Dams, dams and damn kites

The Elan Valley

My most recent ride (well it was when I drafted this!) was up in the Middle of Wales starting off at a place called Rhayader, which is very much a town on a cross-roads. It lies on the A470, the main artery road through the middle of Wales, roughly an hour and a half North of Cardiff. Rhayader is also home to the Red Kite centre - the National Bird of prey of Wales - and is the gateway to the Elan Valley. The Elan Valley is a series of dams that were built back in the 19th century to feed the growing population of Birmingham, the countryside surrounding the dams is quite spectacularly.

The route we took left at Rhayader and returned to the same spot, circling the dams and  stretching off to Llanidloes and running back down the A470 (which wasn't as scary as I thought it would be).

This is a good guide to the Dams: http://www.elanvalley.org.uk/dams-reservoirs/ 

Setting off from Rhayader we headed down to the visitor centre continuing straight past it and along the Elan river and up to Caban Coch dam. From there we travelled along the road up to Claerwen. This road goes no further and although means doubling back on yourself, is well worth the extra miles (I think you'll agree from the photo above).

The roads meaner through some truly beautiful countryside with breathtaking scenery before travelling across another dam, the Foel Tower. 

The road now follows the idylic reservoir to its mouth with the river that feeds it where the route turns rather steeper towards Pen y Garreg and then finally Craig Goch where we saw some filming being done on two land rovers for what I assume was Top Gear - no sign of the trio but the cameras had BBC on them.

Following the dam the route sets off for Llanidloes over what could be in bad conditions quite exposed landscapes to start with before dropping down into the valley and running parallel to the A470 - on the other side of the river and valley. At this point the ride became a little tedious as the route takes you through farm after farm over rolling hills with what seems like, a gate on the top of every hill - not fun.

So I'm sorry until you get to Llanidloes it becomes rather rubbish at this point - and quite energy-sapping. When we got to Llanidloes, a quick bottle of coke and some chocolate was in order! As nearly all my energy was gone by this stage we abandoned plans to take a longer minor road back to Rhayader and instead gunned it down the A470, time trial style which turned out to be the best part of the day!

Back in Rhayader and a quick pint was in order, as demonstrated by my mate Paul.

All in all it was a brilliant day - apart from the rolling hills with gates - and I'd highly recommend it.

Oh and in case you were wondering we saw a shed load of Red kites along the way but didn't manage to get one on my phone camera :(

My first Sportive: Pembrokeshire

At the end of April 2013, on my 33rd birthday in fact, I undertook my first cycling sportive - the Pembrokeshire sportive. Initially what was planned as a 100 mile effort turned into a more conservative 50 miler (actually 53 Miles) after the realisation that a) the 100 mile ride was actually 108 miles and b) due to a lack of training due to a hiatus by me travelling to Australia for 2 weeks to attend a funeral. As the date came round the 50+ mile ride in itself became a bit daunting, being my first ride with a lot of others.

The ride was taking part in a very nice part of the World, Pembrokeshire, which made it a bit nicer - I'll try not to get too distracted talking about the place. By the date of the ride over 1000 riders had signed up, there were three choices 50, 75 and 100 mile (although all were slightly over) with the 100 mile riders starting first between 7-8, 50 milers between 8-9 and 50s thereafter. The weather on the day was slightly overcast and very blustery - still managed to get tan lines though!

This was me (on the left) and my friend Paul at the start. Paul was riding in the 50 mile ride and as such left an hour before me and we met back up in the pub beer garden at the finish.

The ride itself was quite enjoyable, the freshly shit-sprayed fields and their stench aside, with many ups and downs. The biggest of the climbs was on the half way point where we climbed a 903 foot climb with a 3.4% gradient, relatively speaking it was mostly downhill after that. Early on there were a few nice descents down to sea level before ascending steep, short climbs to get back out but the views were great.

At the final feed station they had some unique items to choose from including cold welsh faggots (http://bizarrebritain.com/welsh-faggots-a-meaty-treat/ - yes it is strange to have these a) cold and most certainly b) on a ride) and dahl samosas oddly enough. The final stretch then was back into St David's where the ride started. What they didn't let on is that the final part of the course takes you down to the cathedral, of which the place is famous for (smallest city in the World due to said cathedral), and then has a last steep climb up to the finish line - which was tiring!

Overall I finished in 5hours and 23 mins - this of course includes the stopping times at the feed stations and all the pics I took along the way, more on that later.

For a first sportive I would recommend a 50 miler as opposed to anything more, purely because you know you can finish it and don't have to worry about making it back on time - on top of all the other things you will be constantly thinking about on the way round.

I would recommend the Pembrokeshire sportive: http://www.tourofpembrokeshire.co.uk/ it was well organised and the help on hand by Pembrokeshire bikes was great; I had a minor drama with my crank shaft and brakes - no thanks to Evans Bikes who I will never be using again (might tell you more about this later). I would highly recommend staying in the lovely city of St David's if you do intend riding this in future, there are some lovely pubs and some excellent food if you look for it.

All in all, a lovely ride in a lovely part of the World.

Something silly?

OK, so this was my facebook status back in Sept 2012:

"

OK, so I might have just done something rather silly, I'm all signed up, paid and accepted to do this next year:http://www.rideacrossbritain.com/ - what have I got myself into?!

Deloitte Ride Across Britain - The ultimate way to do the UK's classic Land's End to John O'Groats c

www.rideacrossbritain.com

Deloitte Ride Across Britain is the premier UK cycling challenge which sees over 700 riders take on the legendary ‘End to End’ 

                                                                                                                                                 "
With my temporary job coming to an end and my cycling still enthusing me I needed challenge, I needed direction, I needed routine. Signing up for such a big challenge, I thought, would give me all of those in spades, and being someone who has always believed that idleness breeds idleness, was convinced that by keeping myself busy I would also help me get another job. What I didn't count on however, was financial challenges, long delays of illness and bloody horrid weather.

The Ride Across Britain (RAB) would cost in total over £2000, I paid the £250 deposit back then in Sept, the next deadline being Dec 2012 which would take me over the half way mark. By now I'm sure you have realised, I had some long doses of the flu and, given the current state of the UK jobs market perhaps unsurprisingly, had remained unemployed. Come the December deadline, alas, I had to admit defeat and throw in the towel (and the £250 deposit I had already paid). Over the following months, without the challenge I had given myself to work towards, the flu, Christmas and the horrid British Winter weather I fell behind. And I am still unemployed!

I am still a little gutted that I will not be riding in the RAB this year, it remains a major goal of mine, but for the short term I need to concentrate on finding work. It is ironic and somewhat cruel when you think about it that being unemployed you have all the time in the world to plunge yourself into whatever endeavour you desire but none of the will - or financial support. The exact opposite I find is true when you are gainfully employed!

So perhaps it was something silly that I went and did, perhaps foolish, perhaps naive but at the time it was something I needed to do. Somewhat of a consolation I have signed up for the Pembrokeshire sportive later this April: http://www.tourofpembrokeshire.co.uk/  . I choose the 100 mile option so at the very least I shall get a slice of what it would have been like; I will have to see how badly my arse hurts the day later before I truly realise how bad it could have been!

anyway, thanks for reading.
God speed and good luck!