The Macmilllan Afan Monster

Colin Wakefield and Andrew Bates are good friends of mine. I've known them for a long time.

Colin has had the opportunity to apply his cheery disposition by laughing at me when I broke my collar bone and has seen me through 23 years of "growing up", and Andy has pushed me on every ride we ever go on. Gael is the other partner in crime and she's harder to keep up with than the rest! Good guys, and part of Rush Cyles' Sunday morning shop ride.

This group knows the ins and outs of Afan Argoed like the backs of their hands and this weekend was their opportunity to show this knowledge off, with the blessing of the local arm of the Forestry Commission.

The Macmillan Afan Monster is a 75Km and 100Km enduro, which ran for the first time in Autumnally perfect weather. It's been bandied about that it is possibly the toughest enduro in the UK.

I believe them.

Luckily for me, I have ridden all but one piece of singletrack that was used in this event. The piece that I hadn't ridden before was on the 100Km route. Basically we descended for what seemed like 20mins on loose, rocky single and pseudo double track, with the bike bouncing all over the place in glee. This was the weekend where I felt that my Mojo had returned fully as I was pinning every downhill and REALLY enjoying myself.

I was pinning *most* of the downhills, except the whole of The Wall: Rory (Rush) wouldn't let me past and told me, err, where to go when I asked politely(not realising it was him). So, to try and get my own back at the bottom, I asked if he had a puncture, or something. He got it and laughed at me, but I will have him one day!!! :)

Not so lucky for me was the 3 times that Huw and I stopped to try to get my rear tyre to seal after I tore the sidewall slightly on one of the whacky rock sections on the top of the Skyline, near Hirwaun. On a couple of these stops, Huw had a couple of things to take care of, so I wasn't too worried as he's kind of cool about these things.

After the third stop my tyre started to go flat again even more quickly. My sealant couldn't cope; but it was a big ask for it seal the sidewall in any case. I started to lose touch with Huw, whom I had been riding with as he pushed me on the climbs and I got my own back on the downs and flats. I didn't have the heart to say that I had to stop again, as he would probably have stopped too.

I put a tube in, then rode down the steps on Skyline. I was a bit unsporting and tried to sneak in front of a rider as he came around to the top of the steps; just as I was getting on my bike. In my rush, I forgot to pump my brakes to make sure that my pads were in the right place...

...That'll teach me for sneaking in. I had no brakes and made a right fool of myself as I went for a good old Burton down the hill to the side of the steps, apologising all the way, to the guy behind me, for being a git. He laughed, thank goodness.

A few minutes later I pinch flatted, so had to repair the snake bites. Then, one of the patches blew off so I had to repair AGAIN.

That's 3, plus the three stops earlier.

Never mind.

I finally get to the bottom of The Skyline descent, with a nice bit of arm pump, and met Gael, one of the Rush riders.

"You're doing really well!"

That made me feel a lot better, so I got back on the gas.

What followed was the Caves climb. This has always been one of the climbs that would normally constitute the main climb on a Sunday morning ride. But today was different as it was about the 6th(?)of the route so far. This is a big day out, and I'm glad that we avoided the last part of this climb where it rises to meet the Black Run, because it is a granny ring lung buster- just like the rest of the Monster!

Upwards and onwards and I eventually get to the third waterstop, to give my number so that they could record riders progress, and carry on. I only went and gave them the wrong number. I was 59, but had it in my head that I was 56 for some daft reason. It turned out later that everyone was looking for 56 because they hadn't checked in.

Oops.

As I hit the bottom of the first looooong rocky and loose downhill into the 100km "extension" I remember how scary it had been when I did it last year. My back end had been jacking me all over the place as I was scrubbing speed. None of that nonsense now though, as Clive's skills have really worked for me.

Brakes...

...Off.

An awesome and, up until now, secret singletrack. The riders in The Monster are quite privelaged to have seen this stuff.

After a bit of a climb out from there, past Colin and Dibbs, you hit another scorcher of a downhill. It was sort of narrow doubletrack, but was strewn with boulders and rocks for the whole width and length of what seemed like a 5 minute descent down the fall line. It was actually quite a challenge to do this quickly, but the quicker you went, the less you got brake jack, and the smoother it was.

After that was about another 15Km of firetrack, followed by THE TOUGHEST climb of the day. When I got to the top, it felt like I had started it a few months ago. Absolutely relentless and around 40 minutes of steep climbing. At one point, when I thought I was nearing the top, I passed Dibbs again as he marshalled the cross over point on the 100Km bit.

"That's a *&%%$ big B%^$$£% of a climb, Dibbs!" I was in the need of a little venting. Honestly.

"Aye! And you're only about 60% of the way up!"

How I hated that smug grin, for a short while.

To finish off, we rode the final 15Km back to base, and went around the top of Bouldersville (scary place) and hit the back trails which lead to the top of the Wall final descent.

Funnily enough, it was uphill!

Well, I tell a lie. It was actually a nice sweet singletrack forestry descent, which I've done loads of times, where you get to manual through and bunny hop over streams before turning sharp right, through a little stony gully and onto the road...

...Psssssssssstttttt!

Yip. Puncture. Less than a mile from home.

I fixed it, and could have sworn that it was going flat when I crossed the line.

6hrs 24min by my watch, including all of those stops. But do you know what? I'm happy! Huw kept up his blistering pace and rode home in just over 6hrs (just).

I rode my biggest ride since Bristol (which was a bit of a bad one for me) and came out feeling that I could ride my bike again! Mojo came back a few weeks ago, but now his brothers and sisters are joining in, too!

This winter is going to be a good training season.

To Colin, Andy, all those at Macmillan and the others who marshalled or helped out in some way: Thanks for setting up such a great local event. It's the best 100Km I've ever done, because it's tough. It all seems to head uphill, but the downhills are techy and fun.

Cancer is something quite close to my heart (and other bits)- and I'm sure I said this recently somewhere else, so sorry. Thanks to all for allowing us to enjoy the day so much, whilst raising funds for a worthwhile charity.

Thanks also to all of the riders who were so pleasant...

...Except Rory. I'm gonna get you!!