Cambrian Mountains Gravel Epic

Just a quick blog today about yesterdays ride around Mid-Wales. The weather got so bad I just donned my rainjacket and cracked on so taking pictures became a distraction I didn’t need. Sorry for the lack of pics later on.

I was awake @ 4.30am and lay there waiting for my 5am alarm so I just got up at 4.50am and tip-toed around the house munching breakfast, getting changed and loading the car up. A quick check of the Sat Nav showed a travel time of 1h 45 to Llanidloes where the Glorious Gravel Cambrian Mountains Gravel Epic opened at 7.30am.

I left at 6.45am and made good time up the M5, M6, M54, A5 then into mid-Wales on the A458. The roads at that time of day are pretty empty.

I turned up at the start at Llandidloes RFC a little after 7.30am and there were riders already getting ready. I parked on the pitch then got told to turn around for some reason so I faced outwards. No idea why. Maybe the car park steward had OCD lol?

After a bright start, the sky got moodier the deeper into Wales I’d driven and rain looked inevitable at some point. The rivers and streams looked pretty swollen too. I walked over to sign on. Nice and simple, I gave them my name and was given my number with a couple of cable-ties. Toilet done, I headed back to the car and got my bike ready amongst a packed car. Road bike + suitcase in the back and a boot loaded with food for the week as I was off to SW Wales afterwards.

The event started at 8am so I made sure I was ready so I could leave in the first wave. At the start we had a briefing and then we set off along the cycle path that runs parallel to the A470 and picks up the old main road into Llanidloes town centre.

As the rode dragged up out of town the initial small lead group fell away leaving me with a couple of riders to take on the initial 15% climbs over to Clewedog resevoir. One rider was clearly much fitter than us and left us and I briefly dropped back as the heavens opened for the first deluge of the day. Driving rain with no hiding place. There would be many.

I caught the other rider up on the banks of the reservoir and we rode together up the first big climb of the day into Hafren Forest.

He dropped me near the top but on the long descent to the first feed had stopped with a front brake issue. His pads were binding on his disc. He told me to carry on so I dropped to the first feed and initially rode past but turned round and decided to use some common-sense and use it as the Feed #2 was 50 km away.

As I walked across the footbridge (riding through the swollen ford was out of the question) a rider popped up behind me and shouted something in a thick, welsh accent. With the noise from the water I couldn’t hear him properly but worked out he’d asked me if I was riding the event. I said yes and this was the first feed. He didn’t know where it was and followed.

The feed station wasn’t ready when we arrived. They were still setting it up but the assistant threw a load of food on the table and said just help ourselves so I ate a waffle, filled my bottle and pockets with soreen and a banana. The heavens opened again so I donned my rain jacket and didn’t hang about to get cold contemplating what was going to be a long day.

Back at the footbridge the rider I’d left earlier had turned up and had to DNF. His pads spring had pinged off hence the brakes binding and to really piss you off he’d caught his shoe on the bridge and ripped of his boa. I was gutted for him.

I’d gained a ride buddy now as we tackled the rest of the forest’s ups and downs and reached the shorter ride bail out point. I was kind of glad I had somebody with me because, honestly, on my own, I may have considered it.

The next sector towards Llangurig was a technical test. It was super gloopy and slippy as my tyres only had a tiny, knobbly tread. With some deep puddles to ride through too I was absolutely soaked but still motivated.

The organisers had binned the feed at Llangurig this year so it was straight into the next big climb off the A44 and back up a very steep road then back into the forest to top out on, what is a really brutal climb. My ride buddy (never did get his name!) dropped me towards the top and stopped for a pee before we descended out to take on the broken road. Unbelievably it is a National Cycling route but is so steep and the surface so broken and poor you have to get off and push. It’s a mental bit of road I first saw in last year’s event. The descent is long but you could feel the warmth as we hit the valley.

Tarmac now as we climbed and traversed the trans-Cambrian route towards Rhayader made easier with a nice tailwind. We briefly turned back into the wind to ride around the famous resevoirs ( I wish I’d taken some pics now) and I was shocked to see how low they were. They looked less than half full leaving what looked like a dribble in the middle. One benefit of the poor weather was it had kept the tourists away so the ride down to Feed #2 at the foot of the Elan Valley was quick despite endless, pointless gates. We’re literally obsessed with gates in this country.

I was glad to get to Feed 2 in one piece. The rain had eased now and it was just one last push for home now but I still had plenty of climbing to do. I was beginning to get tinges of cramp so I ate some ready salted crisps and took on some electrolytes + food. It was worth waiting a bit longer to get it down me. We rolled out to Rhayader on the cycle path which features a draggy climb and I felt good at that moment. Straight through Rhayader town centre and into the lanes. I mentioned to my ride buddy we had a big climb coming up to which he told me his Garmin was saying 10 more climbs. Like I needed to hear that for FFS.

Feeling good then going pop is a thing that happens to everyone who rides a bike, even Pro’s and it was about to be my turn. As the gradient went north my legs went south and I had to flick into survival mode and just turn the pedals rather than fight the gradient. I wanted to just be left to ride my own tempo now but my ride buddy did wait for me as we’d been both passed by another rider who I thought he may have tagged onto. At the top, the rider that had passed us both was coming back up the track from the wrong way after a wrong turn and I found myself back in the mix again but a series of gates and offering to close them left me behind. We reached Feed 3 at Bwlch-Y-Sarnau and stopped briefly. I decided to take my rain jacket off but froze as we descended and the got soaked on the next climb. Here I properly went pop and had to stop a couple of times and at a gate my hamstring locked up with cramp as I got off the bike. My ride buddy was out of sight so I thought he’d just left me now like I’d told him to earlier.

From here I knew it was just a few steep kickers but the road route from last year was replaced with a horribly steep soggy, grass climb. This really depressed me. I’d had enough now and just wanted to finish. At one gate I looked back and my mate was behind me. He’d gone the wrong way. We completed the last offroad section and then tackled the last few steep climbs in the lanes before the final, super fast descent back into Llanidloes. From here we retraced back to the start along the cycle path and we were done and I was fucked.

I was given my medal and sat and drank an alcohol-free beer (WTF!). I decided to pressure-wash my bike too as it was caked in shit and mud. Weirdly my ride buddy was parked right next to me. It started to rain again so I just sat in the car and took some time to start to function again before getting changed and packing my stuff away for the drive onwards to SW Wales.

My (moving) ride time was about 20 mins quicker than last year but missing a mile-long detour to the missing feed on the A44 and the last offroad sector meant I probably rode around in the same sort of time. 6hrs is a long time on a bike and despite the hurt, I still get satisfaction from it afterwards.

They call it an Epic, it was for me.

Adios