Mountain Bike road trip to Wales............Ride write up.

[Martin]

ROAD TRIP TO WALES
Saturday ride of the ?The Gap?
Distance 25 miles.

Never been to Wales before, seen it on the news, but just never got off my arse to visit the place. So it was about time that I did, and 2 days of mounting biking on some of the best single track in the country was a good enough reason for me.
Friday afternoon saw me picking up Will and Elliot from outside the Cricketers, just down the road from EC BR. When I arrived Will was already supping on a pint, the draw of the pub and the thought of having a quick one before I had to drive all the way to Wales was difficult to suppress but the thought of falling asleep at the wheel wasn?t.!
With the car fully loaded we zoomed all the way around the M25 and only got held up on the M4 briefly.
We met Will?s mate Andy at the Tai?R Bull Inn, Brecon ( is that terrible ?) good food and beer followed and we where all crashed out by 11:30.
I was up at 8 and looked through my bedroom window expecting to see black skies and the onset of rain, what I did see was blue skies and the rolling welsh hills with the wisps of clouds washed over the top by the wind, fantastic scenery. This was short lived because by 9 it had all disappeard into a deep mist !
Full english breakfasts all-round and then a dash in the car to the garage for supplies.
The ride started from the village of Talybont , Will managed to bribe the pub landlord with some guaranteed business later so we could leave the cars in his car park.
The ride started opposite a canal and followed a long cobbily path on a steady incline for about 2 miles, the cobbles where indespurst with sections of loose stones and ruts, it was just right to warm the legs up for the climb to come.
The pine trees either side of the path eventually opened up to a wide fire road which was churned up by the all the plant equipment which had been used to fell the trees. Views across the valley where amazing to the opposite side with a ½ dried up reservoir plunged in the middle. We took some time out to ride the logs stacked up, with no avail, never try to clip in on a pile of logs !
A steep climb for the next ½ mile saw the group split up with Will getting to the top of the muddy fire road first followed by me then Elliot, Andy had disappeared.
We managed to spot him about ½ way up the climb and Will went to investigate, Andy had managed to snap his chain.
The group reassembled at the top and followed the fire road across the hill we had just climbed. The surface quickly changed as we turned off the fire road and followed a path that followed a flat section through red mud puddles with high grass banks either side with short climbs every so often. The track was abandoned on occasion to ride up and down the steep grassy banks to avoid the super muddy sections. Up another steep climb and the surface changed again into loose rubble, the thought of pinch flats was running through my mind but I noticed that the stones where quite rounded and didn?t suffer from punctures all weekend.
The final climb before we topped out was a steep rock garden which we managed to get up about 2/3rd?s of the way before loosing control and stopping with shouts of frustration, ?bugar? and ?f%$ck? from the others could be heard by me and Will waiting at the top.
Re-fuelling at the top, Will got talking to a yokel who told us about a huge group of hippies that had turned up in the summer and had occupied a nearby disused quarry, The next 3 days saw the quarry stacked with speakers and rave music blaring out down the valley, the locals where powerless to do anything. When the commune eventually left the whole place spotless much to the local villagers surprise !
After the super technical rocky climb we where pleased to see the return of grass, and the track followed a slow descent across the top of the hill, the landscape was very open up there and the occasional field of sheep the only thing to see.
The track we where following was interrupted by a group of off roaders who had completely destroyed a whole section. The erosion was so bad that a dip had been created full of water so deep that it almost engulfed a whole landy.
After watching the off roaders and hopping that they got stuck or there wheels fell off, we continued down the descending track, the track split into several narrow gouges leaving you to choose the right one and hoping it wouldn?t end with an o.t.b.
The track finished in a semi rocky descent into a dip, but a full speed assault was thwarted by a load of walkers.grrrrr.
Up and out of the dip and through a nearby gate took us back into the trees and an excellent rocky downhill section.
The track started as before but a lot steeper, it swooped round a right hand corner, grass banks on either side, which led to a section of large flagstones, slippery and wet with mud, scattered with all sizes of rocks littering their surface. One second of loss of concentration saw my front wheel skating across the surface of a large off camber flagstone as I misjudged my balance.
Recovering, I managed to ride out the last rocks of the section using my speed to ride over some huge boulders and drop offs that I would have other wise avoided. ( if only I had brought the big hit !)
Big grins at the bottom.
The track finished in to a fire road and ended at a nearby reservoir where we regrouped.
The next couple of miles were on the road ( yawn ) which took us towards ?the gap?.
The road section ended onto another rocky bridle path, this path more rutted than previous ones, also had pot holes and boulders across it. This made progress harder and a steady pace was impossible to keep, as sections required you to get out the saddle to keep to a reasonable flat line. On top of that it was uphill !
After what seemed an age, we reached a huge dip, the dip which was about 40 feet deep and went down into a stream and up an equal amount the other side. The dips surface was back to rocks soaked again in that red filthy slippery stuff, welsh grease mud.

Will was first down and cleared the section with much admiration from a bunch of army cadet?s I followed sliding down, finding the surface grippier that first thought, my arse behind the saddle my boot decided to un clip which left my nads to crash into the saddle and I managed to climb off my bike with only making myself look like a minor tit.
Elliot walked down.
Back again onto that rocky path and all you could see in the distance was the legendary gap, the surface again got harder to ride and the gap felt a million miles a way as my legs started to bonk.
2/3 rds the way there and the surface smoothed out giving my legs time to recover and topping out the climb with a reasonable pace.
Will then informed us that he?d snapped a spoke, and would be taking it easy on the next downhill bit.
Starting from the gap, the track went off to the right again consisting of flagstones and welsh red mud. In places the flagstones creating natural drop offs, the first part bloody steep and technical, saw every body stop because Will had completely cocked up his line.
The track eventually straightened out after a large bouldery section, with a stream running down the middle. The run to the bottom was a reminder of the mountain roads on the free raid super long and fast covered in rocks.
Eventually reaching the bottom, my hands where serverly cramped up, with only 80mm of travel on my forks saw every knock and vibration try and dislocate all my joints in my fingers, standing there shaking my hands I noticed that everyone else was doing the same thing, so much for long travel forks !
Through the gate at the bottom and we took a small footpath off to the right, this was very narrow and strewn with rocks, Andy ahead of me on his heckler was having a hard time and managed to get caught up in just about every bit of foliage that overhung the path. Dodging the rocks also caused him to slow right up. The previous section had shown me that dodging the rocks was pretty pointless and riding at them full blast seemed to work, so I soon caught up Andy on this section which also had a reasonable down gradient so pedalling wasn?t needed all the way.
The end of the path saw us back down a steep narrow country lane, with a group of schoolgirls walking up. Managed to catch one or to comments on the way past. !
Another road section for a few more miles and through a typically welsh village, with your average picturesque stream running through it, over the bridge and following signs for the trail.
We eventually ended the road section with a sign that pointed down a road leading to a farm.
The map stated to go down this road, the sign on the road said not.
The new sign which was a laminated piece of paper told us to go further down the road, thinking we would get lost we ignored it and rode on.
Will managed to pull flossy the sheep, which saw the daft thing follow him for a while until the rest of us caught up, the sheep panicked and ran of down the road. Will looked disappointed.
As expected the road ended on a farm, right we thought, we will sprint through and get away with it.
No chance ! as soon as we entered the farm forecourt, a woman shouted you ?cant come down here? ! Elliot stopped. So the rest of us had too, Elliot next time keep pedalling, stick your arm out lifting at the same time and protrude middle finger in an upward direction !! we?ll learn ya.
The woman explained that the path had changed route and we had to go back. I wasn?t listening as a rather friendly collie dog came up to me and I made a fuss of him. I thought you poor bastard having to live with that welsh dragon. The dog whinned at me in agreement.
Anyway, back to the road and we followed the new signs saying ?path legally moved? which of course where totally fake. Across a field and through a gate. Only to end up again on the farm no further than 20 feet where I was standing before hand.
We all shouted and waved at the silly bint and got I quite annoyed, I might have mentioned that I was going to go back and kill her dog, but quickly changed my mind as the dog had the personality. So quickly replanned to go and burn her house down later instead.
The next section was brilliant single track swooping through dips and fields running by a stream the only thing that spoilt it was the regular stopping to pass through gates.
The path ended on a road and we decided to follow the towpath next to the canal pack to Talybont. A few miles down the path saw us back into the village and into the car park.
Unfortunately for the pub landlord, he had decided to stop serving food, so no guaranted business for him. We went to the next nearest pub and rested with grub and a pint.
Overall the ride had taken in, every type of surface and terrain you could imagine. The views across the valleys where awe inspiring, and the weather brilliant. This was a ride to remember.