Pugh wins TransWales

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The final day of the TransWales dawned bright and early for the riders after a particularly cold night under canvas. The dawn brought with it the warming rays of the sun and the promise - upheld through the day - of blue skies and sunshine. With riders waking their weary bodies after six relentless days in the saddle it was enough to know that 62km was all that lay between them and finishing. At journey's end, the final standings would be announced and the odd beer quaffed in grateful celebration. But before the celebrations could genuinely begin, there was the small matter of pedalling the remaining distance home.

The linking stage took the riders up from the off and back into Irfon Forest, following some of the same trail that brought them to Llanwrtyd Wells yesterday, and around the flanks of Crugwydd at 455m, and then Bryn Mawr at 446m. The riders then dropped downwards before being confronted with the major test of the day's stage: the moorland climb up to Carndu at 537m that hoiked them up to the final slab of soul affirming wilderness. Then the endorphine reward for the hard effort as riders charged headlong down the long and super fun descent towards the Elan Valley's Caban-coch Reservoir.

The course then eventually looped southwards and into Gorenoeth woods for a finial singletrack flurry before rolling the remaining kilometres back into Builth Wells and a well-earned chilled beer and a custom finishing jersey.

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However, the final kilometres saw riders really wind it up to finish with the throttle fully open so they could finish in top gear (or, for some, to get the whole thing over with as quickly as possible) and even the solo veteran men's winner, Steve Heading (Whyte Racing), said on finishing, "It was hard. I've been following Johnny Pugh and he made me suffer."

Nick Beauchamp, aka The Bear, was the final rider home to Builth Wells just short of the six-hour cut off to rapturous applause after a very tough and grueling week.

For all riders, the finish line was the end of the journey, where the hurt and the suffering could finally be shut off and overcome, and where memories of proud achievement and exhilarating riding could be lived for perpetuity in hi-def. And nothing could take that away from them.

"I thought this would be a breeze this week," said Jay Horton (Team Certini), who, together with his partner Maddie, won the mixed team category, "but aaargh! That was hard. I really admire the guys at the back. It's super tough." Maddie concurred over a cool bottle of beer, "It was a fantastic week," she said, "The Doethie Valley descent that just seemed to go on forever was just fantastic."

The overall winner - and fastest rider in the entire field and overall men's solo category winner - was Jonathan Pugh (Clee Cycles KCNC High 5) who was the only rider to go sub-50hrs with a total time of 49:56:55.

In the women's solo category, the epic battle between Italian national marathon champion, Marika Covre (Ideal - Vivibike), and Wales' own Rickie Justine Cotter (Cytek) saw its climax on Thursday when Covre beat Cotter by just three seconds. The final result after seven days of riding mirrored this 1-2, with Covre becoming the TransWales champion for 2009. She did it with an overall time of 50:17:47. This meant that - after an eight-second margin (despite Cotter crashing on the descent) in the night time trial and a three-second margin in the Brechfa forest special stage, the decisive blow had been dealt by Covre when she tore the gravel off the Lung Buster climb on the Nant-y-Arian special stage to finish by one minute and 24 seconds clear of Cotter by the end of today's final linking stage.

British marathon champion Maddie Horton and her partner Jay won the mixed category ahead of Fi Spotswood & Michael Tomlinson (South Fork Racing). The Hortons won in an overall time of 50:07:41. However, the success story in this category were third placed brother and sister pairing of Theresia and Werner Baumker (Team Charl '77). The South African pair had only been mountain biking since May of this year and Theresia had never even raced at night up until this week. Despite carrying a knee injury she and her brother made the podium in every special stage and finished in an overall time of 50:27:52, some 20 minutes off the time of Maddie & Jay Horton.

Marika Covre was not the only Italian to take the win: the pairing of Fulvio Damian and Elvo Del Puppo (also of Ideal - ViviBike) dominated their men's veteran team category by finishing in an overall time of 50:08:52, some 27 minutes ahead of their nearest rivals, David Rielly and Steve Partington (Isle of Man Fire Service). Graham Denny & Shane Dickenson (Cytek) finished third. But Fulvio Damian and Elvo Del Puppo are not strangers to the event as they have also competed in the TransScotland as well as previous TransWales and have become something of minor celebrities along the way.

For the event's first ever Kenyan participant, Nickson Mwaura, the whole week has been a huge learning experience: it's been the first time he's ridden in Britain, as well as been on a full suspension bike, or been night riding. It's also been the first time he's done a multi-day event and, despite the weather differences between Wales and his native Kenya, the sunshine today meant that, "[he] felt so much at home in the sun. This week has been totally different to home but I have really enjoyed it." He's also adjusted really well to the Teflon conditions on the technical trails and his special stage performances have improved markedly. On the final special stage at Brechfa who notched up 11th fastest in a time of 21:23, enough to move him up to 15th in the men's solo category from an initial 39th.

The solo veteran men's category was won by Steve Heading (Whyte Racing) in 50:01:14 secs - over five minutes clear of second placed Gareth Bowyer (Ffasiynau Anabelle Fashions), with Jonathan Edwards rounding the podium out in third.

In the men's team category, the forces had been battling it out all week, with the RAF pairing of Dan Lewis and Neil Richardson flying higher than both Andy Jones/Ben Jones (Clee Cycles KCNC) and the Army Cycling pair of Brendan Kay and Simon Gough. The RAF took the win with 2:20 advantage over the Jones', and over 10 minutes on the Army Cycling pair of Kay/Gough.

The one-horse race in the women's team category also came to a close today with Joy Bringer and Camilla Edlin (BAD By Association) crossing the line to finish in a total of time of 51:00:16.

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