Metric Century Chat

A Mendip Metric Century
I set out to get up onto Priddy on top of the Mendips via Chew Valley Lake. I managed to follow a large amount of the National Cycle Route. Lots of very quiet but undulating country lanes and an excellent desent through East Harptree with Chew Valley Lake in full view. Not sure how much climbing was involved but it felt like a lot although not quite up there with The Rhondda Valley 🙂 !

I got close to home at the 50 mile mark so with no commitments for the rest of the day decided I may as well stick a little loop on the end (as flat as I could think of) to make it up to a century.

It was a cracking day for it although very cold & blustery up on the Mendips with a few bits of snow still lying about.

After all that effort it is now time for an unwholesome Saturday night to undo the good work!

At last, a proper ride…
…well the weather held out in South Wales, and a great ride resulted.

There are some great climbs in the Rhondda, in 65 miles I easily got over 2000 metres of climbing. I can’t wait for the longer, warmer days so that I can get up into the Beacons to extend this loop to an imperial century.

My climbing started with Glyneath Bank, a nice mile or so of 6 – 7% with lots of little waterfalls to the right to make it interesting.

Maerdy mountain was snowy and misty, and the first couple of bends at over 15% always make it a daunting climb, but the ride back down toward Treorchy is great, if not a little scarey, as you don’t get much time to decide if the corners are just wet, or icey!

I always forget about the climb up from Tylorstown to Penrhys as it is not a mountain climb, but at about a mile or so at or around 15% for most of it, it really does demand more respect than I ever remember to give it.

The last mountain climb was the Bwlch from the Treherbert side which is a nice long open climb that looks and feels quite alpine with the slopes stacking on top of each other above you. It’s mostly around 7%, but fairly long, especially when you reach what looks like the top only to have to take a sharp right to add another 1/2 mile of climbing to reach the real top. It was lovely and snowy up there, which just added to the alpine feel.

To finish off with I had the brutal but short Efail Fach climb out of Pontrhydyfen, and then a great descent down the Cimla, made better by overtaking a car that had pulled out on me near the top irritatingly. Her face was a picture as I went past at 40mph on the bends!

To think that in years gone by I used to miss all this in favour of MTBing in the Afan trails, the roads are so much more fun round there…

Dave, your picture makes me scared…!!
It reminds me of that scarey faced girl from The Grudge….

Oh, it’s me then….
That doesn’t surprise me, must be my browser settings.

No, not Gospel, it’s Maerdy Mountain and the Bwlch, plus of course the Cimla and Efail Fach hills at the start and end.

It’s my regular route when down with the in-laws, a nice tour of the mining villages of S.Wales. I really like this route, the climbs are fairly long and the scenery is great. On most of the mountains you hardly see a car too.

It’s no fun in the rain though, so hoping for clear weather on Saturday.

I never get images…
…to load correctly!

They always preview okay, but when I save them they turn into a line instead of an image…what am I doing wrong?

I’m gagging
…to get out on a decent ride, the weather and varoius DIY obligations have kept me away from the long road rides for what seems like an eternity.

I have kept the training up, at least 10 hours a week, but on either the Fortius or rollers. There’s bee lots of high intensity work, and I almost feel that I have improved over the standard trianing I had been doing, but it does lack the passion of actually riding a bike!

Welcome Onboard…
Nice one Skardy, you can never regret riding your bike more!

The evenings will soon be drawing out and lots more opportunities to clock up the metrics.

Si