206km, I just hope it doesnt wee down all the way round.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2641843

Four of us from Epping going, who else?

I’m doing the 206k too but was tempted to go on my club run today instead…. The forecast is looking a bit better now so hoping it won’t be as bad as last year – though maybe the roads will still be very wet in places as there’s been much rain recently?

Currently rather sunny in Port Talbot. Unfortunately surrounded by men in rapha discussing loudly how many calories they will burn tomorrow.

Drove down from Llandrindod Wells this afternoon and the road are pretty dry because of the wind. Aberavon Beach is lookin good, coupla beers then bed.
I think that there’s some hefty dual carriageway miles in the long route judging by the signage we saw. :o(

Not sure how long men in Rapha will last in Port Talbot. I’m doing the 206k too and am just glad to see that the wind will be the lightest it has been for the last few weeks around here. I could cope with rain but I hate strong wind. Quite looking forward to it now.

Well the ‘Men in rapha’ have just asked loudly about ‘the footie on telly’ and ‘is it over? – its more than 40 minutes?’ so I think that they’re out of their depth outa Larndarn. But they do have Di2 gears and rapha.
Oh, and they’ll be using 8000 calories tomorrow don’t you know.

So how did it go? Lucky with the weather though. I think some people might be hacked off with the queues into the car park at 8.30am this morning. Tough ride – one of the hardest routes I reckon.

That was really tough, I am aching all over and I’m not sure if I enjoyed it! I was initially disappointed with 8:14:59 (132 mils according to my GPS) but looking over the results it doesn’t seem to be too bad a time, although it may have cost me my knees. Weather was pretty much perfect too.

I didn’t have any problems with the car park – I arrived at about 7:15 and (being local) knew to come off at the junction before everyone else would to avoid the queues that looked to already have formed. Seemed a really well organised event, much better than last year, from the efficient start to the helpful Wiggle mechanics at the feed stations and my time being texted to me as I crossed the line.

What a brilliant event the Dragon is, no other event I do is anywhere near as well organised. Weather was chilly but not windy and only a heavy splash of rain at the start.

Was much harder than the last time i did it in 2010. More climbing and longer but it was the nature of the climbing, loads of short sharp stuff, the long drags over Rhigos and Bwilch were fairly easy in comparison to the early stuff. Devils Elbow! Jeezuz.

And can I just tip my hat to all the lovely Welsh folk I met over the weekend, especially the ladies from the Rotary club who were dishing out cakes up on top of the mountains. Long day for them too.

08:03, I’m pretty happy with that seeing as I lost my mates early on and just could not get in a group.

Yep a lot harder than last year – but better weather and no waiting at the start unlike the 90 mins I had last year. I rode the lot on my own and started to fade in the 2nd half, overall 9.10 which seems slow but still puts me in the top half of finishers.