Say what you like about Whyte racer Billy Jo Whenman he has got the spirit of adventure in him. He recently took his Whyte 19 carbon to the wilds of Wales and won a training race there and then won a hill climb and a downhill race on the same afternoon on the same bike. Nerves of steel and bags of skill. He says it’s the most versatile bike he has ridden. Read his reports here:

 Welsh Training Race.

Arriving in typical Welsh welcoming style I was greeted out of my car by a downpour of rain. And a nice misty view of a big hill with lots of trees. It’s looking good I thought. Nothing better than racing on rock and fallen leaves in the rain, Slippery Heaven.

After signing on I realised that it was a out and back race, total distance of 25km ! Basically starts at the bottom of the hill, goes up and over, around a little loop then back up and down to the finish. Not knowing where I was going I was pretty nervous.
Lining up, freezing cold, I was accompanied by a nice gore rain cape, and my Whyte 19.

Setting off, I was a bit cautious to what the trail had in store for me, riding the course blind it is bound to catch me out at least once !

Taking a early lead, I sat down and began to pick my way through the trees, keeping my eye on the trail and following the red and white trail tape. The gradient of the climb wasn’t too steep, a nice continuous climb, 30 minutes later, I had reached the top, and was shocked to find it went straight down the side of the hill ! On rock! Wet slippery rock !

Unlocking my Fox forks, and having a quick swig of my torq energy product, I began to tackle the descent, it was quite tricky and the wet sharp edges made the task in hand even harder… after the rock section the trail turned into nice swooping switch backs and was soon at the bottom and tearing across a field into a small set of woods where it doubled back over a few small double jumps before going back across the field to begin the climb.

Surprised to find the climb was all on hard pack open trail, making it easier and fast.. speeding up this on my 19 was a treat, until I got to what I thought was the top and  realised it wasn’t the top !!Flicking it into a better gear I was seated and continued on my way up the hill.. finally coming to the top.. still with no other riders in sight.

With finish ahead, I dropped down the hill to take a interesting but pleasing win!
Timed Runs

After hearing about doing some time trial sort of races but up a short climb and also down a XC style down hill. I was more than up for the challenge and quite confident with my technical skills so I headed off to give it a crack. To be greeted by a man with a walkie talkie and a man at the top/bottom with his stop watch !

1st off was the hill climb.. only 1000m in length… I watched many go off in the big chainring and was soon sat down and struggling after about 500m so  I decided to do or die, started off in the middle chainring and kept a high cadence.

 I was out of the saddle and made it past the 500m mark! I kept on pumping the legs at a continuous cadence and found it not too much of a struggle. But I wasn’t too sure it was fast enough, to be told i had won by five seconds, shows that the tortoise often wins the race.

Now to go for the down hill time!!

Being held just like in a real time trial, it felt quite weird pushing off ready to scare myself down a trail I hadn’t ridden before.

The trail starting off with deep ruts, so  I used the speed I got from my start to get through this short section before hitting some off-cambered switchbacks – putting foot down speedway style to keep myself upright !

Out of the tight switch backs and then getting lined up for two small doubles and into a tight hairpin, pushing on the XTR cranks and powering out, getting small air off the drop before slowing to go over a rocky section and leaning over the back to go off the final drop!!

Mission Accomplished, 3 minutes 12 seconds, and I’m still in one piece and won by 32 seconds !!!

Whyte 19 is definitely an all round bike !