There is no polite answer, except that there are not many other events held at that time.

Into The Valley
In the valley above Neath is a piece of land called Walters Arena. An off-road dream with a myriad of tracks and trails through forested hills and valleys. Nick Plumb of Dawn to Dusk and Adventure Bike Store fame, holds the Valleys Xtreme Enduro. It is a weekend affair with a couple of different races happening, plus qualifying for the main event.

Schedule – Downright Cruel?
Saturday morning there was a 2 hour enduro for clubman, sportsman, big bikes and youth.
Saturday afternoon was qualifying for the main races on Sunday.
Sunday morning a two hour extreme race.
Sunday afternoon a three hour extreme race consisting of three laps. The third lap includes some “no help” sections that were beyond hard. I might go so far as to say they were downright cruel!
Despite that, riders come not only from all over the UK, but from a number of countries around mainland Europe.

Witness The Carnage
If you have never seen an extreme event it is worth finding one to watch. Over the weekend there were many people who came to spectate, despite the weather not being wonderful, wet on Saturday and pretty cold on Sunday. They came to witness some of the carnage which required walking far and wide, up and down to get to the best sections. A minibus was on hand to take people to some of the sections. A number of the spectators were enquiring about Dave Knight, an enduro superstar. Sadly he had crashed during qualifying on Saturday afternoon and injured his arm. However there were plenty of other heroes to watch as they gallantly threw themselves at the impossible obstacles.
The track for the main race was about 10 miles. The other races were over shorter distances which meant that the hard working marshals had alter the course between the races. There were three check points to ensure the riders did not miss any of the delights along the way. The travelling marshals had to keep the whole thing going, responding to radio messages and high tailing to sections that were getting snarled up or sorting the track when tapes and route markers were down.

Worthy Winner
By three o’clock on Sunday afternoon a worthy winner had been crowned, Jono Richardson. He led throughout the race and made some of the evil sections look fairly easy, no mean feat. Jono, like a number of the leading riders started out riding trials.
A mention has to go to Aleks Tomisic. Not only did he win the mornings two hour race but an hour later was on the start line for the three hour race and had the audacity to finish ninth, amazing!

Big Bike Class
I can’t finish without mentioning a couple of riders from the Big Bike class on the Saturday morning race. They were on the start line on their very, very clean BMW GS airheads. A brave or foolhardy endeavour to take them round the demanding track. I spoke with one of them on the start line. I don’t think he would mind me saying he was not one of the younger riders. He said it was his first event and his mate on the other BM had talked him into doing the race so he wouldn’t be last. I saw him again at the chequered flag, absolutely worn out but happy and no doubt rightly proud. Kinda sums up the spirit of the whole weekend.