Dyfi winter warmup

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BY: phil Morris

Published: 6th February, 2012

It took a while to commit to entering this year's Dyfi Winter Warm up Event, due to the fact that last year I nearly froze to death!! But after a wee while I decided," It couldn't be that cold again could it!"

The weather in the week leading up to the event did not give me a lot of faith in my belief that it couldn't be as cold again, but just the day before the event and the forecast was looking up, temperatures may actually go above freezing!!

After having one hell of a hair raising drive home from work up over the beacons in the worst snow I have ever encountered on Saturday evening, I had to check online to make sure the event had not actually been cancelled!! However, North Wales seemed to escape the snow!!

I woke on the Sunday to a hard frost, and the roads en route to Corris were very sketchy!!

I arrived at the event and things were looking up, as it was not half as cold there as it was back home and no snow, but it certainly couldn't be classed as tropical!!

The event was not exactly a race but they always are to a certain degree.  My plan was to get some good hard riding in to my legs which would be a first for 2012. There were some good strong riders there so I knew the pace would be high.

We started at 11 and the first section after the road was a very long forestry road climb, which I hadn't forgotten from last year! It was just as tough as last year as well! With Matt Page and James Nixon setting the early pace. I could not maintain this early pace as the cold weather made my lungs feel as if they were going to explode! And I had stupidly forgot to take my inhaler before starting!! By the top of the climb I was in about 4th. Matt was flying and soon dropped everyone. On the first lap I took it very easy on the descents as the last thing I wanted to do was to crash and injure myself.

Come the end of the first lap I was still in 4th but now Huw Thomas had passed me and caught James. I spent the next lap at a fairly steady pace, riding to my heart rate keeping it nice and constant.

I finally started to gain a bit on the guys in front, on the long forestry climb I decided to up the pace a bit to just under my red zone (where it bloody hurts) this was enough to catch the guys and get past. Once past I push on hard for the rest of the race.

The final lap was fairly painful as the legs were starting to realise what was going on!

I finished in 2nd behind Matt who had left us all for dust, and Huw came in 3rd.

Once again a really enjoyable event which was made even better due the fact I didn't nearly freeze to my bike this time round!! Just needed to get home to de-cake the mud off my bike!!

Thanks to the organisers and all involved.

Finally a massive thanks to my sponsors
Xcracer.com
Accelerade
Exposure lights
Mt Zoom    

Phil Morris