Sunday ride, 7th April

[stoneditch]

Hello All,

May I suggest that we do a BIG one on this Sunday, like the full ToP route?

It seems like a good idea while I sit here in front of the telly with a dog on my lap and a rapidly evaporating glass of red

Answers on a postcard as per…

[butcherboy]

Good Thinking Stoneditch. Huw and I were discussing the route last week and the ToP was mentioned. I`m sure once Huw stops dancing and screaming at “One Direction” he will put the route on.

[MatG]

what about old top route 112 miles opposed to riding back & forth to start of new one will be 10 miles more

[Morganite]

all

Not sure how far everyone wants to go,try this for starters see route on the attachment.

Meet at Bloomfield at 9 head on main rd to Cardigan, then to St Dogmaels, pick up pembs tour route back to Puncheston, this is a very hill section, then back to Narbeth following the route it is 76 miles

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=521806

I will post the short route later

[Andrew_Wright]

Might be a bit too far/hilly for my legs at the moment. Will certainly join you but will probably miss out the Gwaun Valley section and aim for a 50miler.

[stoneditch]

Looks epic Huw, bring it on…

[Morganite]

Here is a shorter call this middle distance route 60 miles it turns left at tufton and heads back without going around the loop

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=522349

here is the short route 32 miles

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=522369

[ValleyMan]

Lets all have our own routes then!

[Legaleagle]

60 miles is far enough for me.

[Ants]

I will meet you in Clunderwen .

[Sweaty Eds]

We met at 9 in a chilly and windswept Bloomfield car park, Huw, Pete, Beloved Chairman Rees, Dan, Flapjack, Matt G and my Sweaty self. At 9.02 Huw received a text from 2/3 of the Valley Road Crew pleading illness. At 9.05 the remaining member arrived. I suppose we should be grateful that they put their clocks forward last week in Valley Road, shame it wasn’t the full hour.

Anyway, this week Huw decided to spice up the club ride by assigning us all characters to play, similar to a Murder Mystery weekend crossed with a game of charades, and then everyone try to guess who everyone else had come as. Pete had come hopelessly underdressed for the almost freezing conditions, so it was obvious straight away that he had come as Gary. Huw tried to lead us up the garden path by arriving on a sleek and shiny black number, a Stealth Bomber, I thought. It was only when he went into his routine of ‘pretending’ to have lost the route, patting all his pockets and frantically skimming through his many Garmin menus, that I realised he had come as Mr Bean. We set off, briskly heading towards Ants waiting in either Clunderwen or Majorca (hard to tell from his forum posts). As we spied Ants in the distance, waiting with a similar hulking figure, Our Beloved Chairman revealed himself by pretending that Ants was waiting with wife, Jane. The exotic kit meant that the shadowing figure had to be Andrew ‘Ajax’ Wright and our chairman was Mr Magoo.

This mistaken identity raised a couple of points. Firstly, it is more believable that a man who cannot distinguish between slender Jane Rees and an unshaven hulking graphic designer could genuinely confuse equine and bovine. Secondly, the closeness and body language of the couple waiting in Clunderwen must mean that they had come as Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon from the 1968 smash comedy hit ‘The Odd Couple’.

When we approached the Crymych city limits we were averaging almost 15mph for the ride, all of us doing a very passable impression of a cycling club.

On the descent into Cardigan, Jonathon gave himself away. It’s not very often that you see someone fly down a hill at that speed, even less often that you realise that they are steering with their chin. Huw had obviously dealt him the Mad Doig Murdoch from the A Team card.

We stopped a couple of times in Cardigan due to Matt’s mechanicals, it was here that Dan went into character. He asked each of us in turn about our bikes, listened while we listed the pro’s and con’s, before scoffing and offering to sell us the bike we really should buy at a vastly inflated price. Easy one that.

Jon must’ve taken two cards because on the hill out of St. Dogmaels he toppled into a ditch, Mr Bump.

Ant’s mate, Mark had joined us in Crymych, he didn’t say much but it was only when he stopped in Llechryd and tied a fainting femme fatale to the railway tracks that I realised he’d come as a silent movie villain.

It was around this time that Matt really got into his role by having a second puncture. I was still unsure about his character until he announced that he’d actually burst his third inner tube before he had put the wheel back on his bike. He’d obviously come as Valleyman.

Flapjack was proving very difficult to guess as he remorselessly set the pace at the front. It was when we split into two groups with Mr Magoo, Mad Doig and myself joining Flapjack on a trip over the Bwlch and he suggested a three mile hilly addition to the route that I realised he’d come as Beelzebuub.

At New Inn we split again and I cycled home with Beloved Chairman Rees, no food and no water. It was after I’d struggled up Gelli and was looking at the hill at Pont Shan that I realised who I was. Totally Shagged.

Thanks everyone, great day.

[MatG]

thanks for waiting & sorry to wimp out the big climbs. Especially thanks for the spare inner tube & andrew for chaperoning me.. Well if we are going to sleep with some one it is good to get to know them first! . Sharing room for Narcar…

[Flapjackman]

I couldn’t possibly match the “revue” of the day from “Totally Shagged” but I’d like to thank Mr Magoo for making me feel totally inadequate again after promising “no racing to the top of the Bwlch” but of course he had to get to the top ahead, again. When we separated at New Inn, Mad Doig and I headed off together but at Tufton Mad Doig’s Garmen said left for the Gwaun Valley I said right and we separated. To live up to my Beelzebub reputation, did the remaining ToP up to Letterston, then home – 83 miles total. Great day thanks.

[stoneditch]

I really enjoyed Sunday. At almost 15MPH up to Crymych we have all really come on. I think that the Winter Turbo sessions have to take the credit for that, for me anyway. The climb out of Crymych was touch and go with a J Edwards Gold coach being far to close for comfort. Sweaty, Matt and I could have jumped aboard it was so bloody close.

The descent to Blaenffos (I think) was pretty quick, Garmin reckoned on 47MPH we must have shown that other CC, who were parked up on the right, that the dynamos are a force to be reckoned with. Although you couldn’t tell our allegiance as we were all wrapped up. It was pretty chilly by the time we stopped at the bus stop above St Dogmaels.

The less said about my coming off climbing out of St Dogmaels the better. At least I didn’t bring Andrew down as well!

So, after we all split up before and after the Bwlch. I followed Huw’s route to parts of Pembrokeshire that I had never seen before and although beautiful some of the steepest roads I have ever seen. Just continuous climbing on 20% and more gradients. Not really what I needed after the Bwlch but, good for ToP I suppose. After climbing yet another hill out of Vicars Mill I came across Donna, Ffion, Seren and Leighton all going great guns.

After getting back onto the A478 and turning south back home I looked at the elapsed miles on my Garmin, disappointed to see that I had only done 58 miles. It had felt like 98 by then so, I just toddled off back home content with the burning sensation in my legs and a recovery shake to look forward to in front of the telly to watch the recording of Paris-Roubaix.

So to summarise 63.8 miles, 6797ft climbing and 2496 calories. Not bad for a Sunday…

[Ants]

As always sweaty a great report ,you make me laugh.well done everybody the dynamos were looking sharp,good mileage by every one  and didn’t see any willy waving.Roll on Tuesday  night ride.

[Author]

Posts