Taming the Dragon: Two 200k monsters in Wales

August 13th: Elan 200km, 3,800m of climb

A weekend in Wales, based out of Gladestry which, so I was told, is the home of Hergest Ridge which, so I was told, was made famous by Paul Young who, so I was told, was some sort of singer / songwriter.

Anyway, onto the cycling, this was the final "proper" ride before the Cent Col Challenge, a final reminder to the legs and mind of the challenge ahead. I came over to do this weekend last year as well, the Saturday was so cold wet and miserable and tough that I bailed out of the long Sunday ride and did a shorter one instead - so it was also a bit of unfinished business.

Saturdays ride was 200km from the English / Welsh border all the way to the seaside at Aberystwyth and back again across simply stunning scenery with the only cars (or people) to be seen all day at Aberystwyth. 3,800m is "quite a bit" of climbing, but it was the sort of climbing I love - nice steady gradient, plugging away for an hour or so to get to the top or each climb - and once at the top a fabulous blat down the other side - this was true cycling heaven:
















I have to confess to getting a bit carried away with all the lovely scenery and "cracking on" a bit too much, I was first home my several country miles and the legs paid the price the next day.


Stats: Distance 208km; Climb 3,800m; Time on bike: 9hrs; Average: 22km / hr; Max: 74km / hr (whee...)

Here's my Garmin track (I accidentally had it turned off for a bit, hence why it only says 196km).

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August 14th, Tregaron Dragon 200km, 4,900m of climb

And so onto Sunday...

I can honestly say this was by far the hardest ride I have ever done, it was a real sod. I went into it thinking - just like the day before but each hill will be a bit longer, higher etc. Nope, wrong. Each hill was actually much shorter - just instead of there being 10 there were 50. Up and down, up and down all day long. Every hill was also not a steady gradient, varying from 5% to 25% and back again continually all the way up - real energy sapping stuff never being able to settle into a gear or a pace. I knew I was going at a reasonable "steady" pace when the guy who was cycling with a bust ankle (don't ask...) caught me up at the first rest stop.... It was also the first ride I've ever done when we were looking up at the clock checking "are we close to being out of time".

But anyway, on we plodded, some of it was not pretty (and yes, I was in a low gear...)


















But all of it was truly spectacular:


















Stats: Distance 210km; Climb 4,900m; Time on bike: 11hrs; Average: 19km / hr (plod plod plod...); Max: 74km / hr (whee...)

Garmin:

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Another really daft thing on a bike: Please sponsor me

All,

As most of you know I am prone to doing daft things on bikes and after a rest last year I am back again this year dafter than ever – the Cent Col Challenge, starting on September 12^th.

If you want to skip the boring stuff then in summary:

a) It’s stupidly hard

b) I will cry, probably several times and

c) This year I am raising money for Help for Heroes. http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/

Please dig deep – the deeper you dig the harder I will climb...

Sponsor me here: http://www.justgiving.com/centcol

I will try my best to find a little time each day to update my blog http://centcol2011.blogspot.com/ (else I will do it once I am back home). On there already are a couple of write-ups from a couple of the harder training rides during the year.

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And now the boring stuff:

The challenge, to put it simply, is to climb 100 mountain passes (cols) in 10 days. In those 10 days we cover 2,000km in distance and 43,000 metres of ascent.

Putting the challenge into non-cycling terms, in 10 days you cycle from London to any of Macadonia, Iceland, Morocco or Russia whilst at the same time going from sea level to the tip of everest and back down again. And up and down. And again. And again. And one more for luck, a total climb of 43,000 meters or 26.7 miles – a vertical marathon. That will be “interesting”.

As a comparison to what I have done in the past:

In 2008 I did the “Etape”, the amateur stage of the tour de france. It was 170km long, went up 4 cols and climbed vertically in the region of 2,500m. I cried twice and couldn’t walk for 2 days afterwards. My bike stayed resolutely in it’s box unpacked for 2 weeks afterwards. My cycling shoes went in the bin. The Cent Col Challenge does an Etape a day (plus a bit more) every day for 10 days back to back.

In 2009 I did the “Raid Pyrenean”, a traverse of the Pyrenean mountain range – 740km ride with 11,000m of climb in 5 days. This was *hard*, both mentally and physically, my body was literally eating itself at the end as it’s impossible to replace the calories consumed. The Cent Col Challange by contrast is 10 days not 5 but in those 10 days you do triple the distance and 4 times the climb of the Raid Pyrenean.

The event is described in more detail here http://centcolschallenge.com/challenge/

As always this is not a “charity holiday” event – every pound I raise goes to charity not on the cost of the trip. And as always for every pound I raise I will match it with a pound of my own.