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Audax: Brevet Cymru 400km Sat 5th May
Still time to enter the 400km / 250 mile audax going over to the Cardiganshire coast at New Quay. Starts in Chepstow. Robbie's IN, Shaun's IN, err...
401km cycling event: Chepstow, Hay-on-Wye, Builth Wells, Landovery, Tregaron, Newquay, Landovery, Brecon, Chepstow. Start at dawn, finish in the dark and more hills and scenery than you can shake a stick at.
Robbie will realise what he's signed up for here on the 14th April...
Shaun
401km cycling event: Chepstow, Hay-on-Wye, Builth Wells, Landovery, Tregaron, Newquay, Landovery, Brecon, Chepstow. Start at dawn, finish in the dark and more hills and scenery than you can shake a stick at.
Robbie will realise what he's signed up for here on the 14th April...
Shaun
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The Travelodge was a little less ropey this time. My sleep was still fitful, although I was fast asleep when the alarm woke me with a start at 4.15am. After a make-shift breakfast and a short transfer by car, we were waiting with 65 other nervous cyclists for the off at six and the start of the next big adventure. We were both hugely pleased that the day was going to be dry after the beasting by the weather on the Yr Elenydd three weeks ago. It was still rather cold, though, and the brisk NE wind wouldn't be that helpful during the day.
We were off! The peleton raced down into the Wye Valley and passed Tintern Abbey which was stunningly highlighted by the early morning sunshine. After Mommouth we were into nice hills on the Welsh/English border and the large front group eventually fractured into smaller units as riders ground out the early climbs at differing paces.
The first control point was in Hay-on-Wye (81km) and Robbie and I felt good so we decided to bounce the control and carried on as others stopped for coffee. This got us nicely up the road (only 3 riders ahead of us) but it meant that we would ride nearly 100 miles before our first real stop and we were feeling that by the time we got to Llandovery (150km). The legendary (in audax circles) West End cafe provided great food. I had beans on toast and fruit crumble. Robbie had pie and chips, rather predictably. Suitably full, we moved on just as other riders started piling in.
The next leg was a bit of a roller-coaster. Although the Brevet Cymru isn't brutal, it ain't flat either, "heavily rolling" describes it well. To counter this, it was only a fairly short hop over to Tregaron (198km) for more food and some deja vu as we'd also stopped in the town on Yr Elenydd. The Talbot Hotel control point was busy with the rather incongruous sight and sound of loads of people from London-town at a wedding reception in deepest, darkest mid-Wales.
After Tregaron, many more hills followed as we headed to the seaside! The sunshine was keeping things manageable, though. Finally we crested one more steep one and we got a glorious view of the sea and soonafterwards the first glimpse of the pretty seaside town of New Quay (235km) before we plunged downhill to the seafront and a late afternoon feast.
The inevitable massive hill ridden on a full stomach followed, but the reward was a fair amount of gentle coasting thereafter, punctuated by a few short sharp climbs needed to replenish the height account. One final long descent had us back in Llandovery (297km) and at the West End cafe again. Dining this time became something of a cake-fest, although Robbie did also have another pie. We were pretty tired by now, for some reason. Saying that, we were doing well. For giggles, we were using my fastest time for this event as a "Virtual Partner". I knew my control times from 2007 and we were within a few minutes of my best at every control. Good stuff.
It was getting dusky when we finally left the Llandovery control and it was time to spark up those lights again. The organiser had us riding along the wide and lightly trafficked A40. Very sensible as the darkness closed in rapidly. Luckily for us, the NE wind abated and we had calm conditions as we rolled quietly eastwards, tired but on top of things. At Brecon, we took the bypass and then tackled another climb to the penultimate control at Bwlch (347km).
We walked into the control. It was very warm with the heaters on and we were used to the cold. We both got the wobbles and had to sit down quickly. It's around this time that you come to realise what you're doing. You've been riding since 6am and it's now past your bed-time, you're very tired and have blood-shot eyes and carry a haggard expression, a lot of things hurt. You contemplate these facts as you cradle a mug of tea and stare blankly at the walls...
Eventually we roused ourselves. The rider who was next on the road behind us had been catching up gradually throughout the day. (Our paths would cross at each control). We were now leaving the Bwlch control together and if you know me and Robbie, you can guess what happened next
So you get the surreal sight of Robbie and Shaun doing a fast 2-up TT in the dark to re-establish our gap. Our severe tiredness tucked away somewhere, we hammered our way to Abergavenny. Gap re-established, we settled in for the closing miles to the finish. Coming off the final long climb, we had our last drama when Robbie managed to wrap his chain impossibily around his crank. It took a couple of minutes of random pulling and purposeful swearing to free it.
Finally we reached the welcoming lights of Chepstow and made our way to the finish, rather glad this one was over. It was 1.22am. We'd done 407km. It had been another very big day.
@Stef: We weren't being as "nasty" as it reads! From the last control there was a long and very cold downhill. The other guy (who appeared to have anti-freeze for blood - he'd ridden in shorts all day) got ahead while we took the descent easier. At the bottom Robbie decided to go after him. We caught him and went past, I shouted "get on the back", but he decided not too.
http://www.londonedinburghlondon.com/
Vic