11^th April - Exposure Big Night Out – Builth Wells 

As this event was so close to home I thought I would give it a go as I actually quite enjoy night riding.

It was approximately a 40km event starting at the Welsh Show Ground, the event being sponsored by, as the title suggests Exposure Lights. At the start, Exposure did 2 free prize draws for all entrants, enabling 2 riders to win one of the new Exposure lights. It was great because the lights were all charged up ready for the winners to use on the ride, which I thought was a nice touch.

We started the event at about 19.45 when there was still some daylight. We turned left out of the showground and then the route progressed along the road which runs parallel to the southbound A470, but on the other side of the river…if that makes sense. From there we pulled off left and went up a rather steep climb (to say the least)! From there I can’t really describe where we all went …. to be fair it was dark by then, but in summary there were quite a few big climbs but to balance that out, some superb long downhills.

There was a great atmosphere riding along with people politely chatting, none of that “rider coming through” stuff. There was a support tent half way around and at one of the farms we passed through (in what seemed like the middle of no where) a bunch of kids were cheering us on and doing high fives for the passing riders.

The event is not an official race, but my race plan was still “to go for it”. I have changed the way I train this year and until this event I hadn’t had chance to test my MTB legs against anyone yet this year, so I was looking forward to seeing what I could do. I think there were about 14 women riding and I knew I had passed a few on the road but it was difficult to tell who you were passing in the dark. So I decided to just stick to my plan of pushing a pace, a pace where I felt as if I was working hard but not excessively out of breath. If I am honest I was quite pleased with my performance, I felt strong on the climbs, as if I could push higher gears than usual (I think that must be the road bike training), which isn’t like me as usually I like to dawdle up them and save my energy! The downhills were great with a decent amount of single-track, but I was a bit more hesitant than usual, I think that was due to the fact it was dark and I didn’t know where I was going.

Just before the last down hill, which took us back to the road, I was having a bit of a tooing and froing with another female rider. As we got to the descent I slowed as I wasn’t quite sure where the path went, the other girl took advantage and, to be fair to her, she absolutely bombed down the hill to the road, leaving me and another chap well behind. When I got to the road she was nowhere to be seen. I was quite tired by then but determined to catch her. As I mentioned earlier I have been doing a bit more road riding this year, so I thought I would try and push my little legs as hard as I could to try and catch her. Well not wanting to bore you with the details, but in summary, I caught her and finished about 200m in front of her…..yeah :o).

I was 3^rd female in out of a field of 14, and 105^th out of the overall field of 207.

In summary, this was a really good event and I would recommend it. If you have never been night riding then give it a go, it gives you a totally different perspective to your riding, but I would recommend 2 lights not just one.

  There is a second Exposure Big Night Out Event in Ruthin in September if you’re interested. Details can be found at: http://www.mtb-marathon.co.uk/events/ruthin_elbno.php