Sam and I had a few days free at the back end of July and decided to string together a last minute mini tour around a reasonable chunk of Wales. I’ve not been getting many miles in lately so figured I had might as well do them all at once. Also, I had just built myself a snazzy new road bike which I was keen to give a bit of a shake down. More on that in a other post. Strava links to the route are at the bottom of this post.
We began the trip with breakfast from Bristols very own Harts Bakery (if you’ve not been, do it!) with day one taking us over the Severn Bridge and through the valleys to our first hotel in Neath. Sam had put a route together which stuck to the lanes and small roads as much as possible. This would mean that we didn’t have to spend much time dicing with traffic, but also that we had to deal with plenty of short sharp climbs and sketchy descents! The first 50 miles or so flew by, leaving town on familiar and fairly flat roads, we made good progress. Things got a bit spicier after that with some proper savage steep valleys lanes. I think the climb from Risca over to Machen might be the hardest of the whole route, and it made me feel fortunate that I had armed myself with my cycling secret weapon: the pork pie. These are the cycling equivalent of getting the power up star in Mario Kart, and render you unstoppable for at least 10 minutes.
Day two was the real beast to contend with. With 96 miles to cover and 10,663ft of climbing it felt as thought it just kept on going up. We were both somwhat anxious about how hard this was going to be but In reality we made pretty good time and got to enjoy some increidble roads. The section from Brechfa to Tregaron was really special. Maybe the best few hours of road riding i’ve experienced in recent years, and I went to Majorca last month! it just shows you really don’t need to hop on an aeroplane to experience amazing roads and scenery, but perhaps you do need to pedal a bit harder for it, and take a rain coat.
I had bought some Flying Saucers the night before which we had agreed we would enjoy beside Llyn Brianne. I’m not sure their energy to size ratio is great, but who cares? giving yourself a treat to look forward to can do wonders. The day ended in Aberystwyth where we grabbed some takeaway pizzas and sat on the sea front watching the swimmers and paddleboarders. Fortunately the B&B was above a laundrette, so we managed to wash and dry our stinky kit ready for some fresh bibs the next day. Most of the bike touring Ive done up until now has been off road and bivvying, and the contrast of having a shower and a bed for the night felt very luxurious. I’m not sure I could ever get into the whole vibe of carrying absolutely everything, and should I decide to do a longer tour I think i’d alternate between bivvying two or three nights and then getting a B&B.
The morning of day #3 came around… we were definitely feeling it in the legs and had begun to make lots of those sorts of noises you expect to hear from elderly people getting out of chairs. Today would take us out of Aberystwth and along the coast road as far as Dolgellau, where we would head up and over Coed Y Brenin towards Bala, before climbing up Hirnant Pass, and past Lake Vyrnwy to finish. The coast road was an absolute beauty and suprisingly quiet on the traffic front. I’d strongly recommend including it if you’re planning rides in the area. The real highlight of the day however was our cafe stop in Dolgellau where they were playing a ‘Best of ABBA’ selection on repeat. This would prove to be hugely beneficial to morale later in the day, prompting such inspired lyrical alterations as ‘Mamma mia, now I really know, Coed Y Brenin climb is a cruel bastard’ and ‘I can chat with you baby, flirt a little maybe, but does your mother know that your legs are fucked?’ Day three was generally full of great ideas including stopping in to the last shop of the day for a couple of canned G&T’s, a lime (obviously), some crackers, and a Boursin. our overnight stop that night was an old mill house with no internet or phone signal, and enjoying gin cheese and crackers and some good conversation was a perfect end to the day, away from the relentless distractions of the internet.
We’d given ourselves a nice chill finish, with a little 30 mile roll down the hills into Shrewsbury, where we jumped on trains in our seperate directions. After the previous nights gin i’d been having thoughts of pressing on and doing some kind of huge day back down to bristol, but came crashing back down to reality once on the pedals the morning after, and decided it was better to stick to the plan, I certianly didnt regret that choice whilst snoozing on the train!
All in all it was a great trip and a huge confidence boost on the bike. I had been feeling somewhat down about my fitness and doubting myself a bit recently so to do three big days, climb the height of everest, and emerge feeling pretty much alright is just the best feeling. On to the next one!
Strava files of our route can be found below, and if you’ve got any questions about the riding feel free to drop me a message.
Day#1 – https://www.strava.com/activities/7543715768
Day#2 – https://www.strava.com/activities/7549395134
borekthepencil.com 
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