Enduro News - Beacons 2000

Beacons 2000

The WTRA Cyclelogical Beacons - 3rd Round of the 2000 British Solo Enduro Championship - took place on the 1st & 2nd July in the forests east of Llandovery. The Clerk of the Course - Peter Brookes - used a similar format to the World Round that the club hosted in 1999. From the start in the cattle market, the riders crossed the river to warm their engines around a short woodland loop before returning across a specially construct bridge to ride a newly created MX test. They then crossed the river again & followed the Brecon road for 3 miles before travelling through the Halfway forest to Check 1 at Gill's Folly in the Crychan.

There was ample parking in the cattle market if the riders used common sense & so on Friday afternoon the entrance was immediately jammed solid. After a fortnight of dry weather, the skies opened on Saturday morning. The first men away at 10.01 were fourstroke riders Wyn Hughes & Jason Fraser. Troed Rhiw - a rocky descent connecting the Halfway & the Crychan - gave riders a early taste of the slippery conditions that the rain was creating in the forest. From Ck 1 the Championship & Expert classes had to complete 3x38 mile laps of Crychan & Glyn Saer (2 laps for Clubmen & 1 lap for Sportsmen). By noon the clouds had parted & the course began to dry out but the first lap had taken a toll on the entry including Si Higgins who was riding with his leg still pinned following an accident last year. On the second day the weather started dry. Additional loops extended the lap to 45 miles (3 laps for Championship, 2 for Experts & Clubman, 1 for Sportsman). Katrina Price retired with a cracked radiator. In the afternoon the Clerk of the Course cancelled the last lap for the Championship class to save wearing out the ground. The riders had to be re-routed out of the forest as a mountain bike event was "double booked" to use the M4 at the top of Treod Rhiw. At 4pm a deluge of Biblical proportions descended onto the forest soaking the last few clubmen & the closing marshals. Dizzy Gillespie was caught by the weather on the last check & was forced to retire. David Knight took the Premier with runner up Ady Smith & the Best Expert was Mark Jackson with runner up Simon Evans. The Best Best Clubman was Robert Jones with runner up Richard Hallam. The Best Over 40 was Dave Cholwill & the Best Team was GH Motorcycles. There were 88 finishers. Over 40 WTRA members helped to organise this event.