Velothon - Cardiff

[Under the arches]

I did this Sunday, the 140km version. The closed roads were really good and took about 45minutes of my ride time, but the last bit from Pontpool to Caerphilly was a bit monotonous.

The Tumble was a good grind and caerphilly mountain (hill) was very steep, but the run into Cardiff was great. Not a bad day out, with a good time of 5hrs 13minutes, but I wont be doing next years.

[caerau]

Ah I was wondering about the absence of this here.


I chose not to ride it as I'm training for PBP and as it turned out I had to ride a cover 600 the week before so this was a better plan than I anticipated.


One of my colleagues at work rode it in 5 hrs 30 so you beat him


I went down to have a look and see the end of the professional race in Cardiff  - was very much fun cheering the tail enders back in, especially the last lady who got a massive cheer and much sign bashing which I'm sure she loved (certainly looked like it).  Was nice to see and tandem pair and a moulton rider in the last few back in on the 140k - made me fell at home a little.  I got a little envious i wasn't involved I admit, I probably will ride this next year.  I got myself a nice bike bag from a Dutch bike shop stall at the  expo - this will get the bike onto the coach for PBP so it was worth a visit just for that.


Looked like a great event and sooooooo many riders     Will be good to be involved next year methinks.  A great celebration of cycling in my mind.

[Rhys W]

As soon as I saw "closed roads" I correctly predicted drawing pins... Going by the public anger beforehand I was relieved nothing worse happened, like somebody determined to drive a car on the course. I didn't do it because I ride those roads anyway, and the thought of paying £50 for the company of 15,000 mainly non-club riders wasn't appealing.

Turned out most of my club rode it and had a great day, but I still can't bring myself to fork out the money for a route I'm likely to ride once or twice a year anyway. Glad to see that it was largely viewed as a success, making the moaning minnies look a bit silly.