Gran Fondo Cymru Sportive update

[Phil L]

I have had a good study of the route and marked it onto my mapping software. I was born in Gwynedd and fairly familiar with many of the towns and main roads along the route. I must confess though, being fairly new to road cycling, I have never cycled in North Wales nor attempted an event of this scale before.

If anyone is interested I have compiled a Google Map page for the route: [url]http://www.the-lamberts.co.uk/cycling/gran-fondo-cymru.html[/url]. (If you have mapping software of your own and it supports .gpx files, then change the .html extension to .xml on this url and save the gpx route file output with a .gpx extension).

Now I am trying to convince myself it is not as bad as it looks. The quoted 3500m ascents is what the mapping software would calculate, which takes into account every little undulation. Studying the elevation profile (also published on the I-Team website), I would say that the hills of any significance add up to about 1700m with largest continuous ascent at 330m - half as easy already .

I headed off to the Surrey Hills on Saturday to put in some of my training for this ride (missed the CR due to mechanical problem) . My mapping software calculated it as a 54mile ride with 1270m of ascents of which I calculated 740m on significant hills, with largest continuous ascent at 180m. I survived reasonably comfortably. I know this analysis does not take into account gradients nor winds, and I know I will need to do a lot longer training rides, but this is enough to give me an idea of what I have let myself in for.

Huw - I'm looking forward to the training rides you mentioned you would organise - I will need them.

P.S. I'm booked into the The White Lion Royal Hotel in Bala.

[Gavin]

Is anyone starting to think that this was a very bad idea?

I have been out on a few of these wednesday night routes but am still extremely concerned about the pain of this one.

I fear that this will be much worse than the marmotte.

[huw williams]

This will be much worse than the Marmotte

Although the Marmotte has very, very long climbs - they are generally not too steep and you'll get into a nice steady rhythm on them which you can maintain for ages.

The Gran Fondo Cymru won't allow you to do that as the climbs are much shorter, often much steeper and there are more of them.

A rough comparison would be 2-laps of ToSH (the official Shere to Shere route) for distance, with slightly more climbing.

All you can do is get as comfortable as you can riding hills - then tackle it at your own pace - Don't panic, there'll be a lot of slower riders than you out there.

[Maria David]

I will enter this one (assuming there's still space).

I got the chance to sample some of the route a couple of weeks ago, and I know that you need to be tougher than nails to do the 123 mile route. Bwlch y Groes after having climbed 10 miles up to from Trawsfynnd would be a stinker !! And the race actually takes you up the "easy side". I saw some folks attempting it from Lake Vyrnwy and some of them were in a pretty bad way !
To compound things, when you do those climbs you're in real lost and lonely country with just scrubland, and a few sheep to give you support and encouragement ! You have Cader Idris looming above you and a number of dodgy cattle grills thrown in below you. The views are great though, assuming you can keep your eyes open through the stinging sweat !
I made some notes on the parts of the route I rode (which was basically all of it apart from the section from Bala to Llanwrst), so when I get home I will dig them out and write a few words.
I've yet to toughen myself up though - I rode the route over a couple of days.

[kieran]

so have folks booked places to stay? I finally managed to find some place although not in bala but as planning on staying for a few days that wasn't the priority.

[Alan M]

Where are you staying kieran - you seemed to suggest some difficulty in booking. I planned to call the tourist office tomorrow and let them do the work for me??