Mt. Biking - Llanwrtyd Wells

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Forces-of-Nature » Personal Diaries » Mt. Biking - Llanwrtyd Wells

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Session Description

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Owner: MartinF
Member

Worst Wipeout Award 2003

Member#: 72
Location:
Registered: 28-10-2002
Diary Entries: 184

Mood: needing time out

18th November 2006
Mt. Biking: Llanwrtyd Wells
Wind Direction:
Wind Stength:
Surf / Sea State:
Air Temperature: 4-8C
Sea Temperature:
Weather: mixed
Max Speed:
Distance Covered: 20.7 miles (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise)

Well I can't say I jumped the gun, but perhaps I suffered the misfortune of being in the right place at the right time. IE: Briefing at 10:00 in the main (only!) square in front of the Neuadd Arms hotel.

Try as I might, I caught absolutely no sign of other Bristol Nomads bikers in the square, so when the off sounded, I waited until most riders had left, presumed I'd missed the others, & so cycled like the clappers for the 1st mile or so trying to catch up. My phone rang. By the time gloved fingers had worked from pocket depths, it had rung out. I called back. No answer. Land of nil signalamus?

Uncertainty then crept in: Was I in front of the others, or behind? How to find out? Wait & risk getting further behind. Crack on in a vain attempt to catch up with the whippets? Buggersome choice.

Every so often, I'd come across a gaggle of riders paused over some route uncertainty, so I'd pause a while with them in the hope of identifying friendly faces. And so it went on.

Needless to say, I completed the whole course alone.

At control - sorry, beer - point 1, I hung around for almost an hour until I started to get cold and other more worthy riders had bagged their places in front of the fire. Anyhow, I felt I ought not cash in more than 2 of my beer tokens here. Also, the influx of riders had now almost stopped. So convinced I was almost at the back of the fleet, I set off again.

Beer point 2 swiftly arrived and left. Still no signs. Onwards & upwards.

3 or 4 miles from the end, I tagged along with another guy from Bristol. I found his opinion that we were actually somewhere close to the front rather difficult to accept. Anyhow, I got back to the bike wash at 3:10pm - still daylight!

Later that same evening, it turned out the others had been waiting by the library hall for the briefing and had only set off about 1/2 hr AFTER me. They were then beset by a number of mechanicals which further hindered progress.

Impressions of the day: VERY WET and VERY MUDDY. Nothing hugely technical other than impossibly steep, rocky climbs on the last high section, leading to the lake district where there were rock pools greater than axle depth. It was along here I witnessed 1 mangled & 1 completely snapped off rear mech hanger. Fortunately not mine.

Some interesting singletrack, some climbs that just seemed to go on forever (viz - the one after beer point 2 - a 205m climb in about 3.2 km horizontally). The hailstones occuring whilst at the most exposed and highest point on the trail.

In the end, a thoroughly good - if not slightly solitary - ride.

The beer festival had excellent bands and beer. Unfortunately, on the Fri night, the band in the hotel where we were staying sounded like they were playing in our bathroom - until almost 2am. So sleep wasn't easy to come by. Obviously not enough beer.

Some stats:

Distance covered: 20.7 miles in 3hrs 34mins moving/5 hrs elapsed.
Total ascent: 905m
Energy burnt: 3543 calories (almost makes up for the beer!!)

The only bit I didn't do was the "extra loop" from beer point 1. By all accounts, a good call as it involved another killer climb, without any great compensation.

Toys Used: