Tatties on the Stank

Friday 21st April

Now we know I can cover 95 miles in a day and I can cover 60 miles in hill country on consecutive days the problem is to keep fit for the next three weeks before I go. So I decided to take an evening spin up Haugh wood and across Woolhope Dome. On the way back I noticed again as on Tuesday the potatoes going in.

Sowing potatoes on the Stank

The trees in front are alongside the Lugg about half a mile upstream from the confluence with the Wye at Mordiford. The raised bank beyond the trees is the Stank, the mediaeval flood restraint and beyond that are half a dozen tractors sowing potatoes in one small field. That's a small field by Herefordshire standards, where the fields are very small and it shows just how intensively equipment is used. The hill behind is Dinedor with Hereford to the right of that and Hay Bluff in the far distance.

From whence cometh my strength

Wednesday 19th
There are a couple of one in seven slopes from Ystradfellte up to the main Hirwaun to Brecon Road. From here there is a beautiful ride across the hills and down to the main Merthyr to Brecon section of the A470 under Pen y Fan. For the millions of pounds and euros poured into Wales over recent you really would imagine that one of these great poets or bards could come up with something slightly more evocative than the Cardiff to Glan Conwy Trunk Road, something more memorable and closer to the register of the heads of the valleys road. Just beyond the lake I picked up the Taff trail for half a mile or so to the Storey Arms at the top of the pass and tried to follow the Taff trail down to Brecon.

This was a really bad idea and shows the limits of Google maps which displays it as the preferred cycle route. It isn't a cycle route. It is a hard stone track of stones and boulders and a substantial incline for about three bone-shuddering miles of standing on the pedals to cushion the bumps while holding on to the brakes to keep the bike in check and searching for patches of grass for a bit of light relief from the pounding of the stone. It is rather similar in construction to the Old Coach Road up from Newbridge on the west side of the Wye. I was fortunate. I went down in dry weather after a sequence of dry days. I think it would have been difficult to stay on a road bike in wet or even damp weather. I would not attempt it again without a mountain bike and I would not fancy riding up it at all, though most hills look steeper on the way down than they do on the way up. They just hurt more that way. The alternative descent of the pass on the very busy main road didn't look attractive either.

Lower down, the track turned to road and was passable for some distance before it got close to Brecon and indicated no further progress for bikes or horses and failed to signpost an alternative. Its not the case that I would normally forgo the opportunity to ignore a sign like that, but I must be getting cautious. Perhaps in view of my experiences earlier I envisaged the track being impassible so I skirted round by road for some miles to find a route into Brecon. Just as the previous day, what should have been a sixteen mile journey had become closer to twenty. After that I climbed back up to the roundabout outside the school at the top of the town and the beginning of Route 8.

For the first time in two days cycling I met two cyclists coming the other way. They were evidently touring with large panniers and multi-handlebars, but what can this mean, cyclists actually cycling on a sustrans cycle route, whatever next? Then it was back up the one in seven to Llanfilo, it really is a beast. By the time I had zipped along the Talgarth by-pass again I was beginning to feel a bit flat so I nipped into the cafe at Hay for another unsponsored flapjack and a pot of tea before heading back to Hereford for 4.30 to make a round six hours for the sixty miles or so and the news that parliament had given Theresa May her massive majority so that she can hold the election that only she wants because she knows she is going to win it and which means she can force through Brexit and invoke prerogative powers to do so without discussion of the terms of her deals, which is exactly why the opposition should have refused to vote for the election.

To the Waterfalls

Tuesday 18th April
Another 8:00 start and again it was quite cold. Across the Wye valley they were planting the potatoes with enormous ridging machines. I was through Hay in under two hours and passing the construction of the festival site before taking a left turn on to the road to Talgarth and Welsh National Cycle Route 8, at least I think that's what it means, there is scope for confusion as to the nation in question. Soon  I was through the intersection of Route 8 and Route 42  and onto the Talgarth by-pass. Shortly after that the route turned West to Llanfilo with a big climb followed by a fierce one in seven descent through the trees towards Brecon arriving in Brecon for 11.30.

Leaving Brecon by the wrong arm of the Taff Trail towards the A40 didn't help with progress and required a two mile detour along the main trunk road to the western roundabout on the Merthyr road and access to Mynydd Illtud, a big moor to the west of Brecon rising from about 450 to 1000 feet, which sounds far more impressive than 140 to 340 metres above sea level. Its about six miles across the moor followed by a brief switch back towards Brecon and the road into Heol Senni to approach from the north what the Guardian listed as one of the 10 best hill climbs in the UK.

In the distance the zig towards the right and the zag....

As hill climbs go it isn't really very special. The bend requires bottom gear if you aren't very fresh and after that the zag is shown by OS as 1 in 7 but it peters out after the top bend and the only problem was that there wasn't enough room for the car following and trying to overtake. Once over the top, the descent is spectacular. It is about four miles down to Ystradfellte alongside Afon Llia. So I arrived at Ystradfellte shortly before 1.30 to be greeted by the news that Theresa May has called an election. Its the only sensible thing to do in her position, she had to do it, just as Nicola Sturgeon had to demand another referendum on Scottish independence, that is what they are for, it is their raison d'etre, their unique selling point. Theresa May's decision is more a reflection of the weakness of her opposition than her strength

The lunch of fresh bread and Brecon ham with buckets of tea was extremely welcome, but it didn't make up for that dreadful news.

Capler Cardiac Challenge

Took the new bike out for a little spin down to Fownhope, over the Twmp at Twmp farm and on to Capler Hill. Its reckoned to be about half a mile at 1 in 12 but it goes up to 1 in 3 allegedly. Can't say I've noticed apart from the fact that its steep and tests these new gear ratios to the limit. Why do they sell so-called touring bikes with a minimum gear ratio of 30:26 rather than the 28:32 to which I am accustomed? How many of us can actually get up steep hills with full bags on those ratios at the end of a long day?

Looking up Capler Hill

And the view down

Evidence for the gradient

From Capler Hill through Brockhampton, across the the old road to Ross and out over Woolhope dome. There's a cheeky little incline up to the Crown at Woolhope village followed by a descent to the Butcher's Arms and a long flog from the Nurdens (sic) up to Woolhope Cockshoot. I reckon its about a 1 in 5 though encouragingly brief.

Looking up Woolhope Cockshoot

And looking down

To buy or not to buy......

Should I keep on pouring cash into the old Coventry Eagle or should I throw money at a new machine. Should I buy the necessary new wheel for £100, replace the cassette and chain while I'm at it for another £35, replace for £30 the middle chain ring which is missing a couple of teeth, or should I buy the brand new purpose built touring bike for £500 and throw the old bike away. It cost me £450 on my last visit to Argos for renewal in August.

Damn it, I've bought the new Claude Butler 'Malvern' tourer. I'll take it out for a spin tomorrow then run it over to Ystradfellte on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I'm finding it very difficult to get used to the idea that at these prices the bike has become virtually a throwaway item. For the amount I spend on bikes I could afford to buy a new one every year and then throw it away after twelve months. I must work out when the optimum time of year is to secure maximum discount.

Get your Kicks on Route 46

Left the house at 8:12 yesterday and headed south on Sustrans Route 46. It was foggy and cold for the hottest day of the year so far and I was regretting not wearing hi-viz when I realised that the approaching drivers couldn't actually see me until they got really close especially on the stretch between the Tram Inn and Wormelow Tump where the traffic heads to and from the A49. What's more it was bloody cold and my fingers hurt for the first hour or two.

Eventually the fog cleared on top though I could see it down in the Honddu valley below. As previously I lost route 46 and dropped to the valley at Llanfihangel Crucorney then moved across  to route 42 down the old road to Abergavenny. I was through Abergavenny and Llanfoist  and at the bottom of the Blorenge by 11:00, which means about 30 miles in a little under three hours. The next four miles up Y Twmbl to Blaenavon, 500 metres of ascent in six kilometres, appears to have taken about 40 minutes and it was very busy with traffic largely I suspect because the heads of the valleys road up Clyddach Gorge is closed by pre-Brexit european financed road improvements.




I went up the Garn Road coming up from Cwmbran to the roundabout at Bryn Mawr to discover that the massive road works, which have been going on for years, have forced a displacement of the bike track which is again Route 46. After a lot of messing about I found the diverted track and got back on to Crawshaw Bailey's railway line from Merthyr to Abergavenny and went down through the woods only managing to lose the track three or four times on the way. I passed back through Abergavenny on route 46 then took the Old Hereford Road, not be confused with the Hereford Road which is the Route 46 I lost earlier, or the more recently built A465 Swansea to Bromyard heads of the valleys trunk road.

You can tell why its the Old Hereford Road. Its a long grind from river level on the Usk at Abergavenny up to Crucorney. It crosses the watershed between the Usk and the Honddu which according to my geography heads off east to meet the Wye at Monmouth. By two o'clock I'd reached the mental point of no return. I wasn't going back to route 46, it was death or Gospel Pass, again. The sign said 16 miles to Hay and it was 2 o'clock. I reckoned on another twenty miles after Hay to make it 36 home and I estimated with depressing accuracy four more hours.

By Henry Burrows [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

I stopped for a couple of wholly unsponsored Jordans' bars, the nut variety is vastly superior to the cereal bar, and took a large swig of water. That must have been my first substantial stop for five hours.  I was outside the Queens Head pub at Cwmyoy and beginning to think my rapidly declining eyesight had taken a turn for the worse  or I was feeling the strain before I realized that the strange church tower across the valley really does look like that, it is "the most crooked" church in the land  and that flying buttress propping up the leaning tower is just what it appears to be. It was a long haul up the pass and I had to go into bottom gear, but the long descent to Hay, interrupted only by walkers and cars, which latter proved extremely resistant to allowing space on a narrow road was sweet and brisk.

An uncharacteristic moment of discretion persuaded me to take an equally unsponsored stop at Drovers cycles at the bottom of the pass for a mug of tea and a slab of cake. The last 24 miles, those are Google mileages, took me two hours, over undulating terrain on roads which aren't exactly smooth, which is about half iron man pace, but not bad at the end of a long day, even if there were no more serious ascents. I didn't know I could go that fast. So inside ten hours I managed 95  miles and more which is  longer than  my longest day on LEJoG and I did 1750 metres of climbing, which is greater than any day on LEJoG. I can do it one day, but can I do it for fourteen days solid.

Where did the time go? It clearly goes on the big climbs. I'm going to have to go up those faster if I'm not going to get left behind. Its all very well being the lanterne rouge, but can I cope if the gruppetto gets disqualified.