Wentwood 50K, Goshawk Challenge, 2013

The challenging Wentwood 50K Enduro took place today (10th March), it was the 3rd year that I've attended - with the camera - the bike staying tucked up at home! For a change, I actually got to the car park with 25 minutes to spare before the start. This gave me an opportunity to chat with a rider about his Canyon purchasing experience, and also to catch up with Robert Storey, the event organiser. A thank you must go out to Robert, for taking a few minutes to give me some guidance of where to head on the route.

The weather was worlds apart from last years event, 2012 was pretty warm for an early March day. 2013 was cold - a bitter wind certainly made sure you were wide awake. After a quick look round for any familiar faces, I headed for the start line - whilst there was still space between the riders to get there - the hedged lane soon fills up. I took some pictures of the riders on the line, but like a fool, I'd not noticed I'd knocked the focus switch on the lens to MF (manual). Not wanting to get in the way of the start, I headed about a 100ft down the lane to a gateway. From here I could get some shots of the riders streaming past from the mass start. After the last of the riders had gone past I headed for the main feed station, the speed of the front runners caught me out - they'd already gone through before I made it to the route. After the majority of the riders had passed, I headed back to the car and back down the road to a forestry commission site - unfortunately - against the flow of the race. A slow drive!

A short walk into the forest took me down to a steep(ish) hill, leading to a small stream. The hill caught quite a few out, ironically, tending to be those pushing down the hill. Some riders took it at pace and flew down the hill. I spent the rest of my time at the event here - I'd filled my memory cards - so I've got to invest in a larger capacity one.

I'll upload my pictures to my Flickr site over the coming days, as the event is for charity, I only upload low res shots, if you'd like a hi-res version, then please contact me and I'll email you a copy in return for a donation to my Tribute fund towards Motor Neurone Disease. (I'll send you a link to where you can donate. Your donations have raised £34 towards MND, It's not much - it's probably cost me more in petrol! but it all helps.

I'd appreciate any feedback on my pictures, good or bad, it's a way for me to improve - I'm thinking about setting up an online shop for other events, but I know what high quality images are been produced by other photographers.

Swansea City Victory Parade

It's not strictly on topic for my blog, I'm not that much of a football fan. But it was an opportunity to see something which hasn't happened for 100 years and to take a few pictures. Swansea City Football Club won the Capital One Cup on the weekend, their first major piece of silverware in the 100 year history of the club. There was an open top bus parade starting from the Dragon Hotel in the centre of Swansea and finishing at the Guild Hall. Considering the time of day (16:30 on a Tuesday) the crowds turned out in force to welcome the team and the trophy back to the city. With the global exposure that top flight football brings, lets hope that the club will do well in Europe in the coming year and also continue to do well in the Premier League, as it can only be good for the region and for Wales as a whole. For some more photographs of the parade, check out my flickr site.

Welsh Mountain Bike Series, Rd 1. Margam Park.

The historic Margam Park, in Neath Port Talbot, played host to the first round of the Welsh Mountain Bike Series today. Three weeks ago would have seen the course blanketed in a covering of clean white snow, unlike today, which saw the course swimming in a sea of mud! There's been no hiding the fact it's been wet here, very wet. To get some idea of where to watch the race, I watched the preview video of the route on the events website. Taking into account the weather I headed for the copse of trees - where Go Ape is located. Here the course wound it's way through the trees, so offered some shelter from the rain. The course was tough going, the ground was saturated, in fact it was literally a river of mud in places.

It was a constant battle to keep the camera dry and the lens clear of water, a battle which the rain was winning. I walked along side the track to where it emerged from the trees, here the track ran trough a quagmire which was criss-crossed with roots - a difficult combination. As well as watch the competitors ride, push, crawl, fly (I did say fly) and in one poor child's case, cry; I could see them climb to the lower ridge line at the top of the decent through the rhododendron.

Despite my constant struggle with the rain, the spot I chose turned to be quite a eventful one, the bog was a brutal wheel swallower, with over a dozen riders going over the handlebars, with various degrees of style! I wish I'd brought the strap for attaching my GoPro to a tree to catch some of the spills.

I've uploaded some (more to come) of my photo's from the event to my Flickr page, if you'd like to purchase a photograph, please drop me an email, with the photo number or comment below and I'll get back to you. I donate a percentage of any sales to the MND association.

As a side note, they say a bad workman blames his tools, but I'm constantly disappointed with the focusing on the 7D (especially when using the 24-70 lens).