Maesgwm Muddle

Maesgwm Muddle on Sat 30th Aug 2014

By popular concensus, a tough but worthy AM counter to wrap up the British Champs for this year.  A brutal first climb up Moel Cynghorion which would have had Mr Harmer, in his pomp, grinning from ear to ear; immediately followed by a rapid descent back almost to sea level (the final Peris descent line for those that know it). From there, an all too runnable (and hence somewhat painful) reascent to Bwlch Maesgwm, along the Paddy route to Moel Eilio, and a long swift raking descent to Bwlch y groes, where an injured Greg R gave us all welcome encouragement for a final brief heathery out and back to Cefn-du and home via a farm track and bracken bank.

Good runs from Rob L and Neil, a very fine championship debut from Josh (trust me, Josh, there's no indignity whatsoever in just losing out to Victoria Wilkinson), and team points for Dave L for the first time too.  Performance of the day however was Keith's, who came out top in the battle of the MV60s and is looking good for a podium finish overall.  Great to see him with a smile on his face, and keen to fill us all in on his battle with Ben Grant, after a difficult year for our resident race-aholic - well run Keith!

At the other end of a distinctly bi-modal DP distribution, your correspondent (sporting a variety of bumps and grazes from a last minute face-plant) was left for dead by Wendy Dodds in the final third of the race, but just about managed to stay ahead of Carshare and Donna C, who battled neck and neck up the final, uncomfortably inclined, finishing field.  And the Carshare Team prize was no contest really, going to Dave L and passengers (Keith, Josh and yours truly).

A good day out, with the weather just about holding off until all were home, and rumours that it will run again next year - in which case, it's just over 10miles and 3500foot well worth grappling with.

Willy