I dont want my Blog to be all about motorbikes but A really great guy died a couple of weeks ago and I was just remembering a time when he really helped me out. At the time I wrote a little bit about it for a website so I thought it woudl be good to put in on my blog
Oh i lost the landcruiser. Infact I didnt even bid it went too high.
Welsh 2 day enduro 2003
Getting there Was pretty uneventful. On Tuesday night I had discovered that the clutch on my 8-week-old WR250F was dragging, so after a few phone calls a stop was arranged at Ray Hockey Racing to pick up a new set of plates. Once we arrived the plates were fitted (by Rays mechanic free of charge) and all three of us had our bikes in the park ferme by about 1.00pm. We meet up with the rest of our friends from the oxford area and started to try and sort out our fuelling arrangements. Next was a walk round the tests. On inspection it was decided that only one of the tests needed a full walk round as the other could be seen almost in full from the van. After a quick hike round and a lot of silly chatter it was back to the lakeside to drop off the fuel and some more silly chatter.
Thursday Quick Breakfast at the B&B and a mad rush to get to lakeside for 8.00, two of us were starting at 8.19 where as the third rider was not starting until after 10. The bike started fine and I was away on my minute. The first special test was fine and I felt my time was OK. The sun was shining and the day seemed to fly by. Even the water splashes held no problems. When I arrived at the second fuel stop things seemed to start going wrong, I had no fuel on the van for some reason, however no 25 a fellow lister gave the remainder of his can which saw me through until I saw my dad driving our van and waved him down for some fuel. The second test was a breeze and I was soon on the last section of forestry for the 1st day. It was at this point that I found my mate Phil laid in the track in front of me. He had got cross-rutted and the bike was on top of him. I picked him up and stayed with him for a few minutes. When I got to the next check I had about ten minutes to spare but there was no sign of my mate, he came through just on the minute and looked in a lot of pain. When we got back to the lakeside he could not get off the bike and his leg had swollen up like the dead Badger that was laid on the track out of Toms farm (did anyone else smell that?). So after a late night in Lan'dod hospital waiting for the doctor to attend to a very swollen leg and another friend Keith who had a suspected broken shoulder and a very swollen knee it was back to the B&B for a bit of sleep.
Friday The pain killers and the ice pack had worked a treat and Phil was ready for day 2, a quick check of the results showed that I was 8th in the sportsmen after day 1 so I was well up for putting in another good days riding. My other mate nick was also doing well in the over 40s mainly thanks to the help of Huw Watkins who had bailed him out of trouble a couple of times during the first day (spare tube and some fuel). As we started the bikes the rain also started this was a feature of the day until around 2.30 when it finally stopped and the sun came out. The first off road section was a pretty bad, all the sidecars had got stuck on the first climb and a traffic jam had formed. I looked at the other guys on my minute and we agreed that we would help each other up the hill. We lost about 20 mins doing this and it was a mad rush to get to the check on time. I had lost 12 mins by the time we got to check 2. I had also written down yesterdays times on my day 2 timecard so everything became very complicated, after some quick math's and a bit of crossing out I was back on my way. As the day went on things got wetter and wetter (and colder) the lack of riders at each check was becoming obvious. The highlight of the afternoon was a cup of tea from the Builth MMC just before the splashes, never has a cup of tea tasted so good. The last special test was a real nightmare it was a struggle to get round let alone record any sort of quick time. I was very pleased just to finish and get out of my now nearly dried out gear.
Everyone who completed the event did very well as far as I am concerned. Phil managed to finish even with his bad leg and Nick overcame a split rad hose just before the last check only losing 17 mins even though he had to spend time filling the rad with water from a puddle using his camelbak. In all another good welsh where everybody was only to pleased to help no matter what the problem was. We picked up Keith from the Hospital after day 2 he had dislocated his shoulder not broken it, but he was still in a pretty bad way.
