After Saturday’s lengthy day in the saddle, I hadn’t actually planned to do a ride yesterday. I woke up pretty sore and tired and spent the morning milling about. I wrote my Cambrian Mountains Gravel Epic blog sat outside as the weather was warming up nicely. I put my kit on to wash and around midday I decided to have a walk down the local pub and check it out. It’s only 10 mins.
I walked in and there were only two couples so I thought I might be in with a shout of some lunch but looking about every table was reserved. The bar man said they were fully booked so I asked about the evening but that was booked out too! So I just had a beer in the sun out front watching the Sunday traffic go by. It was mainly motorbikes with the odd RV and car. Controversial, I sat there and realised what a noise nuisance motorbikes actually are. The miserable git in me thought I’d like to see them reined in a bit because you can hear them from quite a distance and then I went down a rabbit hole thinking if I say that, how do I justify aeroplanes then?…and then I just thought shut up Paul and got another pint in.
Beers done, I popped into the local shop for a peek on the way back. Just standard petrol station shop fare. Nothing special so I carried on home. Part way up the lane, three ladies were sat on the bank of a stream in a field with their dogs. They said hi, I waved and then their labrador launched herself into the stream and came bounding over to see me at the fence. She enjoyed a vigorous rub behind the ears and then ran off back to her owners. It did put a smile on my face. She was gone before I could take a pic 😦
I made myself some lunch then thought I’d better clean my gravel bike so I spent some time cleaning the transmission and giving it a decent wash before putting it away.
The sun was really warm now and I just couldn’t resist a pedal so I quickly worked out a 15 mile loop, got changed and headed out. The first section was a steady climb up the valley towards Abergwesyn which offered up some stunning views. Towards the top you pop out of the tree line before a steep descent into the village, if you can call a couple of properties a village.
The lane then tracked the River Irfon which was pretty fast with some gentle bumps all the way to Llanwrtyd Wells, the smallest town in Britain. It is actually very small too. I think you could roll through on a bike in about 30secs. I stopped for a quick pic and then crossed the A470 and headed out East into the lanes escaping the tree cover I’d had so far. Just outside town was the inconspicuous railway station. You probably wouldn’t know it was there if it wasn’t for the signs as you can’t actually see the track. It quite remote too so trains may not be too regular.
At about 21km the route turned North onto an old Roman Road and despite being pretty straight, as they are, it had a couple of naughty little kickers I had to deal with on sore legs. After gaining a bit of height the final descent was pretty steep spoiled only by a T-Junction onto the A483 I had to slow down for.
I was nearly done now, just a short section past the pub and shop and I was done.
Ride done, I rounded the night off with a massive spag bol and half a bottle of red wine so I could make it through the Britains Got Talent final. Painful.
Adios
36x25 