With so many new members recently the club has really blossomed and is ready to take on the bigger battalions in National events. Interesting, from the point of the sport, that other clubs are getting younger people on board too. The WCR has a long (35 year) history now and although the twenty legs change to a minor degree, they remain very long and mostly very hilly which mean that the time differences between the winner of a stage and the last person can be huge. This year the organisers said in their handbook that they wanted competitors who were able to maintain at least 9 minute mile pace whatever the terrain. The actual cut-off times applied were at 9m30 pace.
We had eleven team members who were new to the Castles and several older ones with lots of experience. The Sunday stages are inevitably more difficult to arrange and support so far from home and a degree of resilience is required to get oneself to the start despite heavy traffic – and even more important to get somebody to pick one up afterwards! Particular thanks here go to Tony W for staying overnight in Newtown in order to be able to start at 7 am, and Caroline and Rob for doing the same at the last minute to do stages 10 and 13. Caroline had the hardest leg of all and was not well, but kept the team going with a determined start and and an orderly withdrawal. She went on as driver for Rob and we were glad to see both of them in one piece at Builth. The Cardiff end is also tricky and Llyr and Kelley stayed overnight on Saturday to do stage 19 which ends in a field nowhere near the shindig going on in Bute Park at the final finish. Thanks also to Sioned who had a lonely trip to Llanfair Caereinion on Saturday and everybody was so wet by then that they had gone home and she didn’t get the huge cheering from followers that I remember getting in 2014.
Thanks hugely as well to Marshals Gwenan, Helen, Kate, Jon F, Duncan, Fred, Fred’s brother, and of course Peter E who did all the admin and as Team Manager had to be at the Race Organiser’s meeting in Caernarfon at 8.30am on that very wet Saturday.
Stage 1 Craig…….70m53……..38th/66 teams…………9.1 miles
Stage 2 Mei………92m45……..64th……………………….10.7 miles
Stage 3 Glen……..85m54……..42nd………………………12.3 miles
Stage 4 Fred……..71m11……….38th……………………….9.5 miles
Stage 5 Rob G……77m11……….46th………………………9.6 miles
Stage 6 Katy………84m59……….56th……………………..10.7 miles
Stage 7 Ceri B…….77m21………..55th……………………..9.1 miles
Stage 8 Joe W…….67m10………..7th………………………10.8 miles
Stage 9 Sioned……69m56……….57th……………………..8.5 miles
Stage 10 Caroline ..2h04…………65th…………………….13.1 miles
Stage 11 Tony W…82m49………24th……………………..12.3 miles
Stage 12 Duncan…80m24………41st……………………..11.2 miles
Stage 13 Rob P……95m33……….64th……………………10.6 miles
Stage 14 Owen……79m22……….42nd……………………10.8 miles
Stage 15 Martin…..94m55……….47th……………………..12.8 miles
Stage 16 Chris…….75m45……….63rd……………………..8.8 miles
Stage 17 Joe C…….61m35……….25th……………………..9.2 miles
Stage 18 Tony B….70m24……….50th…………………….9.1 miles
Stage 19 Llyr………66m39……….57th……………………..7.7 miles
Stage 20 Shaun J…83m27……….63rd…………………….10 miles
Team Overall………26h52m13….57th…………………….206.4 miles
