Rocked up at 7.30am in Pencoed to sign on for the 180km Dragon Ride. This takes in a number of mountain passes in the Valleys. As I arrived at the office to sign on I bumped into Amy who kindly pinned on my number. Then out of nowhere about half of Addiscombe Cycling Club turned up, too many to name (I can't remember), but there were loads a' ACC.
After a brief chat we shimmied on down the starting lane to get into the start pen. We had to hang around in here for about an hour waiting for the start. Not great when your well hydrated, quite a few of us had to dive for the bush for relief. As we got closer to the start line Huw suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I asked him if he was up for getting a good time today, he gave a nonchalent maybe, which meant yes. So I thought I would stick with Huw.
As we got going we saw Matt, Grahame, and one other ACCer ahead, Huw upped his pace and caught up with them and I followed. We then got onto the back of a group which were ticking along at a reasonably gentle pace, this was fine by me as I wanted to pace myself today as last few long rides I have done in Wales I have overcooked myself early on. It was not long before we reached the first meaningful climb, started off steep but then levelled off nicely and we got into a nice rhythm. I took it easy and Huw was sitting on my wheel just turning it over gently as it was early (see I am learning Huw).
The group we were with pretty much stayed together and then we hit the second climb which was quite long. Again I took it quite easy, but then halfway up Matt came up alongside me and asked me if I had stopped or something as they had caught me up. It was not that he said this, but the fact that I saw a few other riders a bit further ahead that had been in our start group that then made me up my pace a bit and bridge the gap to these riders.
I got onto them but seemed to lose the rest of the group including Huw and Matt. As we got closer to the top I was aware that there was a feed station over the top. I wanted to fill a bottle just in case, but did not want to lose this little group. I attacked the last bit of the climb and got a good gap, I managed to fill my bottle and grab a banana and then chase the group on the descent, thankfully I was still on.
Then we were onto a flatter section. All of a sudden, whoosh, a group led by a few guys from Mark Baker cycles and London Dynamo (Rob Jeffroy) and a Pinarello rider came flying past. Here we go then, I managed to jump onto the group and soon it was quite large. But they were hammering it, I was getting a bit worried but thought may as well give it a go. We then got onto some roads which were really exposed to the wind, this was tough, I was now trying to shelter and keep up with the fast group. I managed to just about stay in. As we came into a town unfortunately the lead riders got away at some traffic lights, I was now with the back end of the group.
I was not too worried as I felt the faster boys were going much too fast. Before long we were ticking along very nicely. The last few climbs were really good fun, the first one was quite steep, but had a feedstation at the top. Got here and a couple of other london dynamo riders were getting ready to go. I got onto the back of them and let them drag me to the bottom of the 2nd time up Bwlch. They were going really quick on the lower part, so I let them go and just got going at my own pace. I was passing lots of riders and no one was coming past me. I had one guy sitting on my wheel for most of the climb, as we reached the top of the climb I put it in the big ring and left him standing. With only one more climb to go and plenty left in the legs, now it was time to start testing myself.
A long descent off Bwlch and then the final climb, a bit steeper than some of the others, but not too long and again I was passing loads of riders. Now I thought we must be near the finish, so I put my head down and hammered it. Got onto the flat sections at the bottom and was overtaking people all the time. Then went around a corner and saw a sign, I thought it was going to say 1km to go. It said 10km
Ok, luckily I was feeling good and the road was flat but the wind was quite strong. I put my head down and time trialled it. I did not have a group to ride with, I was picking off riders from the faster group that I'd lost earlier and one of the london dynamo riders that had gone flying up Bwlch the second time. I wanted to make sure they did not latch onto me, so everytime I came up to two of them, I made sure I went past them fast enough for them not to bother to chase. It worked. Into the finish and I felt great. On the basis that I think we started at about 8.45am and I finished at about 2.30pm, that was 5hrs 45mins, so pretty pleased.
Saw Amy and Jo at the finish, they did the 120km route and seemed to have enjoyed it.
Really enjoyed the scenary and the course, the climbs are long but gradient is very manageable. I would definetly do this one again. The 4 hour drive home afterwards was quite hard though, sorry could not hang around to see the others at the finish but needed to get back, hope you all had a good ride.
Cheers
Marek....