibility too to enable them to take in the beautiful views in the Cothi Valley and its tributaries.

39 mountain bikers started the four hour event which included 11 participants who had never done MBO previously; a great statistic as the event attracted interest from the local community. The event also attracted people from far afield including London, Stoke, Cornwall and Hereford. The “usual” Black Mountains’ crew were there in numbers too.

All the participants returned to the finish with big smiles, muddy bikes (and bodies) plus tales of 1m deep puddles, glorious downhill sections and BIG climbs! Gary particularly enjoyed Joseph Fuest’s (fat tyre bike) reaction which was “Wow, that was fantastic!” and the biggest smile he’d ever seen! All said that the event should return in 2017 for more opportunities to explore the stunning area and trails.

From a possible 500 points, three people collected 450 points which was an amazing achievement in the wet ground conditions and big hills. Of the three, local man Chris Schroder returned within the 4 hour time limit to retain all his points and won the event overall; a fantastic achievement in his first MBO event. Meanwhile the experienced Ian Carter snatched second place (after losing 5 points in penalty points) and the youthful Matthew MacMillan stole third place overall (after losing 7 points in penalty points).

Well done to the class winners who were:

•· G (generation) – Charlie & Christopher Aldous

•· X (pairs) – Richard Thomas and Mark Owen (locals, first MBO event)

•· Y18 - Teifion Best

•· W21 - Emily van der Heijden (and second female)

•· M21 – Matthew MacMillan

•· M40 – Chris Schroder (local, first MBO event)

•· M50 – Mark Rowley

•· W50 – Nicky Griffin (and first female)

•· M60 – Bernard Lamb

Thank you all for the donation of £57 (rounded up) which will go towards the refurbishment of the kitchen in the registration venue (Brechfa Church Hall).

Last but not least Gary would also like to give a big thank you to several people including Dawn (registration, download, cook and chauffeur!), Malcolm (another chauffeur) and Valerie (Chief Kitchen/Food Lady!). He would also like to thank the following for helping with collecting the controls and enabling him to return home at a reasonable time J: Jon and Nicky, Andy, Gill, Tim, Emily (Stotts), plus brothers Mark and John Morgan. Gary owes Sion James and Ian Kennet a huge amount of gratitude for the ability to use the SI system (+ many other bits of kit) and teaching him how to use it!

Gary intends to plan another event in the area again in 2017 but possibly exploring further west (or further east!?).