Author Topic: RR: 2007 Brevet Cymru 400  (Read 3104 times)

RR: 2007 Brevet Cymru 400
« on: 31 March, 2008, 08:48:39 am »
06-05-2007

Certainly a day to remember from my end.

I made a late start by about 10 mins together with my mate Andreas.  We took this business of 'everyone rides hard to Monmouth' a bit seriously and mashed our way through the field, picking up and passing several groups along the way.  Made it to Hay about 10 minutes after the control opened and were largely on our own from then on.

Builth and Llandovery came easily enough and we held onto an average of well over 25kph even allowing for stops.

The A482 to Cwmann was a bit of a grind and slowed us down slightly, but the road to Cellan, Llanddewi Breifi (no short fat guy in PVC body suit - gutted) and Tregaron was a good one.

The run to Newquay was a hard graft and psychologically tough as we were close to home, but we made it albeit a long way under our average.  We joined Mr Volio a couple of time during this stage, although didn't know who it was at the time.

Stopped too long in New Quay and found the grind up to Synod Inn harder than expected.  Llanybydder and Llansawel took longer to come around than hoped and we got back to the 482 bound for Llandovery feeling pretty wiped out.  Once we hit the A40 we picked up the pace again and made it to the 300km control at just after 8.

After a quick stop, it was lighting up time and for a time we joined MV and another ACF (sorry didn't work out who) for the trudge along the A40 to Brecon.  This was temporarily interrupted when I managed to mash and twist my chain, but once put right we made steady progress onto Bwlch.

Briefly saw Dave L & the Byways group as we were leaving Bwlch and then set off for the arrivee.  Tiredness was beginning to tell at this stage.  Andreas had managed to twist his knee and pop a couple of Ibuprofen, so I spent most of the time on the flat leading out whilst navigating.  Successfully navigate to Usk and then on to the climb that never ends, getting caught and joined by a couple of others as we went.

Andreas decided to help his bad knee by attacking hard on the hill, and I initially let him go as I wanted to make sure I had enough left to finish the job.  I gradually wound up the pace and pulled him back in, but had big problems with Hay fever, for some reason encountering the highest pollen count of the day when nearing the top of the ridge.

We plugged on and made it to Bullwark at about 1:30, just under the 20 hours.  Fairly pleased with this all told, although we were pig-headedly chasing a midnight finish for a while and it wasn't great to watch this slip past from a morale standpoint.

Sorry to hear about the bike theft problem.  Ours were propped outside for a good while when we finished, so I guess we were lucky.  Must be a bit more worldlywise when there for the BC.

Made tracks homewards at about 2, but by 3 was having major problems staying awake at the wheel.  Andreas devouring a half bottle of red wine in the passenger seat didn't help either, so just before Talgarth we found a cozy layby, cracked out the sleeping bags and settled down for some shut eye.

Finally got home at about 7:30 this morning.

Things to do differently next time:
- Eat less and more often
- Start at a more pedestrian pace and add speed towards the end
- Re-jig my handlebar layout as I was suffering from numb hands by the end due to poor grip & lack of bar space

I think to say that I enjoyed this is not quite something that I'd admit this side of a long sleep, but certainly pleased to complete the ride and get one step closer to an SR and PBP.  Also my longest ever ride and all told a pretty reasonably pace given the scenery.

Much kudos to Andreas who only rode his first ever Audax (a 200K) last weekend and signed up at the last minute to avoid me 'facing this madness alone'.  He's muttering about a 6 at the moment, but I think the knee needs to get better first.

AC
'Accumulating kilometres in the roughest road conditions'...

border-rider

Re: RR: 2007 Brevet Cymru 400
« Reply #1 on: 31 March, 2008, 05:29:15 pm »
That was a good day - great weather - but I had catastrophically explosive guts.  It took me an hour to get from the outskirts of Newquay to the control, via every bush and public loo I could find.  I didn't eat anything much more than a Mars Bar between Hay and the finish.  Not good. 

Re: RR: 2007 Brevet Cymru 400
« Reply #2 on: 31 March, 2008, 06:38:32 pm »
Somebody lost their routesheet on that one, but got home following your trail  ;D