Elenith 300 (25-APR-2009)

[Martin]

getting up the Staircase was one of the most satisfying bits of my cycling life;

The relief in the caff at Rhayader is also tangible.

Go on; you know you want to...

[Mercury Jim]

Classic ride - do it. You wont regret it

[Hummers]

My first 300 (2006) and it is a classic. I don't remember the A road bits being busy. Wish I could do it this year.

H

[Greenbank]

On the return leg, same thing really.  The only tricky part can be negotiating Bewdley sometimes

Not if you pass through there at 2am.

[Greenbank]

Cheap train tickets for the way out are available but not yet for the return journey.

£5.50 for London to Kidderminster single but it's leaving Euston at 20.03 on the Friday, goes via Birmingham, changes twice (once unnecessarily) and gets in to Kiddy at 22.37. It's only a 5 mile bimble down the road to the Hartlebury travelodge from there.

[ludwig]

I did this in 2007. On the return through bewdley a drunk guy stood in the middle of the road and took aim with a beer bottle at the young lad that was in front of me. He was too late for him and he then set his sites on me. As he brought his arm back ready to throw he slipped and dropped the bottle behind him where it smashed in the road. For a second I thought it was going to be a memorable last bit on a beatiful but tough ride. The devils staircase is just a steep hill. One of many on this ride but doable with lots of strength or in my case lots of gears. Well and truly worth the effort.

[Chris N]

Route sheet just arrived - no change since last year, AFAICS.  Best book a room at the Travelodge on Friday night now.  I'm going to ride over to Hartlebury on Friday from Nuneaton, same as last year then home via Cannock Chase on Sunday.

Greenbank, are you going to be riding up to Wolverley on Saturday morning?

[Greenbank]

Greenbank, are you going to be riding up to Wolverley on Saturday morning?

Yup. I rode up through Stourport last year, nice little 9 mile warm up and got me there in enough time to avoid any eye contact with Pumpe.

[Chris N]

You were lucky.  I had to share a room with him.

[Andrij]

At the start of the year this ride was a 'definite' on my list.  Having not yet done any long rides on the new bike I'm a bit concerned.  If next Sunday's 100km goes well I'll send in an entry form and sort out accommodation.  I'm planning on a 200 or two over Easter weekend.  If those go well I'll buy the train tickets; if not I'll cancel the room and spend a day doing a few laps of my local 'hill training' route.

[Greenbank]

Right, now that The Dean is done I can turn my attention to this.

Hills. Hmm. Didn't perform spectacularly well on them on The Dean. Time to look at the profile(s) and work out just how much grimping I'm going to be doing on 67".

Trying to find a 19T EAI 1/8" sprocket (for bailout) is proving very tricky.

[Philip Whiteman]

I am a 300k novice, what sort of time do riders expect to finish this route?

[border-rider]

Time to look at the profile(s) and work out just how much grimping I'm going to be doing on 67".

Not a great deal more than on a 63.  Unless you gear down to 50-odd, you'd struggle with the steep bits anyway.  They're not sufficiently long to warrant gearing down or turning the wheel round; the run out to the first control and the main road bit back from Rhyader are fast, and I wouldn't recommend anything much less than 67 for those.

Trying to find a 19T EAI 1/8" sprocket (for bailout) is proving very tricky.

Why not use a 3/32 ?

[Greenbank]

Good points MV. I'm not a fan of mixing 3/32" and 1/8" for no real reason other than personal choice.

My spin-fu is not great (170rpm at most) so dropping to 64" would just nobble me more on the downhills. Couple of laps of the Surrey Hills I think.

I am a 300k novice, what sort of time do riders expect to finish this route?

It's BRM so the 7am start gives a 3am finish.

I intend to finish in a similar time to last year; somewhere between 2.45am and 2.59am.

[vorsprung]

I am a 300k novice, what sort of time do riders expect to finish this route?

If you imagine a slowish 200 time ( 12 hours ) and add on a moderate 100 ( 5 hours ) that's 17 hours and a finish at midnight.

Please substitute your own slowish 200 and moderate 100 times into this complex equation

[simonp]

Unfortunately, even though this was added to my favourites list last year, I'm not going to be ready in time; I hope to do my first 200 of 2009 that weekend.

[Jethro]

Rode it last year, but not this year unfortunately as it doesnt fit in with other planned events.

Last year though was the longest ride I had done for many years up until then, but surprised at how well it all went really.

Riding up the Devils Staircase with a compact double and bottom gear of 34x26 took more out of me than I thought, and together with the following nasty climbs arrived in Tregaron absolutely stuffed.  Recovered a little for a while until the mountain road back over to Rhayader and arrived there really stuffed again.  The quiet main road from there was good though and began to recover quite well and on to the finish before the snow!

To conclude though, an easy first 100k to Builth.  A pig middle section to Rhayader but stunning scenery, then an easy last 100k.

Later in the month this year also, so a little more daylight and perhaps better weather without the snow!

[Von Broad]

I am a 300k novice, what sort of time do riders expect to finish this route?

I think the cut-off time for this is about 3.am.
In 2007 I stumbled back at 2.40am
In 2008 I limped back at 2.50am
If I do it this year again [which I'm hoping to], I'd be happy to beat 2.40am!

Others will have very different expectations 

Strangely enough, it's the last 100km that has somehow beaten me the past two occasions. I've fallen into the mistake of thinking the worse is over at Rhayader [200km], which in a sense it is, but you still need something left in the tank for the last 100km to make up any time you may have lost in the hills. Not having done much cycling hitherto, I'm not sure how this predicament is going to be any different this year

[vorsprung]

I am a 300k novice, what sort of time do riders expect to finish this route?

I think the cut-off time for this is about 3.am.
In 2007 I stumbled back at 2.40am

That year the weather was unusually good

[Greenbank]

Strangely enough, it's the last 100km that has somehow beaten me the past two occasions. I've fallen into the mistake of thinking the worse is over at Rhayader [200km], which in a sense it is, but you still need something left in the tank for the last 100km to make up any time you may have lost in the hills. Not having done much cycling hitherto, I'm not sure how this predicament is going to be any different this year

The Spooner rule of "Rhyader by 7pm and you'll be fine" worked for me. The controls (and controllers/helpers) make this first 200km in 12 hours quite easy. No faffing, no queues, quick food. 7pm also means you do the 7km descent into Rhyader in good light.

But that drag back past the Fforest Inn seems never ending, especially when you can see red lights way up above you on the climb. Then you've got Kington, the pull from Leominster to Leysters (it was sleeting on this climb last year) and then Clows Top (from the easier side).

[Greenbank]

For the climbs, I've found that putting "summit" points into my GPS route really helped me know what to expect.

At the top of the climb I just have "SUM488" or whatever the highest elevation is. I can then see how far I've got to go and how much left to climb.

No summit point == climb is short or easily graded

From memory there were 15 or so climbs that I decided were big enough to warrant a summit point, but then I'm a big wuss when it comes to hills.

(Looks them up and finds names for them...)

1. Clows Top (222m)
2. Just after Discoed (300m)
3. Fforest Inn (375m)
4. Irfon Valley (before Devil's Staircase) (335m)
5. Devil's Staircase (475m)
6. Gamallt (470m)
7. After the phone box (478m)
8. Ffair-Rhos (284m)
9. Climb out of Pont-Ryhd-Y-Groes (290m)
10. Bodtalog (410m)
11. Elan Valley (488m)
12. Fforest Inn again (388m)
13. Kington (small but it sticks in my brain for some reason) (214m)
14. Leominster to Leysters (215m)
15. Clows Top (222m)

[Philip Whiteman]

Thanks for the advice on times etc.

As for Greenbank's list of hills, I am utterley dreading the return over Leysters and final big ascent to Clows Top but that descent back into Bewdley or around the by-pass will be a great relief. Mind you there is a horrible kick out of Bewdley before Wolverley - whilst it may be okay normally, it will hurt at the end of 300k

[Greenbank]

Given the tales of drunks in Bewdley I'd probably take the bypass route back if you're coming in before 1am. No-one around after 2am though

[Von Broad]

Strangely enough, it's the last 100km that has somehow beaten me the past two occasions. I've fallen into the mistake of thinking the worse is over at Rhayader [200km], which in a sense it is, but you still need something left in the tank for the last 100km to make up any time you may have lost in the hills. Not having done much cycling hitherto, I'm not sure how this predicament is going to be any different this year

The Spooner rule of "Rhyader by 7pm and you'll be fine" worked for me.

Whatever time John was at Rhyader last year...I was there too! Was that 7pm? Blimey, I was on the right track all along. Alas, he passed some miles down the road [and lent me his head torch] as I was fixing the first of three chain breaks! Another lesson leant. For joining chains: chain tools=rubbish, chain links=very good.
Nice bit of snow at the end though

[Greenbank]

Hmm. It may have been "Rhyader by 8pm" actually as I got there at 7.30pm last year and he was about to leave. Left at 8.15pm after soup and pasta.

The rule isn't 100% guaranteed. The St Neots or St Ives CC couple (can't remember which) got to Rhayader by 8pm but weren't seen after that. I guess they packed in the poor weather.