Late January in South Wales sees the tough Valleys Xtreme Enduro come to Walters Arena. Billed as the UK’s toughest enduro, this year’s event attracted a top class field, including hard enduro supremo Paul Bolton and 5 times world enduro champion, David Knight.
Desert Rose’s Patsy Quick and Harry Michael made the trip down to Wales to put themselves and their Beta RR Racing bikes to the test.
Saturday afternoon and early evening qualifying was punishing for riders and their bikes. With 5 to 8 miles of adrenalin pumping action, including an Extreme Qualifying section of a mile of lung bursting effort. The final laps were captured under floodlights which added to the challenge.
Sunday saw 2 race classifications with the morning round being a 2 lap race and the afternoon 3 laps of grueling action. To give a little perspective, the laps each consisted of the arena course of man made obstacles including crossing 2 skips, tractor tyres, log jumps, boulder formations, loose rocks, steep hill climbs, near vertical wet rock faces, water filled ruts, jumps and tight single track over a course distance of some 10 miles.