Marvellous Day!

What a day!

My friend Matt and I went up to Sugar Loaf by Llandrindod Wells today on the train.

That was kind of exciting, and I felt a bit like a kid in a sweet shop for a while, until a walker came up to us as we stood next to our bikes. He fiddled in his hill bag, which he probably called a rucksack :), and said, "I hope you aren't going to be riding footpaths today?"

I had been picking my nose, scratching my bum and generally minding my own business. It took most of my professional composure and reserve to be civil to the bombardier, but I managed. I told him why I had a satmap on my bars, and that we were only interested in legal routes.

He started on about horses, then. Sigh.

The Train conductor let us off of the train saying, "This is only the 2nd time I've stopped here in 6 years." I felt excited again and a bit special.

We rode from there and tested out two routes to a forestry section, then stuck with the original one I had mapped on the satmap. It was at that point that we headed over to the Sennybridge training area and realised that we had to change a bit of the route. Unfortunately this means about 3 miles more of road riding, to skirt the area. I'm struggling to get any feedback from the MOD as to the likelihood of the route I want to use being ok for the myriad (or a few) riders that I hope do this route in the future.

It's all about making the route futureproof.

It's all sorted from Llandrindod to Cardiff Castle now. Woo Hoo!

We then went on to ride a route that Matt is planning for an Enduro. And I, err, fell off and hurt my bum and ankle. Never mind.

Big day, really.

We saw two Red Kites and loads of wildlife today too. What a ride!

Team Training Camp!

The camp was set to run in Keswick on Saturday and Sunday.

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it on Saturday because I was presenting and pretending to be a grown-up in Birmingham.

Apparently, one of our guys is a pool hustler and a bit of a fish (if he is thirsty) and I'm sorry I missed it.

Sunday was awesome! We rode along behind Skiddaw and rode it back to front compared to how the route was published in the mags. Fantastic and technical rock riding was the name of the day.

My Azure, with it's changed shorter stem and higher bars is actually very good at technical ups and downs. It's not meant to be, because it's a good 24hr bike!

We get our 2009 bikes in 2 weeks.

Happy days!

Pheww!

Quick update.

The feedback is incorrect in it's substance. The ride in the 90's took 3 days, in a group, on trail bikes and with full Kimm sacks. That is quite and achievement, though, especially considering one guy had to be carted off to hospital on day 2 which curtailed that day's riding.

I'm trying to get a hold of the copy of the route that they took, in case there are any little gems in there for me to peruse.

What a weekend!

No photos this time. The weather has been too, err, interesting.

I spent Saturday re-recceing a route from the Brecon Mountain Centre up to the middle of the Sennybridge training area. :)
I ended up with a new route that skirts the training area, then heads North to Llanwrtyd Wells...
...and gets there from the Brecon end of the Taff Cycling Trail.
It was the hardest, gloopiest, power sucking, slick-grass riding I have done in a long time.
Most of the riding was done sideways due to the high winds, but it did cut out about 20 gates and is a bit more like "wilderness" riding.

It was great!

I had to run away today, though, when the lighting was striking the hills around me. This is a high level route, so sense ruled today.

My friends have had some public feedback stating that two people who work for a mag did the same thing I am planning to do, but back in '99.

Ours is a Solo attempt, non-stop, in one go. We feel that it has not yet been done or publicised. At the time of writing it will visit two trail centres and 3 xc racing venues on the way down.

Caught out!

Crikey it was cold. I had two pairs of Leggings on, winter gloves, 2 buffs and 4 tops! We weren't going to be riding quickly, so I wanted to be warm. None of the clothes came off for the whole ride.

We went out on Saturday to map out the Brecon end of the ride, with a cafe visit thrown in for good measure.

After about 40km we had changed the route two or three times, by re-planning it on the satmap whilst riding. Obviously marked bridleways were obstructed left right and centre on the ground, meaning that they were not really applicable to being used on such a challenge. This meant a bit of detouring to make the route up to this point, viable.

We got caught out though. We spent so long mucking about getting the route right, that it got dark before we knew it. We had to spend the last hour or so riding the Taff Trail back up to Storey Arms in the dark.

Oops.

A four hour tech fest with my mates around Machen today was a great end to a good weekend.

The daily commute starts in earnest now. This is the month to start getting a good base, again.