Welsh National Rally; May 2014
20th Anniversary with Rain, Wind and Goat Tracks
The 2014 Welsh National Rally (WNR) was held on Saturday 10th May. The WNR started in 1994 so this one was special being the 20th anniversary of the WNR. The Clive chairman gave a good speech at the start and, at one point, he pulled some guy up onto the stage who had done every WNR since it started. The poor guy looked like he wanted to be anywhere but on that stage.
The weather was forecast to be foul but it turned out to be much worse with heavy persistent rain and gale force winds. Add to that was what seemed to be the organisers desire to make the 20th anniversary a bit different with frequent lengthy excursions along what somebody described as a 'goat track'. These were liberally covered with mud and gravel and, due to the weather conditions, mostly flooded. I'm sure everybody was asking themselves the same question; "I wonder how deep that water filled pothole is?" All in all, this year's rally was a particularly challenging ride and better classified as a trials event. The poor old Blackbird coped extremely well but she wasn't exactly built for two-up trials riding.
The route we planned is shown on the map opposite and in the table below. Chris and I targeted our usual Dragon and Platinum with a route of 333 miles and a finish time of 20:12 (according to Autoroute). We decided to do a route around central Wales this year which was just as well given the weather. In the end we were adrift of our planned finish time with an actual finish time of around 21:00. There were a couple of reasons for this.
The first reason was the closure of the A40 at the Llandovery railway crossing. The guys (not locals) working on the crossing told us that we would need to backtrack down the A40 for 6 miles, a round trip of some 12 miles, to get to the West End cafe manned control on the other side of the crossing. We opted to leave the Blackbird at the crossing and walk to the cafe. Once at the cafe, a local informed us that there was a short cut around the back of the town of about 0.5 mile which we could have taken to get the bike around to the cafe. We subsequently took the short cut after returning to the Blackbird. We had needed to fill up at the Llandovery petrol station in any case. That stop cost us a good 30 minutes extra then we planned.
The second reason involved us getting caught up in the aftermath of an extremely well attended funeral. Whoever it was must have been very well known and popular. The numerous attendees cars were lined up parked facing the wrong way and they all had to execute 10 point turns in the narrow lane they had parked on to face the right way to exit. The 'kind and very patient' fellow going the right way in the car in front of us gave way to each of them as they made their turns. What could we do but be respectful and wait? That cost us another 30 minutes.
However, if the truth be told, we found it tough this year mainly because of the around 5 mile trip down a goat track that frequently ended a leg to a control. In most cases, it also involved backtracking on said goat track for the following leg to the next control. We weren't hanging about but it proved difficult to get ahead of the Autoroute schedule this year with the bad weather and poor roads.
Alongside is a photo of the Dragon at Llangollen. (That's the Motor Museum not Chris.) We didn't get to it on Grim's rally last year so it's a late submission to him.
We started just before 9 am and finished just after 8 pm. We ran into a few old faces at the start. We also bumped into John Douglas a couple of times at Rhiwlas, where he steered us in the right direction, and at the Ponderosa, Horseshoe Pass. He was making good progress on that scooter of his.
Unfortunately, there were a few fallers on the WNR this year. Not surprising really given the road and weather conditions. Thankfully we didn't hear of any injuries but some of the bikes had a few more angles to them than when they started. We had a particularly buttock clenching slide on a flooded, mud and gravel covered goat track. The Blackbird went one way as it slid on the gravel and then the other way as I corrected and we hit thick mud. Fortunately and happily we fish-tailed our way through it all with the only fallout being Chris' mud covered legs.
We stayed at the Shrewsbury Travelodge on Friday and Saturday night and we have to say that it was very comfortable and very good value at around 50 pounds for the two nights. This works out well for us as we can leave the panniers at the Travelodge on the Saturday while we're on the rally. The Blackbird went like a 'good one' as it always does despite the conditions. It's a great bike and I didn't much like riding it down those 'goat tracks'. Underneath the mud in the photograph is one of its exhausts. The first thing I did went I got home on the Sunday was to hose all the mud off the Blackbird. The radiator was clogged full of mud.
The Clive chairman gave a rousing speech at the start for the 20th anniversary but unfortunately I feel that this year's rally may have put a few off? The weather felt personal, as the previous weekend was glorious and the following looks like being lovely. (It's not nice riding with a wet belly.) But then again nobody makes us do it and the weather can't be that bad again, can it? Clive's organisation was top notch as usual so a big thanks to them. We'll all be back next year for more I'm sure.