Dragon Ride

[Morganite]

This is a thread to discuss the Dragon Ride

[butcherboy]

i cant wait for it! bwlch and rhigos bring it on! 😮

[Morganite]

Sounds like real fun cannot wait 😆

[ValleyMan]

Have you registered as there are not many places left.

PS someone had better lay off the steaks if he is going to get up those climbs….

[Morganite]

Anybody require a place for the Dragon ride, i know of 1 place maybe 2

go on you know you want to 😆

[Morganite]

Weather is looking good for Sunday

[Morganite]

For all those cycling the Dragon Ride.

Here are the 2 links for the 200km ride

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=256195

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/36214074/?open_ive_done=1

Here are the stats

121.5 Miles

Depending which of the links you look at the climbing is between 6750ft and 7500ft

There are 3 CAT 2 Climbs, 2 CAT 4 Climbs and 3 Cat 5 Climbs

Feed Stations

28 miles Porthcawl

54 miles Top of Bwlch

92 miles Cimla

[ValleyMan]

Looks like a piece of piss! Have fun!

[clundurban]

4 Members of Narberth Dynamos – Roger,Andrew,Huw & myself. 1 new bike (yes finally we got to see Roger’s new bike).A hour wait in the cold at the start, 100 riders sent off every 2 mins. 121 miles of hard riding.

The 1st 40 miles flatish, after that it all started to go up, & up & up, nothing to steep, but the climbs just went on & on for miles( I prefer the steep short climbs now)

Nice downhills though. To top it all off (after a hundred miles), they made us ride up the Bwlch again.The longest 6 miles in my life.

I finished behind the others in 8:10. A great day though, and thanks to Huw for the lift.

I am now going to repeat that distance this weekend in the Tour of Pembrokeshire.I must be mad.

See you all Wednesday night.

[Morganite]

When the Alarm went at 5AM, I was thinking what the hell had i let myself in for and what the day had in store. The weather forecast was terrible.

We arrived at Bridgend at 7.15 to find cars queuing to get in, we got ready to go and found the start line at 7.45. Weather was looking ok, in the waiting to start there was a lot of admiring of Rogers new bike and 3 pee stops later we got to the front of the line and at 9.07 we where off, and off at a pace we where, Roger the Road Runner was setting the pace and Andrew and myself followed along, we had lost Mark by now, by the time we got to the first feed station we were averaging over 20mph, the weather was great.

Out of the feed station which Roger did not want to stop at, the pace continued all the way to Port Talbot by the time we got past Port Talbot Roger was not to be seen he had got the jump on us though the traffic lights. The big climb was ahead of us of the Bwlch. Roger was up to his old tricks hit the climb hard and first and by the time the top comes hopefully will not have slipped back to far. I fell off the back of Andrew about halfway up. When i arrived at the feed station at the top, Roger and Andrew was still there, so i tagged on with them for another 10 miles until the next big climb. By now i knew the time spent so far with these guys was coming to an end.

So up the Rhigos on my own 60 miles in thinking so far so good, few climbs later into the next feed station 82 miles gone, then down though Neath one thing about a big sportive there is always a group not far away to tag on to, the Bwlch lay ahead this was going to the biggest challenge of the day 2nd time up the same climb 97 miles in to the event and a 8.5 mile climb ahead. And guess what the heavens open and down came the rain. Halfway up the climb I was looking at my time thinking this could be sub 8 hrs and then thinking it was not possible.

By the time i got over the top the rain had stopped and it was 15 mile run in, and some of it was steep downhill. The further on i got the more i could see sub 8hrs was possible. When i got back the time was 7hrs 48min which was better than i ever thought i could do, thinking all the training put in had paid off

Once back i found Roger and Andrew, Roger comment was he only finished 3 sec behind Andrew, i thought they had rode together to the end, but later i found out Andrew had dropped Roger on the Bwlch by 2 to 3 min and Roger was trying to gain it back on the downhill run home we would not heard the end of it if Roger had piped Andrew to the line.

We waited around then Mark came in he looked like he was in a daze.

There was a number of issues with the timing chips, with Andrew Rogers and Mark it show they did not attend the event, i can confirm they did attend, mine did not register the start.

Distance 122 miles provisional results

My time was 7hrs 48min Average 16.31mph

Andrew time was 7hrs 21min and 31 sec Average 16.92mph

Roger time was 7hrs 21 min and 34 sec Average 16.92mph

Mark time was 8hrs 10 min Average 15.10mph

All in all it was a great day and good company while it lasted cannot wait for next year.

[Roger]

Well done Huw….nicely summed up and all painfully true!…where did you get the results from?

Tour of Pembs next and then more tales to be told…

[Morganite]

There was 1500 rider listed on the 200km route

Fastest time 5hrs.54 ave 22.20 there is on at 5.02 but that cannot be right

Slowest time 10hrs.20 ave 11.96

My time was 7hrs 48min Average 16.31mph Finished 570

Andrew time was 7hrs 21min and 31 sec Average 16.92mph Finished 401

Roger time was 7hrs 21 min and 34 sec Average 16.92mph Finished 403

Mark time was 8hrs 10 min Average 15.10mph Finished 701

Well done

[Morganite]

new routes posted for 2012 128 miles 3350m climbing it is going to be a lot harder this year

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