This was to be my 1st 200k and I arrived on a misty twilight morning at
Tongwynlais, North of Cardiff in time for a 7:30 departure. The early start
wasn't too bad as I'd spent the previous night at a nearby Holiday Inn to
avoid starting at stupid o'clock.
From the start, I found my way into a nice group of about a dozen riders,
who all seemed to know where they were going. This made negotiating the
multitude of junctions from Cardiff to Newport that much easier... We made
good progress, following the route from Newport to Usk and the first control
at 39km. On the way, we picked up a couple of smaller groups who had set
off earlier and arrived at the control just as it opened doors.
Having cards stamped, we quickly set off again, losing a few in number and a
group of 10 or so made our way to the next control. We seemed to be bunched
nicely, calling when clear to cross junctions and pointing out hazards in
the road surface to each other. We were never more than tightly 2-abreast
and I though we were an example of considerate cycling. Nonetheless, we
seemed to anger a number of Mr Clarkson's parish who beeped at us frequently
and carried out dangerous overtaking manoeuvres on blind bends and against
double white lines. From Usk, the route took us south of Abergavenny, then
to Gilwern, across the Usk to Crickhowell and after a bit of main road onto
the A479 across the Black mountains towards Talgarth. At 75km, we arrived
at the second control in Cwmdu, a tea rooms. This seemed like a suitable
spot for a quick stop, so we all ordered cakes and tea/coffee. Bizarrely,
the latter proved problematic, with a 20 minute wait for tea to arrive. The
poor guys who ordered coffee were still waiting 30 minutes later when we
started to leave.
This unfortunate hold-up had split our nice group and after some minor
roadside maintenance [1], I was on my own for the climb to Talgarth. This
climb turned out to be less unpleasant than planned, and I made it to
Talgarth with relative ease. After a few kms of rolling back lanes, I made
it to Hay-on-Wye, rolling into the control at about midday. So far so good
and in 4.5 hours for the first 100k, I was flying.
From here, the route crossed over into England and specifically
Herefordshire. The roads by and large were of Irish standard (i.e. ploughed
field), but despite the jolts, I was able to eat as I rode and avoid hitting
the wall fairly successfully. I rode most of this section on my own,
eventually crossing back into Wales and working on towards Monmouthshire.
About 5 miles out of Monmouth, my bar bag woes came back, so I stopped to
re-adjust again. I had a little more success this time and the bracket held
for the remainder of the ride.
Just after Monmouth was the final control, at 150km. I topped up on water
and quickly got going again. The route then took a fairly steep climb,
where I was grateful for my re-clustered 39x27 1st gear, and crisis was
narrowly averted when passing a tractor busy showering the road with hedge
clippings. Mercifully the fairy stayed away however. Next the route
paralleled the A449 south towards Newport, again resembling the roads of the
emerald isle in places. By now my leg muscles and hands were starting to
ache, but I was in generally good form. I'd done the maths and reckoned I
was on target to finish just inside of 10 hours.
The route then got to Newport city centre, which was predictably busy. At
this point, I missed a turning on the routesheet and got lost. I picked
what I thought was an intercept course and ended up on a dual carriageway
heading North into the borough of Caerphilly. The routesheet mentioned
heading towards Caerphilly, but I thought I'd stop and give her indoors a
quick call to check for me on multimap. At this point I discovered that I'd
left the mobile in the car, self sufficient indeed... I decided to go with
my instinct and keep going, but as I progressed northwards, the valley sides
got steeper and I ended up somewhere near Ebbw Vale. All of this was on the
side of a busy dual carriageway and darkness was approaching once more.
After 10 miles of uncertainty, I decided I'd made a bad choice and turned
around. After a further 10 miles of backtracking and a further mile south,
I stumbled back onto the routesheet and picked up where I'd left off.
With Newport behind me, the route lead to one more long climb, where I again
made good use of my new 1st gear ratio. A few windy lanes and villages
eventually gave way to bits of the route I recognised from the outward leg
and I backtracked to the start, ending up weaving through broken glass
strewn farcilities around the Coryton interchange and back to Tongwnlais. I
rolled into the finish at 18:45, 11 hours and 15 minutes after starting.
Even with the 20 mile diversion, I was still faster than my 100K pace a week
earlier!
Vital statistics showed a total coverage of 148 miles in 9:57 of rolling
time at an average speed of 14.9 mph. Average cadence was 68 (a bit low,
but not terrible for tired legs) and the heart rate monitor claimed that I'd
burned 6500 Kcals (I remain slightly sceptical of this). This was a big
personal achievement for me, as aside from finishing a ride that it looked
like I'd thrown away on nav, it also exceeded my previous longest ride of 80
miles by a factor of almost 2. I was also very pleased with the bike, as I
carried out some fairly major surgery on the eve of the ride and it all
worked out...
I have the Audax bug now and can see that this is an excellent way to lose
weight over the winter. I'm riding the Horseshoe 100 next weekend from
Corwen, North Wales and think I'll probably sign up for a couple more 200s
in the south thereafter. I also need to get a decent front lighting rig
sorted out to allow for a couple of evening training rides per week.
Andy Cox
--
[1] At this point I noticed that the rubbing noise that had been irritating
me all ride was my bar bag contacting with the front wheel rather than the
new mudguards as I'd suspected. A quick bit of allen-key tomfoolery sorted
this out, for a while at least.