Kona 100 Mountain Marathon 2002
Full results can be found here. and some photographs can be found here
It was to Builth Wells in darkest mid-Wales that about 1700 mountain bikers
journeyed at the weekend to take part in the Kona 100, a 100km off-road race
through the Welsh hills. Representing the fens were Andy Cockburn, Shane
Slater, yours truly and one of Andy's mates whose name temporarily escapes
me - sorry!
Arriving at the campsite on Saturday evening, we found variously flat pieces
of ground to pitch tents on. The campsite and start was on a farm on a hill
above the Royal Welsh Showground, with a fantastic view across the valley to
the hills on which we'd be racing on Sunday. We all took advantage of the
free pasta and collected our race numbers. We also pored over the map of the
route, but since it was drawn on a slightly odd military map and used very
few marked tracks it was all rather academic. There followed much eating and
bike-fettling before a good night's rest.
Sunday morning dawned overcast but dry, and it was time to eat even more and
get ready for the day ahead. Once we'd negotiated the queue for the toilets
we all crowded together for the mass start in a farmyard that was slightly
too small. Some people were taking race-ready weight-saving to the extreme:
I overhead one rider commenting to another, "Are you taking a pump?"!
The excitement mounted and at 10 o'clock we were off, led by a pace car for
the first few miles, crowding the streets of Builth Wells much to the
bemusement of the local populace. After a long tarmac climb we were up on to
the hills of the Sennybridge artillery range, which (for understandable
reasons) is normally off-limits to anyone but the MOD.
The course was as varied as it was long, with a lucky dip of tarmac, forest
fireroad, rocky singletrack, rutted tank tracks, grassy meadows, steep
climbs, screaming descents, and an insanely muddy bit through the Crychan
forest which got the better of everyone. There were feeding and watering
stations every 20km or so, which also served as makeshift bike workshops: I
was more than happy to lend my chain tool to someone when he said his chain
had broken 5 miles ago and he'd been walking since then!
The kilometres on my computer gradually mounted up, and after a long drag
across the moors through enormous puddles and between rusting abandoned
tanks, it seemed the end was in sight: a military tarmac road along a ridge,
providing stunning views of mid-Wales to one side and the jagged peaks of
the Brecon Beacons to the other. But the course had a couple of stings in
its tail: a long section of singletrack up and down through grass and
heather, which as well as being hard work held a few surprises for the
unwary, and right towards the end a couple of very sharp climbs just when
your legs had had enough. After blazing down a final rutted descent and
skittering round the muddy hairpin bend to the timing point, it was all over
bar the gentle road spin through the "neutral zone" (no overtaking allowed)
the few miles back to the finish line to collect commemorative t-shirts.
I haven't seen the full results yet, but the fastest time was apparently
about 4 hours 10 minutes from Nick Craig. I'm not sure if he was riding the
same course, because it took me at least 6 hours 15 minutes, and Shane
arrived not long after with a time just short of 7 hours.
All in all, a great event, and all credit to the organisers, especially John
Lloyd, for what must have been a mammoth task, getting the course, feeding
stations and marshalls in place.
I notice there are two more 100km events this summer: one in Rhayader on 1
September, and another in the Brecon Beacons the week after. Methinks it's
time to go for the hat trick!
Chris Jones
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