On the Tryfan Downhill Dash race, held yesterday, 18 year-old Euan Patton broke the longstanding record for a speed descent of the iconic peak, romping home in a staggering time of just 7 minutes 21 seconds.
The previous fastest time of 8 minutes for the 600m descent from Tryfan's summit, down the precipitous west flank to the valley, was set 34 years ago by Mike Blake, who broke both wrists falling in the gully on his way down.
"What does it take to win? I'd say equal amounts of confidence, ability and recklessness" said Mike in an interview in the early 1990s.
This short film by Franco Cookson gives some idea of the terrain and breakneck pace involved:
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Big news!
Anyone seen any footage? Hard to imagine what they kind of speed looks like, even having seen Franco's video!
....wow.... don't know what else to say.
Franco's video is amazing. Franco - thankyou for doing absolutely insane things so the rest of us don't have to.
Oh lordy, I went up that way this weekend and got chatting to a guy recceing the descent. We both agreed Mike Blake’s 8 minutes was utterly bonkers…
Trying to get a feel for the pace...
I've done under 30 minutes to Idwal when doing the Welsh 3000's many moons ago, but of course I wasn't trying to go at insane speeds, just keeping up a good pace. That of course is nothing exceptional and many will have done it.
So, to the road is maybe 5 minutes quicker at that pace - 25 minutes.
Could I (back then) have gone twice as fast if that's all I was trying to do - maybe - 12.5 minutes.
Could I have knocked another 4.5 minutes off - you cannot be serious 🤣, that's insane.
The really impressive but about Mike Blake's 8 minutes is that he fell breaking both wrists in the middle of it!!!
I'd always thought that with these speed records (like the Welsh 3s) that if they fell on descents, that was it, attempt over. I hadn't realised that as well as being insane, these people were certifiably insane as well 😁
Totally bonkers. If I fell down that gully it'd still take me half an hour to reach the bottom. Good stuff.