Mille Cymru 2018

[Andy Corless]

The event date is apparently 26-29 July. I advised John Hamilton, the organiser, about a week or so ago about the date discrepancy on the event website so he's already aware of it.

Andy Corless

[Smeth]

he's already aware of it.

Andy Corless

Cheers Andy

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[whosatthewheel]

End of JULY indeed... look forward to feeding you at one of the controls... 

[U.N.Dulates]

Update with a couple of weeks to go until entries open.

Route is now sorted (bar tweaking as it gets recce'd) https://ridewithgps.com/routes/24319750



It's an evolution of the 2014 route - Day 1 gets some extra km into mid-Wales and some less well know roads from Bwlch y Sarnau down through Hundred House and over the Begwyns to Hay on Wye. The start of Day 2 has had a makeover heading over the Devil's Staircase before turning left to head down past Llynne Brianne (making a return from the 2010 edition) and the Cothi valley before rejoining the 2014 route for the passage over Llanlwnlli mountain. The third day sees the return of the infamous Beulah - Newbridge road (although only the once for any veterans of 2010) then it's over to Aberystwyth. You'll be glad to know that the climb back up from the Aberffrwdd control has gone and the loop back inland has been replaced by a trip up the coast and the final night control moves to Lake Vyrnwy.

Total climbing works out at roughly 15,600m - so fairly similar to the 2010 edition. Split between the 3 days is 4780m (303k), 4910m (324k), 5280m (313k).

Once more Llanwrtyd Wells will be our base for 2 overnight controls at 303km and 627km. The final overnight control will be at Lake Vyrnwy (940km) giving a short (and mostly downhill & flat) final stage to the finish. There will be a bag drop to Llanwrtyd & back.

All food will be included at the start and finish, the 3 overnight controls, plus a number of other controls on the route - currently planned to include Llanthony, Tintern, Cilgerran, Aberystwyth and Arthog. As already noted above, there may be secret controls and these will be provided by Jay_P's infamous 'Van of Delights'. There will probably be a pre-ride meal on the Wednesday evening for those staying over at Upton Magna the night before - and camping facilities are available as per usual.

Entries open on 1st March via the AUK website, limited to 100 places. The intention is to get as close to 100 starters as possible so if we sell out there may well be additional places available later on as riders (inevitably) drop out. As previously noted I'll guarantee entry to anyone providing a partner/significant other as a helper, tandems, trikes & recumbents, and anyone going for the 'threepeat' (/hideous americanism)

More detail available on the AUK website - http://www.aukweb.net/routes/1000r.zip

If 1012km, nearly 16,000m of climbing in 75 hours sounds a bit much and you'd prefer to get some sleep on the way round, come and ride the Grand Tour (Clarkson, Hammond & May not included) version of the event. This will start one day earlier (Wed 25th July) with a time limit of 5 days (latest finish 22:00hrs Sun 29th July). This will use the same route as the randonneur event, but will be unsupported (other than the start/finish) - so no manned controls. Entry fee will be correspondingly lower. The idea is to make this a 200k/day event (each 200k ridden at 14.3kph BR minimum speed) so it can be validated as a BR event of 4x200km (plus whatever is left to get to the finish - the route isn't long enough to break into 5x200km) - subject to discussion with AUK. Once started you'll be entirely on your own and free to choose exactly where to stay each night (sort your own accommodation) and how far to ride each day. Expect to see this option appear on the AUK calendar shortly.

[whosatthewheel]

Looks amazing John!

Bit beyond my capabilities, so I will gladly help out at the overnight control instead... 

The 5 day "touring" option also looks great, kind of a 1K super randonnee, are you going to offer the latter again in the future, maybe as a permanent?

[mattc]

Having ridden a mountainous 200+km/day tour quite recently, I'd say it's a great idea; but the Devil may be in the Detail.

Accommodation might be the tricky bit. A major part of the puzzle in putting MC1K on was a route that got us to decent sleepy spots at about the right distance every day - solving this problem again (and for 4 nights) might be really tricky. There are some lonely roads through deserted areas.

Fingers crossed - it's a fab route!

[psyclist]

Looks superb. I'm thinking a south-westerly wind will most impact the first half of day 2, and otherwise the main consideration will be the hills.

Feels like there will be a certain rhythm to the ride. Leaving overnight controls by 6am should work for somebody without inherent speed in the hills, like myself. Then it'll 'only' be a task of getting through each day with sufficient time remaining to rest prior to the next 6am start.

I'm looking forward to day 4 already.

[Thing2]

I'm getting excited!

[How Far]

I have been thinking of riding this event, but I have no experience of the climbs.  How does it compare to Milli Pennies?  There seems to be a similar amount of climbing but are they longer easier climbs IE. not as many 33% monsters ;-)

Thanks Rich...

[whosatthewheel]

I have been thinking of riding this event, but I have no experience of the climbs.  How does it compare to Milli Pennies?  There seems to be a similar amount of climbing but are they longer easier climbs IE. not as many 33% monsters ;-)

Thanks Rich...

Yep... Devil's staircase is steep, but it's not Hardknott. The steepest and most evil climb in Wales, the Bwlch-Y-Groes from Dinas has been mercifully spared this time In my experience, Welsh climbs are much more benign than those in the Lakes and Yorkshire.

Day 1: you go up the Long Mynd from the easier side, the biggest climb of the day is the Gospel pass from Hay... which is stunning, long but not very hard. The other climbs are all very doable

Day 2: Devil's Staircase from the less steep side and then some smaller, relentless undulations going south west and back

Day 3: you have the Llanberis pass, which is in my opinion the most scenic climb in Wales, kind of steady 7-8% all the way, you can see the top from the bottom, so mentally is very easy, absolutely beautiful. Then the climb out of Cwn Penmachno, which is demanding, but not brutal and finally the Hirnant pass, which again is 9-10% towards the top.

That's about it

[Brakeless]

I have been thinking of riding this event, but I have no experience of the climbs.  How does it compare to Milli Pennies?  There seems to be a similar amount of climbing but are they longer easier climbs IE. not as many 33% monsters ;-)

Thanks Rich...

I rode in 2014 and found the Pembrokeshire coast the hardest section, very short sharp ascents followed by nerve racking steep descents, no recovery and straight into steepness again. The big well known climbs are all steady climbs other than the Devils staircase which is steep but not for too long.

[U.N.Dulates]

General consensus is that there's nothing as steep as Hardknott, Rosedale etc (Welsh climbs tend to around 16% rather than 25%+ on average), but equally there are fewer flat main road sections to make up the time compared to the Mille Pennines - the climbs just keep on coming all the way round. Whether that's easier or not is debateable.

But what is definite is that if you think you know Welsh climbs from the Bryan Chapman then you'll be in for a nasty surprise. Go read Andy_P's report from 2014  on p1 of this thread

[U.N.Dulates]

Mille Cymru GT is now live on aukweb http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/18-384/

Having ridden a mountainous 200+km/day tour quite recently, I'd say it's a great idea; but the Devil may be in the Detail.

Accommodation might be the tricky bit. A major part of the puzzle in putting MC1K on was a route that got us to decent sleepy spots at about the right distance every day - solving this problem again (and for 4 nights) might be really tricky. There are some lonely roads through deserted areas.

Fingers crossed - it's a fab route!

Absolutely. As you've noted there are some long sections where accommodation will be scarce. Because of that, and the route being only slightly over the nominal 1000k mark it won't be possible to ride it as 5x200k - after 4 days your final section will be <200k. So to provide flexibility, the GT will run as 4x200k+ - entirely up to the entrant how they break it up - you could opt for 4x250k, finishing on Saturday evening; or 4 days of 200k leaving a shorter 5th day to the finish. To summarise:

• The whole 1000k course has to be completed (visiting all the fixed controls), returning back at the finish between Sat 8pm (84hrs) and Sun 10pm (110hrs)
• A minimum of 200km has to be ridden at a minimum of 14.3kph on 4 days. Additional PoP will be required over and above the fixed controls to prove this.
• Any remaining distance after the above requirement has been met is not subject to any minimum speed, providing the overall time limit is met (so if you leave only 100k to do on the final day you've still got until 10pm to finish)

There'll be more detailed explanation and example schedules available from the event page after the weekend, but it boils down to these 3 points. This does of course mean that as far as AUK is concerned you'll 'only' get 8 points (if points are your thing) and it doesn't count as a 1000k event for awards purposes but a series of 200k ones.

There's enough accommodation possibilities on route (and the GT will be an advisory route as secret controls are impractical given the nature of the event, so you may leave the route to find accommodation e.g. to Cardigan or Rhayader which are only just off the route); and with this flexibility it should be eminently doable.

I'm intending to take this approach to the route check (route checking when sleep deprived doesn't tend to work very well ime) and it would be a good approach for any helpers wanting a helpers ride, as the format lends itself better to an unsupported ride than the BRM version.

[mattc]

Good stuff 

Talking of route-checking, I'm riding to LLandysul at the end of March. I expect to spend 3-4 days on the bike (route undecided), so if I can route-check (e.g. Day2 section) that would give me some purpose.


_{(
I'll also be route-checking the western half of the Faffers400 perm ... watch out for more news on that peeps ... )}

[Basil]

Good stuff 

Talking of route-checking, I'm riding to LLandysul at the end of March. I expect to spend 3-4 days on the bike (route undecided), so if I can route-check (e.g. Day2 section) that would give me some purpose.


_{(
I'll also be route-checking the western half of the Faffers400 perm ... watch out for more news on that peeps ... )}

You'd be welcome to call in for a cuppa again, Matt.

[U.N.Dulates]

Good stuff 

Talking of route-checking, I'm riding to LLandysul at the end of March. I expect to spend 3-4 days on the bike (route undecided), so if I can route-check (e.g. Day2 section) that would give me some purpose.

We may cross paths then. I'm doing a route check of a combination of the Elenydd and the Day 2 route over the Easter long weekend.

The route's on RideWithGPS, so if any of it looks of any interest then by all means drop me a line for a routesheet (when I've got the 2014 one updated with the new bits).

[Steve Orchard]

Entries open on 1st March via the AUK website, limited to 100 places. The intention is to get as close to 100 starters as possible so if we sell out there may well be additional places available later on as riders (inevitably) drop out. As previously noted I'll guarantee entry to anyone providing a partner/significant other as a helper, tandems, trikes & recumbents, and anyone going for the 'threepeat' (/hideous americanism)

Is this going to be a get up at midnight and press the button and hope?

[U.N.Dulates]

Possibly, but I hope not (as I don't want to be getting up at midnight either). In 2014 it took 36 hours to sell out. There's more choice in 1000k events on the calendar this year, so that may have some effect too.

[whosatthewheel]

there are 4 1K in the calendar, but they appeal to two very different types of "randonneur".

Two are in essence X-rated or with very limited TLC, of which one is in the south and one is in the north.

Two have TLC to various degrees and are very hilly, one is in Wales and one is in the North.

I would say if someone is thinking of doing the ACME, probably won't be thinking of doing the Pennines or the MC1K and viceversa... with a handful of exceptions of course.

[Andy Corless]

"In 2014 it took 36 hours to sell out. There's more choice in 1000k events on the calendar this year, so that may have some effect too."

I don't want to hijack the thread but for information purposes if you're "unfortunate" enough not to get an entry to this some more places have been made available on the Mille Pennines 1000 due to a few (not many) cancellations. There's a similar YACF thread for the MP1K somewhere!

Andy Corless

[Bairn Again]

"In 2014 it took 36 hours to sell out. There's more choice in 1000k events on the calendar this year, so that may have some effect too."

I don't want to hijack the thread but for information purposes if you're "unfortunate" enough not to get an entry to this some more places have been made available on the Mille Pennines 1000 due to a few (not many) cancellations. There's a similar YACF thread for the MP1K somewhere!

Andy Corless

Nor do I, but there are around half a dozen places left on the West Highland 1000.  Had it been the only 1000km in the UK this year it would have been full up within days.  The TLC on the West Highland 1000 extends to a bag drop, I've left folk to make their own accommodation arrangements, though the route (and bag drop) have been carefully thought out to be as helpful as possible to riders.     

[JonB]

Is this going to be a get up at midnight and press the button and hope?

Possibly, but I hope not (as I don't want to be getting up at midnight either).

If you get chance, will you post here in the next few days to say when it will be going live for entries?

[U.N.Dulates]

If you get chance, will you post here in the next few days to say when it will be going live for entries?

Midnight 1st March (i.e. Wed/Thurs night)

[thing1]

Love the fact entries open on St David's day 
We're planning to enter at around 12.01 that morning, but just in case is there anything specific needs doing to take up the guaranteed tandem entry?

[JonB]

If you get chance, will you post here in the next few days to say when it will be going live for entries?

Midnight 1st March (i.e. Wed/Thurs night)

That's pretty clear, thanks John