Re: RIding with Geriant Thomas at Bluestone

[butcherboy]

Ha bloody ha Walton.

What a fantastic weekend. Found my way to Bluestone friday evening and met up with about 30 other slightly nervous cyclists ready to meet G. Riders came from New York, Scotland, all over England and Wales. Also one other local, Darren from Tenby Aces.

We had a lovely buffet while we were told the itinerary for the weekend and met up with G.

Saturday`s route took us up the A40 to Redstone then left all the way to maenclochog, rosebush then left towards H/west. Turned left at Crundale then did a loop around Clarby Rd, Walton East, then back on the main Cardigan H/west road and into H/west then back to bluestone via the A40. G stayed at the front while most of us took turns to ride up front with him. My first turn at the front was as we were going hell for leather up to Maenclochog, needless to say i couldn’t say a lot- not an issue for G who merrily whistled his way up! We were dropping riders off at the back as the pace was quite fast, particularly on the way back on the A40. I managed to stay with the main group until about 500 metres from the Bluestone roundabout, when my legs gave way.The ride was 50 miles and I averaged 18.1 mph.There was another excellent buffet lunch and then a social evening with G at the pub in the village. The beer was flowing well,and the cyclists were all checking how many beers we could safely have! This didn’t bother G who sank a fair few and was quite tipsy by the end of the night!!

Sunday morning we met just before 9am and it was nice to see familiar faces there – Huw, Matt G and Phil Walker. The route was as Huw posted earlier on and the pace wasn’t so quick,partly due to feedback from the day before and partly due to G’s hangover!! The peleton soon split up climbing the Preselis and the stop at Llys Y Fran for a cup of tea and a cake was more than welcome! From Llys Y Fran back to Bluestone the pace really picked up but I was pleased to stay in the main bunch up front, this time all the way back to Bluestone. 69 miles at 17.5 average.

A great Sunday lunch followed, finished off with a few relaxed beers.

Geraint really is a fantastic young man. He is clearly shy but made time to meet and socialise with everyone. He brought along his Olympic medal and was very generous in letting anyone hold it and have a photograph with it. He took time to sign autographs / shirts / photos and went out of his way to make everyone feel very special.He has signed a Dynamos shirt for us. He has a cracking team to support him, including his superb PR Gayle who spent the whole weekend making sure everyone was having a good time. The staff at Bluestone were also excellent-particlular thanks to Emily who supervised the whole weekend. Plenty to do for non cyclists – Jan found the Spa and spent all of her time there when I was pounding through the Pembrokeshire countryside! They are hoping to repeat this next year – and my name will certainly be down again – who knows we could well be cycling with a double Olympic Gold medalist.