Our rider from Great Britain, Dan Wells, rode the Whinlatter challenge on Sunday the 21st April.
First it was scheduled on the 24th March but it was rescheduled to last weekend due to the snow on the 24th.
Dan went with the intention to use it as a training race as he'd missed a few crucial XC races already due to other commitments.
On the he race day it was cold and very wet with constant rain. The course itself was 3 x 20km laps at 600m climbing per lap. Dan attacked straight away and opened a gap of 20 meters on the climb. He was joined after 10minutes on the first long descent by Greig Brown. They rode together for a bit, Greig was attacking the downhills and Dan was setting the pace on the climbs.
On the second half of the first lap Dan opened a large gap on the climb and started to pull away...He rode solo for the other 2 laps at a consistence pace and took the win by 4minutes and 10seconds !
During the race Dan was cold, very wet and lost the ability to change gear due to numb hands... Instead of that all he finished with a great result.
He told us it was the hardest race he had ever done for a long time (As you can see on the picture the clothes had to be jet-washed to get all the dirt off) but of course he was very happy to win the overall. He is now leading the UK Endurance Series of which this was round 1.
Congrats Dan !
First it was scheduled on the 24th March but it was rescheduled to last weekend due to the snow on the 24th.
Dan went with the intention to use it as a training race as he'd missed a few crucial XC races already due to other commitments.
On the he race day it was cold and very wet with constant rain. The course itself was 3 x 20km laps at 600m climbing per lap. Dan attacked straight away and opened a gap of 20 meters on the climb. He was joined after 10minutes on the first long descent by Greig Brown. They rode together for a bit, Greig was attacking the downhills and Dan was setting the pace on the climbs.
On the second half of the first lap Dan opened a large gap on the climb and started to pull away...He rode solo for the other 2 laps at a consistence pace and took the win by 4minutes and 10seconds !
During the race Dan was cold, very wet and lost the ability to change gear due to numb hands... Instead of that all he finished with a great result.
He told us it was the hardest race he had ever done for a long time (As you can see on the picture the clothes had to be jet-washed to get all the dirt off) but of course he was very happy to win the overall. He is now leading the UK Endurance Series of which this was round 1.
Congrats Dan !