Hi all,
I've not posted here for a long time: I had a short break, thinking I'd
go out and ride my bike more rather than sit at my computer and talk
about riding my bike. When it came to looking on uk.rec.cycling again I
found my ISP no longer does usenet! So here I am on Google temporarily.
I've not been out anywhere near as much as I'd have liked this summer,
and most of the times I have been out I've had a breakdown - stuck in
Llangollen with a puncture and a pump which won't pump; stuck near
Denbigh with rear mech tangled in spokes; two punctures within haf a
mile at Northop. Yet with a dire lack of training I entered the Wild
Wales for yesterday. I last rode it 2 years ago on a diabolically cold,
wet and windy day with Chris, Neil and Don. Don crashed 30 miles into
it coming down a muddy lane with rain sluicing across it, so that was
that.
This year's event had a new organiser and it's not Wild anymore it's
Extreme. 1-in-5 galore. Still the mechanical troubles plagued us. My
saddle clamp came loose twice and my multi-tool fell apart meaning I
had the allen keys to fix the clamp but no leverage to use them with.
Despite being surrounded by black clouds at the start in Bala the
weather was quite kind to us. Nothing worse than a cold westerly wind.
I felt fit on the climbs (I made the mistake a few times of jumping off
the front round a couple of bends only to find the climb goes on for
another mile yet), but couldn't get my speed up on the flatter roads,
except for when we had the wind directly behind us.
There were some right brutes on this year's route. Too many for the
length really at 90 miles. After crossing the Clocaenog Forest and Llyn
Aled we convened at a bench in Gwytherin wondering when the suffering
would end. At the moment we could only push on to the 2nd checkpoint at
Llanrwst, via some more evil 1-in-5's (even people with triples were
getting off and walking). Down the valley to Betws-y-Coed for lunch,
then we could cut it short.
As we found out at Llanrwst there was no short cut home today. Every
route out towards Bala had some sort of nasty hill. The route went on
to Ffestiniog via Penmachno and more chevrons on the map, so we
detoured on the A470 which unfortunately involved the Crimea Pass.
Chris got off and walked. Neil slumped over the handlebars in despair.
Don and I stopped every 5 turns of the pedals. And that was before we
got to the first false sumit and saw another mile and a half uphill
ahead of us...
The descent to Blaenau was fun, and we arrived at Llan Ffestiniog with
the same group of riders who'd left Betws-y-Coed on the proper route.
One climb remained on the B4391 back towards Bala. The route did a
little loop up to the B4391 via some more chevron-embellished climbs
but we said "sod that" and went the direct route. It was remarkably
easy (compared to everything we'd done so far), with the bonus of a
strong tailwind now, and 7 miles later we'd finished our last major
climb. On the road back to Bala via Arenig I found my second wind and
jumped off the front again, gettingg another boost when I passed the
"Bala 3 miles" signpost.
Ten minutes later I rolled back into the carpark, ten minutes short of
10 hours after starting, 90 miles covered and nerves shattered, elated
that we'd got round after thinking so many times we'd had it. I was
knackered on the way out of Betws-y-Coed, I was numb, I couldn't feel
the bike beneath me, wondering how I'd handle it on the descent to
Blaenau if I could climb the thing in the first place. But I rode
through the tiredness, and now on Monday afternoon I'm waiting for it
to hit me again!