FOUR mountain biking enthusiasts from North Wales have completed an EPIC challenge in the Alps.

Dyfan Evans (Wrexham), Cheri Mills (Wrexham), Ifan Richards (Dolgellau) and Dave Griffiths (Oswestry) have achieved this year's ninth Alps Epic, a cross country mountain bike stage race held over five-days in the Hautes-Alpes region.

(Image: Cheri Mills)

For the past 10-years, Dyfan has been riding for Fibrax Fenwick's Wrexham Cycling Club, racing many disciplines including time trialing, cyclocross and MTBing with regional successes.

"This year I wanted to do something that was beyond me", said Dyfan.

(Image: Cheri Mills)

"It's a challenging and technical race with an average of 7,500ft of climbing per stage, not to mention difficult descents.

"It's as much a mental challenge as a physical one, as you have to focus on the terrain as well as your competitors."

Competing alongside Ifan and Dave, Dyfan from Cefn achieved 7th place in the Over 40s categories and 14th overall. 170 participants started the race with just 92 completing all five stages.

But like the others, Dyfan isn't stopping there as this year he also plans to ride the Welsh Champs, as well as qualifying for the World Gravel champs in Belgium. 

Dyfan added: "I'm glad it's over but I fear I've found another hobby!"

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Cheri proudly achieved third place in the Females category. She said: "I'm no stranger to racing as I'm currently the UK XC over 50 champion, but over five days pacing and body maintenance was the key to this one.

"We also faced storms before the race so there were some changes to the route, but we still went over 2,300km."

They have all made Wales proud and are already planning to tackle future races together.