Saturday 17th May from Willington Country Hotel, Nr.Kelsall, Chester.
Being forever mindful that the Bryan Chapman ride was currently in progress, I rode this one instead from a fine country hotel start.
About 30 riders for the 200 and light rain began to fall within minutes of the start which continued throughout the day. I was often thinking if the BC riders were getting the rain as well.
A bit of a tricky route to follow for the first 50k or so to the first control at Garth near Llangollen which took a lot longer than I had planned, so decided to continue to the next control at Corwen as it was only another 25k.
On towards Bala from here before turning sharp left to climb the Milltir Gerrig and across to Llangynog which I climbed exactly a week earlier on the 4 Rivers ride. Last week it was very hot going up the climb. This week it was cool and wet and getting wetter and heavier.
On through Pen-y-Bont Fawr and a left turn to Llanrhaedr and the need to collect a till receipt from the Spar shop. This was lunch (120k) which was a tin of rice pudding and some jelly babies (I always carry a tin opener and a spoon on long rides now).
From here, another left turn on to narrow lanes soon began climbing again before finally descending to lanarmon and a flat ride through the valley to the next control at Chirk (150k). For some reason I was completely shattered by now and it was to be a slow ride back to the finish at Kelsall arriving at 6.30.
I think I had definitely made the right choice not to ride the BC this year when suffering as much as did on a short ride like this, but in the end I put it down to just having an "off" day and now looking forward to the Irish Mail 400 in 2-weeks time.
