Spent a long weekend in the Brecon Beacons, based at the Kings Head Inn in Llandovery (which I heartily recommend, especially if you get a room with a jacuzzi).
I planned this as my final major training session prior to the tour itself. I wanted to over-train by putting in more miles/hours for a couple of days than I will on the real thing. I am happy to relate I succeeded with only a couple of minor mishaps, fortified by lots of Cwrw beer, some of the best bacon I have ever had for breakfast plus some very good evening meals, highlight of which was some local Welsh faggots. (I also solved the dilemma of what to do with the Xmas pudding you inevitably never get round to cooking by taking it with me and eating cold, alas without brandy butter as supplies en route).
The weekend also marked the debut of my legs as my tracksuit bottoms were cast off allowing my hairy knees to see the sun after their long winter hibernation. It also put my super duper cycle shorts with 3D chamois with integrated anti-microbal silver protection to their first test which they passed (at least I am writing this sitting down!)
I was incredibly lucky with the weather. I went to Wales in April and only got slightly wet once on Friday. Even then the rain had the good manners to wait until I was riding home to a warm jacuzzi and stop before I got back allowing me time to dry off. (BTW I recommend "The Weather Outlook(TWO)" site as it got the weather for last weekend spot on when I booked the hotel at the beginning of April).
The routes I followed were from the Philips South Wales Cycle Tours book which I sort of recommend (but heed the warning at the end of this entry about Route 4!).
Here is a quick overview of how I passed my days...
Friday tours around Llandovery (3&4 in the book) totalling 137km, 1800m of climbs
Altitude Profile/Gradient %/Heart rate
This was the day of the "Devils Staircase" a beast of a climb that seems to go straight up (actually 25%). But it was good to get to the top, not least because the descent the other side was simply stunning, a switchback ride over gloriously smooth roads followed by circuit around the Llyn Brianne reservoir.
Saturday tours around Brecon (5&6 in the book) totalling 190km and 3000m of climbs.
Altitude Profile/Gradient %/Heart rate
This was the day to end all days. I rode over to Builth Wells and then did a figure of 8 with two loops linking at Brecon. My plan was to push myself to the limit and I ended up breaking all my personal bests in terms of distance covered, metres climbed and time in the saddle. In part this was due to a minor cock up in my planning as when calculating my route I forgot the 40km that I would need to ride back from the start point (a lot of which was uphill!). When I finally arrived back at the hotel I had missed dinner but got a takeaway and asked for 3 pints of beer and 1 cider to be sent up to my room. This beverage request seemed to cause some surprise, which surprised me because I thought this was rugby land. Anyway I had earned it.
Highlight of this days ride (apart from surviving!) was the return ride down to Brecon along the Roman road that cuts across the Mynydd Illtud marsh. Two especial joys of this were
> Firstly the view of Corn Du and Pen y Fan that you get to the south. This was especially apt for me because it was a reminder of my time training for the Three Peaks challenge when I climbed these on a classic April day in 2004 that started sunny and ended in a blizzard and which sort of started me on my current quest.
> Secondly the descent down to Brecon is great fun. Smooth and straight with lovely views.
Sunday Llandovery again (tour 4+a bit)bit totalling around 90km and 1200m or so of climbs.
Best bit of the day was getting up and still feeling like riding. Slightly sore left thigh but apart from that all other parts of my body checked in ready for action.
One pain was that my HAC gave up its ghost at the start of this ride so no pretty graphs. I did worry I had lost all my stats from the previous 2 days which was a bit of a downer as I did not really want to have to go back and ride them again (at least not for a while...). But fortunately just needed a new battery.
Raining in London for the marathon but held off in Wales as I did a circuit round Llandovery. Only disappointment of the ride was that a pub on the way that claimed to have 10 varieties of cider available was shut despite promising all day opening. So I stayed dry inside and out.
Surprise of the day was from the author of the cycle tours book. He recommends a "short cut" that I decided to take as a bit of variety as I had already ridden the standard route on Friday. This so called short-cut was definitely a case of "you take the high road and I'll take the low" as what it did was take you over a few steep hills instead of around them. Coming out of Caio was the hardest climb of the weekend. Not so much because it was the longest or the steepest but because it was unexpected. Looking at the guide at the end of the ride I saw I had missed a turn at Aberbowlan. The guide said go straight on but I followed the main road round to the right. Glad I did because the contours on the recommended route are stacked so tight the map looks red. My suspicion is that if you do actually go up that road you will come across the torn up remains of the cycle guide and maybe a few skeletons.
Short cut (ha ha)
Drove back home happy. Strangely when I weighed myself I had put on 6lbs despite all my exertions!! Obviously I had tucked into a bit too much bacon, xmas pud and one too many faggots.
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