After 2 previous trips to the fat face event a change was needed , North Wales to Rhosniger was the outline plan .
Many names stepped forward and anounced intent to make the trip , but as the date rolled closer the list got shorter and the excuse's got bigger . after several weeks of constant rain and wind the weekend forcast for ZERO wind killed off all but the die hards .
So fri 10 am on a nice sunny morning we leave Cardiff to regroup and get in formation for the haul up towards Borth .
At the regroup point the storey arms in the brecon beacons the head count revealed 5 , Nobby , me , dave ,jerry ,and Ryan with Rob and John dog heading up another way making a total group of 7[
].Nobby led the way on some of his secret bike route short cuts which had the old fiat van blowing some smoke on some of the lanes [xx(] but we arrived at the Nant yr Arion trail centre well on time at 12.30 and as a totally windless weekend lay ahead waited for our local trail guide to arrive , Al Cole .
Day 1 The "continental trail " Al advised us that there was a fair bit of xc type going on our intendeded route and we would get wet as well but the 35km black grade with severe warning sounded good [
].Suprise of the day was Ryan after 9 months off a bike after a bad fall rolling a bike out of the van for a 35km black run[:0] this could all end in tears ........
Out of the centre and very shortly hit a flowing piece of single track called the Italian Job which swooped down the valley with some outstanding views , put a big grin on everybody faces and we wanted MORE . ALAS this exited onto a fire road climb and the next few hrs where all open trail right along the tops of mountains with a few little rocky decents here and there but mainly all double track .
Ryan was feling his feet at one stage and the famous red mist was apearing as Nobby hurtled down a fast double track gravel trail badly eroded by last few weeks of heavy rain only to find a drop off at the bottom , braked hard and chucked the bike , but with dave , me and rob rubbing tyres on the way down a bit of a four bike pile up was the result which left rob in fits of laughter [
].Remounted and away Ryan seen sense and moved to the back but another spill was looming a few hundred yards further down .Me and Nobby stopped and waited the rest but Rob came round the corner waving that there was a problem , imediatly we thought yep Ryan's bit the dust and headed back , but no it was Jerry . After doing the grand alp race recently with over 10hrs in the saddle a few spills had left him with a very bad shoulder , and again not seeing a step down ledge till to late he had pitched over on the same shoulder and was in loads of pain .[
] But being a tough old adrenilin junkie it soon
wore off and he continued along the way with the alp fitness leading on the long haul run[]The long haul out and around offered some stunning views all along the way and a game of who could splash who the most began on the huge water filled holes along the way , everybody was drenched and soaking anyway ! Nobby was thechamp after catching Rob stalled in the wrong gear in a huge bomb hole filed with at least 2ft deep water coming through full pelt for a good shower [
)]...The light weight bikes where leading the way on the long drag around with our guide AL on a hard tail out in front and Jerry and Rob close behind , the stinky boys where towards the back with Nobby feeling the weight and Ryan was feeling the miles as he started to flag .
Finally hit a sigle track section [
] called the mark of zorro , yea
man after miles of chasing lightweith bikes along fire roads etc a chance to hammer down a trail , me Nobby ,Dave pushed to the front
and nailed the bikes all way down , through a great decent which again left some huge big grins .[8D]Afew more climbs and some smaller sections got us to a split point on the trail where a tired Ryan who was all done for took the short cut back , but for his 1st ride he had covered over 20km's [:0]...
Jerry did,nt want to wimp out iffy shoulder or not and continued with us we soon decended again to the bottom of the valley .
Now at the floor of the valley there was only one way to go BACK UP[xx(].......Al told us the next section was called "the leg burner " ....and he was'nt wrong the mother of all long drags began , the lightweiths where gone but me,dave and nobby started sloging up the fire road , **** it was never ending [:0] with the weigh of the stinky pulling the power out of the legs we strung out , nobby and dave where still trying to beat each other to the top , while I just went down the box and took it easy , well not easy but as easy as I could make it .
As I got to the top last man up Dave had a big grin after beating me and nobby , Al anounced we wer'nt at the top yet though [:0][:0][
]and another mother leg burning climb continued ....
Was feeling all done for on the climbs now and small ring was the order of the day , only getting on the higher gears for the last couple of sections back through the woodland towards the centre .
We made it back though all in one piece with only one slight spill by Jerry [8D] but where tired, total soaked with muddy water and the biked covered in grime .
Got the bikes to the centre power wash and washed the crap off the bikes and clothers,pads,shoes etc .
Although tired it was a great run around and me and dave mused thinking how many Stinky's had done the full route before ? with twin wall heady duty downhill tyres , fulll downhill tubes , and no weight saving concessions what so ever not many I think .[:p]
Nobby cracked open the celebratory budwisers and we sipped a cool beer in the sun for a while before heading off to Borth to make camp.
Met up with John on the seafront took in some nice chips then after a brief laze about a pub for the evening to finish the day off .....
With no hope of wind day 2 was going to be another trail centre and the the plan was "there is no plan " the idea of heading to Rhosssy abondoned in favor of staying put.
DAY 2 TO FOLLOW!!!!!