This was the ride that I had been waiting for. A fair bit of effort had gone into the preparation but I had reservations about only signing up for the medium 70 mile course. With the rain on the day, I was glad that I’d made the right choice.
We arrived at our hotel on the Saturday, on the outskirts of Cardiff, 15 miles from the start of the Dragon. A Travelodge special, costing £19 between the 3 of us. Another 4 friends joined us on the Saturday and we decided to head out on a 30 mile spin to loosen the legs.
Not being familiar with the area, I mapped a route which turned out to be quite an event in itself, crossing 3-4 valleys with climbs that turned out to be steeper than those on the Dragon ride!
It was with slightly sore legs that we awoke on Sunday morning to find the sunshine from Saturday disappear, to be replaced with grey skies and the threat of rain. I’d spent most of the early start checking various weather sites on my phone, hoping to find one that I liked. Attempts were futile though, we were going to get wet. I wish I’d packed that gillet.
The M4 was a clear run and then we turned off at junction 35 to find a queue of cars waiting to get into the main car park. Whilst friends in a separate car turned off for the overflow parking, I was committed to the line and sat for 40 minutes until we got a space.
Once the bikes were unpacked, we set off to the start where we were confronted with the biggest group of cyclists I’ve ever seen. The line went on for ages and we waited for an hour to reach the timing mat and finally got away at 9.30am.
I’ve seen on some forums that people have criticised the organisation. Perhaps larger groups could have been released but when you choose to enter a mass event, you kind of expect some hold ups and although I was a bit cold, I wasn’t annoyed at the delay, just at the people who were obviously pushing in at the front and holding the rest of us patient folk up.
Four of our group got away early because of the parking so there were just three of us to start which quickly became two after we lost one on the first climb. After the legs got warm, a group of four came past and we latched onto the back of what turned out to be a pretty fast moving train. It meant that the first 30 miles was completed at a 19-20mph average before we slowed to appreciate the coast views as we headed in for the first feed stop.
On the whole, the standard of riding was pretty good but there were the usual few who decided to treat it like a race and demonstrate their lack of ability and group experience. I took particular dislike to the idiot who continually half-wheeled me and never took a turn and then a second moron who decided to ride between my mate and I when we were chatting. We turned our heads to find him half-wheeling the pair of us. I saw a couple of nasty accidents and road rash on one of the corners and hope that those riders weren’t badly hurt.
The route was fairly fast rolling and I was having an enjoyable time but was getting concerned with my heart rate monitor which was massively over-reading and indicating over 200bpm (my max is 190!) on the flats. I decided to ignore it and push on.
A large group came along just at the right time as we headed towards the dreaded Bwlch but then I lost touch when my chain over shifted past the big ring and onto my pedal. A quick stop and restart had me going again. Stupidly, I forgot to restart my Garmin which meant I missed 1.5 miles off my total distance. I need to learn to stop messing with these things!
The Bwlch came and completely lived up to the hype – what an awesome climb. I’ve experience high roads before in the Peak District and the Alps but nothing like this in the UK. Seeing 100’s of cyclists snaking their way up the climb was truly inspiring. I had no choice but to change into the granny ring and spin my way up at a pedestrian pace. I got passed a fair bit and I passed a few riders myself before reaching the top and then dropping down to the second feed stop.
The heavens then opened on the descent which made for some interesting cornering before the rain cleared and left a damp run in to the finish. The two of us decided to go for broke and took turns to get the final few miles finished. We passed quite a few riders on the run in before a final sprint for the finish in a final time of just over 4 ½ hours with a riding average of 16.9mph.
I’m pretty pleased with that but think I can definitely do better and if I do the ride next year, will aim for knocking 30 minutes off my time.
Overall, I think the ride was well organised when you consider just how many riders participated but I’m disappointed that the official timing didn’t work, although with a bike computer it doesn’t really matter. I don’t think this detracted from the overall atmosphere of the event, which I enjoyed thoroughly.
Saturday’s ride around Cardiff:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90525662
Dragon Ride:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90525645
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