Well done to all who rode the penultimate event of the season in Talybont on Sunday and we all enjoyed the added spectacle of cheering the Tour of Britain which past through the village directly after the event.

As we near the end of the season it has been obvious how strong the top riders have become, so when I set out to design the course I was pretty adamant it would be un-clearable! With this in mind I decided to add Cefn Moel to the north east of the map and the slopes of Allt Lwyd in the south west. Also with a couple of high pointers in the middle to discourage a classic ‘Buffalo Girls’ route (round the outside) I think I had it sussed. As the riders started to finish, my scheme seemed to have worked and which corner to drop proved the decider.

Top of the card was Mark Morgan 432; with a figure of 8 route and dropping the south west corner, closely followed by Michael Holloway 425; doing a clockwise route, again dropping the south west and picking up the CPs on the Allt at the end. Then Ian Cartwright 403; opting for an anti-clockwise route, but missing the back of Cefn Moel and the top of the Allt. The first female was Iwona Szmyd 340; who did a clock-wise route opting to drop all bar one north of the river. The full results are now live on the BMBO website so you can see where you finished in your age cohort.

I’d like to give a big thank you to Nicky & Jon who helped set-up, a rare treat not having to start until 12.30pm on Saturday. Also to the course clearers, Chris Porter, Dave Uglow, Gary Davies, James Brown & Ian Kennett. Having 5 or so volunteers to assist clear up is a great help so ‘Next Season’ there will be a £4 reduction for anyone who registers their intention to help with CP collection, as with the ‘Own Dibber’ option there will be a drop-down menu when entering so you can register your plan to help and save a few quid. Clearly I will not need dozens of helpers so once I have enough the option will be removed.

As ever thank you to Amanda, Verda and Eleanor for the catering and also to Carys and Gill for the fantastic home baked treats. We collected £70 for PRoW maintenance and this will be given to the National Park Authority to help our case when we ask them to clear back the foliage on the Bridleways to make your rides less painful!!

League News

The 2018 League results are now available on the Black Mountains MBO Web Page, Ifor Powell has secured the overall win, but the battle for second place and the ‘Marchog y Mynydd’ is still in the balance. Only 5 points separate Mark Morgan & Ian Cartwright going into the final event and a final surge from Michael Holloway could see him snatch the silver medal from both of them! The other age category leaders are marked in gold on the spreadsheet including Nicky Griffin the current top female rider.

The initial dates and locations for the 2019 League have now been published. These include Event 1 and Awards Ceremony in Gilwern in November and 4 Small Area Format (SAF) events in the New Year. They will go live for entries in a few weeks and we plan to retain the Graduated Entry Fee (GEF), the earlier you enter the lower the rate.

Once again thank you all for your support and see you at the final event in Tintern in a month’s time.

Siôn James and the Black Mountains MBO Planning Team