New Metric Century Challenge

A quick mid-week metric saw me riding 63 miles into sleet, rain and wind, but for some reason I enjoyed every minute...

My usual flat-ish 63 mile out and back, doing a loop round Windsor Castle, was done in reasonable time. The bike needs a good clean up though, ready for a spin in the Valleys of S. Wales this weekend.

Well, I think todays ride should qualify as an epic. I rode a similar loop in the Valleys to the one I did a few weeks ago, with one major exception...the weather!

I rode 85 miles and 4 mountain passes, and each one was into a headwind of at least 30mph, with sleet that was genuinly hurting my face to the point that I had to pull my neck-warmer up over my cheeks just to soften the blow a bit.

At one point over the Beacons, I was riding into such a wind that despite going down a -7% slope, I had to drop to the 39x22 to keep above 10mph! This wind and hail stayed against me over the Rhigos and the Bwlch. The climb over the Bwlch was insane, and I was leaning at about 25' to stay upright. The descent was much like the last, and had me in the 39 tooth again just to keep going forward.

So 85 miles and 2500m of ascent, all into a hurricane and horizontal sleet...good training for the Club des Cingles I think.

I was still smiling when I got home, but only just!

Hi Fringe, here's a cut down one of the ride I did yesterday. I have removed the stuff that takes you to and from my house, so is about 75 miles now. I started this one from the roundabout just off J43 of the M4. If you take the junction then at the roundabout take the (3rd?) exit onto the A465 toward Neath. After a mile or so take the exit (signed Neath again I think) onto the A474 bearing left toward Neath Abbey. There is a short flyover that takes you straight to another roundabout with a big Tesco superstore as the first exit left. This is where the route starts, so you could take a chance and park in there, or take the second exit and park in any of the roads off left or right.

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=104952

Cheers, Si.

Oh, and Fringe, could you download a copy of that route as a GPX or something, so that I can clear out my BRT routes folder as it is a bit on the overflowing side.

Let me know when you have a copy and I'll remove it...

What a nightmare Blackhound!

Hopefully that will be all your p-words for the year though.

Don't know what was going on today, but that was bloody hard work. I think I started out a bit hard, and for some reason unknown to me, I left eating for way too long. All this resulted in the last 25 miles of the ride feeling very depleted.

I pushed on and made reasonable time, but was absolutely bushed by the time I got home. The headwind was not helping, but I really need to not let myself get so complacent in future.

That said, it has been the start of some good form for me in the past, when I have a really tough ride like this...here's hoping!

Back to the valleys for a very windy 85 miles over Heol Senni, Pen y Fan Rhigos and the Bwlch, not as bad as the last time I rode this, but windy enough on top of the Bwlch to make going forward a tough propostion!

Fringe, I'm pretending I can't see him and his insane amount of rides. 66 years old so I reckon this is a retirement present to himself, luckily, I'm inn no way jealous of having enough time to put that many miles in.

The bitterness comes from having just crawled off the turbo after a 2x20 session at just over 300W that crucified me! I've been pushing quite hard this last couple of weeks, trying to make up for some lost training time, and only 8 weeks left, which includes some tapering time, to get ready!

I'm booked up and doing the Club des Cingles du Mont-Ventoux ride.

I've done all three road climbs of Ventoux, but not all on the same day, so I aim to rectify that in about 8 weeks time.

A lovely day for a 100 miles, with a stop at Zappi's in Oxford for a Brie and Bacon Paninni after 50ish miles.

I felt great, held a good pace despite this ridiculously persistent cough, and enjoyed the great weather.

The joy of hours of solitude, and no time restriction on when I needed to be back made it a very mentally relaxing ride.

Saturday was a lovely day for a ride in the Brecon Beacons. All in, it was 85 miles going out via Swansea and over the Black Mountain via Brynamman. This was followed by a long fast descent that had he drafting a Transit van which couldn't lose me for about 4 miles.

The ride up to Llangadog and then onto Llandovery was undulating and windy, but the beautiful landscape takes your mind off the toil.

It's then a long uphill drag to Trecastle and onto Sennybridge via the A40, this is at about 3% for about 15km, it's hard work, as it doesn't feel like a climb but is always requiring effort.

A short sharp climb of up to 17% takes you out of Sennybridge along to Heol Senni and the joy of The Devils Elbow climb. This is so quiet and the stunning scenery makes the tough 2km climb more pleasant.

The drop down the secluded valley to Ystradfellte is stunning, then just the long quiet drag back up to Neath and on home for a bath and a welcome roast dinner...a perfect way to spend a Saturday!