Another 200k, 2AAA ride. Two in two days? Madness. Ah well, I've aranged to meet Barry down the road, so not much I can do about it now. And hey! I might even enjoy myself :-)
I meet Barry at 6.30am and we head off for David Lewis's ride in Cardiff. Both of us are feeling stiff and tired and not very enthusiastic. We both joke about how disappointed we were not to have had a last minute phone call from the other saying that I/he had decided not to do the ride after all. We are both in letls-see-how-it-goes-mode.
At the start there are about 20 riders, many of whom were on the Plynlimon Polka the previous day. We learn to our dismay that David's ride does not have the lower 14.3kph speed limit. I set off at a comfortable pace and feel ok to start with since it's a few miles before we hit the hills. Again I soon find myself on my own, but am quite content to be twiddling along at my own pace as I winch my way up through Llan. I notice however that I'm climbing at about 5kph, and I'm quite weary. I'm puzzled because it's difficult to see how I'm going to make up the time when I'll be climbing like this all day, and yet I had no problems yesterday. Hmm. I roll into the first control at about 40k after a big, big climb (again comparable to the Old Bristol Road out of Wells). I've got 40 minutes in hand so settle down for a relaxed cup of coffee and a bread roll. I know that I am at the back of the ride, and shortly the last group comes in looking fresh. With 3 minutes to spare Barry arrives looking weary and he announces that he doesn't think he's going to make it today. Barry sits with me and I tell him I'm thinking along the same lines, so when the group leaves, Barry and I are left alone with the next 50k to cover at 17kph, and the 50k includes the climb of the Ogwr valley, the Bwlch and Rhigos - the first of which is a real pig, and the latter two are long, long drags, so things are not looking good for us.
By the time we've climbed out of the Ogwr valley, I have a picture in my mind of being at home crashed out in front of the TV with something nice to eat. It's not that I'm not enjoying the ride - climbing the hills is easy enough - it's just that I'm climbing at 5-8kph and I have no enthusiasm for what I am doing (I wince slightly at the prospect of a gap in my medal table where there is only one and not two nice shiny gold grimpeur medals). It turns out that Barry is of the same mind, so after the Bwlch and the descent into Treorchy we pack! However, neither of us is disheartened - we are both relieved and quite happy about it. For me the feeling is akin to that which you get when you realise you've been trying to keep up with a group that's going too fast for you and then you drop off to go at your own pace and feel much better for it, except in this case "your own pace" is zero kph. I feel proud to have broken my duck, and to have learned an important new tool in surviving the Audax scene :-).
Barry told me a classic John Spooner story. Apparently he'd started the Exmoor Spring (a 200k Super Grimpeur held in March) and had done the worthy distance of 8 miles before stopping for a cup of tea. He was enjoying being in the warm and dry when he noticed cars coming down off the moor with snow on the top of them. He thought to himself: "Nah" and went back to the start! Packing after 8 miles - that's what I call an experienced rider!
The road back to Cardiff is an easy 25 mile run down the valley through run-down towns that are pretty much derelict following the demise of the local industry. There are signs of real poverty here, and the road is very badly surfaced - I don't think it's been repaired since what must have been a constant attack from lorries in past years. We are about to hit the A470 into Cardiff - a new, and from the sound of it, extremely busy road, when I spotted a little tourist sign saying "Taff Trail" with a picture of a bike on it. We investigate and find it to be an unmetalled but navigable bike path that ran for the remaining 10 miles right back to the start of the ride - we both really enjoyed this pressure-free riding.
I got home and did just what I planned: eat and sleep. Slept from 7pm until 10am so I must have needed it, and am definitely not riding next weekend.
© Kilgore's Enterprises February 1997