Re: Sunday 9th Sept 2012

[ValleyMan]

Not being too sure how my legs would respond to Narberth Hill following yesterdays (successful!) pursuit of Huw’s Strava KOM, I set off a bit early for once. When I arrived at Bloomfield the only person there was Huw, well to be more precise, Huw’s car.

Like a bear coming out of hibernation, the door slowly opened and Huw sniffed air for signs of rain. Seemingly confident in the BBC forecast, with a yawn and a stretch he emerged tentatively into a murky Sunday morning.

In dribs and drabs people began to arrive; the Chairman and Andrew (Ajax), Dan, Flapjack, Anthony, Jonathan, Mat and finally the Slinky Otter. There was much debate over the time it would start raining with estimates varying between 1pm and 4pm. Plenty of time to complete the scheduled 43 miles….

We headed north to Crymych at a ferocious pace as Slinky decided to take it ‘easy’ as part of his preparation for next weeks Ironman. The usual protagonists were egging him on including Andrew ‘Contador’ Rees trying to match the speed of Anthony ‘Rodriguez’ Rees.

We did have a brief café stop for a regroup (well we stopped in a cafe car park). Embarrassed into action by loosing his KOM title to an old fart on an almost as elderly bike, Huw revealed that he has once again upped the ante in the technology arms race. Not content with carbon fibre and Di2 shifters, he has now added a powerhub to the armoury. I thought the earpiece dangling from his helmet was an iPod, but no, it is a direct telemetry link to Nick Brown for real-time coaching.

Anyway, off we went heading east and then south to St Clears. On the run into St Clears, Jonathan and I passed Mat fiddling with his pump. We decided to wait on the over bridge but no sign of Mat. I suggested Jonathan carried on and I would go back and check Mat was OK. Mat was just back down the road having sorted his velcro issues.

We met the others at the bottom of the climb up to the Red Roses road, but no sign of Jonathan. We speculated that he had missed the turning off the main road and was on his way to Laugharne and Pendine. After a bit of debate, we decided to try and catch him up. Huw and Dan decided to forego the pleasures of Pendine Hill and took and an alternative route from Broadway.

Andrew (Ajax) was clearly suffering by the time we got to Pendine; he had been coughing all the way round and had not spent much time in the saddle recently. He stopped for a refuel of chocolate and then it was time for the hill. I resumed my normal position on the road (last) but came across Andrew on the steep bit doing a Roger. I offered to wait (I was going at walking pace anyway) but Andrew said it was OK and would see us at the top.

I got to the phone box about 100m behind Mat and there was no sign of the others. We therefore cycled back down to find Andrew who (thankfully) was not that far back. The chocolate in hindsight had not been such a good idea; ‘best tasting puke I ever had’ said Andrew!

Coming into Tavernspite, we saw a lone Dynamo outside the Garden Centre. Perhaps the Chairman had decided to stop for coffee after all, but no, we had finally found Jonathan. As Mat put it ‘We all lived happily after’.

The 43 miles had grown to 53 miles by the time I got home with 4,344ft of climbing.

A few points arose from the day:

1. Make sure you know the route; and

2. Make sure you have a phone and a couple on contact numbers.

Finally, good luck to Slinky in the Ironman next weekend. After finally being slightly pressured into admitting that he might not have actually joined the club yet (Huw asking for a show of hands who was a member…), in the presence of eight witnesses he said he would be coughing up on the next ride he does with us. On that basis, we can finally say the Dynamos have a bona fide Ironman competitor!