It’s 3:30pm, I’ve been working like a four armed ninja to get the days tasks finished off and get away from work early in order to make it to North Wales before my campsites arrival cut off at 9:00pm. I put the address into Google Maps. 4 hours and 20 minutes. ETA 20:50. Cutting it fine.

4:20 is a long time to spend in the car without stopping, but thanks to the powers of an American trucking anthems playlist, pop punk covers of Sinead O’Connor songs, and pissing into a bottle whilst driving, I made it and rolled into the campsite just before dark. I was  met by a smiling Sam, with two portions of fish and chips and a couple of local beers in hand. Perfect.

It’s a typically Welsh soggy evening, and despite having spent hours in the car it remained the best place to sit and catch up over our chippy tea. We’re in Eryri National Park for The Gravel Rally, a 150km mostly off road ride featuring enduro format style timed stages throughout. We both realise we’ve not paid the route or timed stages of much consideration, so set out reading through the stages and writing little notes on strips of masking tape, which were to last approximately three big puddles into the ride.

We weren’t taking it super seriously, but perhaps more seriously than some. Sam had been training and racing a bit already this season. I’ve been off the boil for a while as far as competitve cycling is concerned, but love a good race, and couldnt resist the excitement of pushing the pedals against the clock. My main source of fear was whether I’d be able to keep up with Sam, and work together rather than being left for dead. The route contains over 3600m of climbing, and while I’m pretty handy uphill I wasn’t feeling too confident over a day this big.

Morning broke, and it was looking warm-ish and dry-ish, in that sort of Welsh way that you can’t quite trust enough to leave the jacket in the car. We did the usual morning faff about, losing track of time I nursed down my ambitiously large pot of porridge and fiddled with my bike, Sam spent a lifetime on the loo, and we had to rush to a nearby Co-Op for snacks before getting to the start.

Sam opted to fuel his ride with approximately 10,000 crepes, and became affectionately known as ‘the crepe guy’ amongst fellow riders. I went for two whole bags of Haribo. With the event due to start at 8:00am and us not leaving Co-op until 8:10 I was worried we’d have missed the group start and be playing catch up, but we rolled up just as riders were setting off. One of the Bristol locals shouted at us to get through the timing strip before we left, I’m glad she did. Thanks Hari.

The mass start roll out to Stage 1 felt significant, I’ve not been in such a large group of riders for some time, certainly pre Covid. I really don’t like large crowds of people, but if you put them on bicycles and pursuing a common goal that changes things. Many of us are out best selves when on two wheels, or at least I often feel that I am. I’m sure some of you can relate.

Heading ever closer to the steep climb of Stage 1 I was reminding myself to try and keep the powder dry. 150km is a long way to ride if you’ve ruined yourself in a short hill climb at the beginning. I chipped up the hill passing a few riders and trying not to let myself get too into the red, and did well to squash the feelings of being a hillclimb specialist in a previous life.

Stage 1 popped us right out into the proper rugged landscape of the national park, with the hills and mountains making thier first appearances. The best thing about steep climbs is that they get you to good veiws quickly.

The second stage ended up being my favourite of the day and was where things really got going. There was a strong headwind on the first section, so we tactically sat back a bit and let a few groups roll through the start line before us, thinking we could pace between them and get some shelter from the wind. This worked well, and before long we turned into a huge tailwind and hauled along the trail overtaking people in big numbers.

It’s a very strange feeling riding fast with a huge trailwind off road, you hear no wind noise, just the sound of your tyres humming on the ground and the gentle whirr of your chain. it’s like being in a computer game, except far, far, better because you’re nowhere near a computer. We caught Claire and I shouted a little ‘choo choo’ as if encouraging her to get on the train, and I was pleased to look under my shoulder and see her on the wheel, gaining herself some time and making our little two into a three.

After that my memory of the Individual stages of The Gravel Rally blurrs Into one. I shant bore you with a step by step description of the whole day but there were some class bits of riding to be had. long winding climbs, technical steep sections, and full gas gravel descents. I reached a maximum speed of 45mph at one point, and in the true spirit of the event made no shortage of rally car noises to myself. Brap Braaaaap!

The route crossed over itself at one point, passing a Spar in Dolwyddelan where most riders were stopping for snacks. Around the back of the shop was a scene of chaos. Chain oil all over hands, bikes upside down, tubes, plugs, and a flood of sealant everywhere. One guy said he’d put 8 plugs in his tyre. It was like something out of a horror film.

I was pleased to be on a mountainbike, as I often am when riding with those on drop bars and 42mm tyres. All bikes are good bikes, but I have a theory that more and more gravel riders will migrate to the hardtail when they see how much it can enhance thier off road experience. bigger tyres, easier gears, better handling, more fun!

Towards the later stages riders began to thin out, with many opting for the shorter route. I began to feel less like I was racing and more just riding to the end. Pushing the pedals as hard as I could, but with quite minimal beans left to give. Sam looked strong, and while I could hang on on the climbs he’d roll away from me on the flat and on the descents.

The final stage was a mere 5km, and promised some singletrack.  At the stage start I felt there was no way I could give any more than just soft pedling around, but I did my best to put what was left in the energy reserves onto the trails. by ‘doing my best’ I mean having a ten minute lie down at the edge of the trail and boshing a caffine gel. The singletrack in this stage was very short lived and it was mostly fire road, but it did offer a little fun respite. It’s amazing what a few fun corners and jumping some roots can do for the morale.

Final stage done and dusted we just had to ride the last few miles back to the finish. Cruelly the organisers included a seriously steep road climb just to finish the legs off. Im not sure I’d have even made it up on road gearing. Some riders I saw appeared to be genuinely angry, which made me laugh a bit. Imagine entering a 150km gravel event with 3600m of elevation and then moaning that the last hill was too hard.

I felt a warm sense of accomplishment rolling into the finish after what had been my longest off road ride to date, and according to Strava the most elevation i’d ever done in one day. Sam and I placed a reasonable 4th and 7th respectively.

We milled about at the end for a while before heading back to our campsite at Betwys Y Coed. I can sometimes get in my own head and worry about appearing to be antisocial at things like this, but I’m often overwhelmed by large groups especially after a big day. With this in mind it was a lovely ending to sit around a fire pit with a few friends, sharing stories of our days on the trails in peace and quiet.

I slept beautifully that night, with a highlight reel of the day playing around and around in my head, and my body warmed by a couple of glasses of Beckys ginger wine.

Big thanks to the Pan Celtic Race crew for putting on such a great event, to all the people I shared some miles and smiles with, to Sam for dragging me around most of the way, and to Pickle Rick for making an industrial quantity of tea in a saucepan the morning after. I think I’ll be back next year.

Also thanks to Cordelia, Claire, and Ayoob for encouraging me to share this post. It had sat in drafts for a while becuase I didn’t think it was good enough or that it somehow didn’t represent the day well enough. That feels the way with a lot of what I’ve been up to lately. rides, events, and experiences so enjoyable that I’m almost afraid or overwhelmed by trying to find words to do them justice. This can only be a good thing.

Until next time ✌️