I bail out after 50 k for having no brake left at all. Singletrack were just great, just a bit too wet. If anybody has a GPS track of the first 50k of the 80k loop, I really like to have it. Many thanks.

This is the 80k loop
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8249584

My pads were bare metal by about halfway, I think the rotors are now half the thickness than they were at the start.

Creative weight saving!

Yeah I hit the metal on the front and rear pads on the descent to the second feed stop. It was some pretty fun going from there on in!!!

cheers Neil. I noticed your did even recorded the wind speed. That’s a cool GPS.

It was an interesting time on the first ridge – horizontal rain and rather chilly. Dont know about the rest, I bailed at the same point as Gilles and was soon sitting in the food tent drinking hot chocolate !

I noticed your did even recorded the wind speed.

19.5 mph maximum, are you sure that thing’s accurate?! 🙂

Me and the GF were feeling very unmotivated after the first feed stop, but we limped on and were eventually rewarded with some really nice singletrack. It was my first Merida, and I was expecting something fairly tame and tedious so I rode a rubbishy old singlespeed with rigid forks and v-brakes, resulting in utter terror on some of the descents… but I did have some (mediocre) braking power left by the end! 😉

Weather Data Average Low High
Temperature (°F) 51.6 50 57.2
Relative Humidity (%) 84.9 77.0 93.6
Wind Speed (mph) 14.6 10.4 19.5
Predominant Wind Direction: S
Weather Station: Cardiff-Wales Airport

Motion Based takes the weather records for that time from the local wether station and adds it automatically. In this case the nearest weather station was Cardiff-Wales Airport. So I think we recorded some higher wind speeds up on the ridge!

Anyone know if any times have been released yet?

The website says times will be up around a week after the event.

Rode it on my new bike, had only done about 5 miles on it previously and now I need new pads front and rear :p still I really enjoyed it.

I’m so glad I kept the waterproof shorts and softshell jacket on even as the sun came out at the start. I baked a bit on the road section but was nice and warm later on in the driving rain and gale force winds.

Couple of the descents were pretty sketchy (I think they should have had a warning sign up about the dip on the grass downhill section just before the first feed station). Otherwise a very well run event, and cheers to all the marshalls/feed station volunteers/medics etc etc.

I put new ones in the front at the second feed station and chose the best of the rest for the back. Haven’t looked yet but I’m sure they’ll all be gone. Judging by the nasty squealing noises as people arrived at the feed station everyone was in the same boat!

Dropping into 2nd feed station my front brake completely seized – unable to move front wheel. Pads worn down to metal. normally i would have a spare pair of pads but thankfully had omitted to carry them with me ‘forcing’ me to opt-out. Managed to free-up wheel but took the shot-cut back to finish. Some guy had just ended up in the bush below that drop-off. Thankfully not too badly hurt, it seemed.
Despite that, great course. would love to do it in the dry. Met some great people.

Set out to do the 70k but settled for the 50k after sliding all over the place etc, hopefully the organisers will return next year [and it doesnt rain], as I think the course will be excellent in the dry – good fun though – seemed to be plenty of the ‘dunkirk spirit’! t-shirts arent as good as previous years.

I like the T-shirt, only complaint is there weren’t any large ones left by the time I got there!

FuzzyWuzzy- I dumped my Stealth jacket and gloves on that long road drag- Big mistake. Rear pad spring then ripped out into rotor after the big descent off the top,so had to remove pads..Didn’t really need brakes until the grassy drop to the 2nd feed,stacked it after the drop. Soaked and freezing i took the short cut back.

trickpsyclist that was me I (well I ended up down there). Luckily my face broke my fall and I now look as though I’ve had some kind of botox mishap. I was a bit concerned about my chest but just aches and pains now. My own fault I was riding far too stupidly for the conditions. A big thanks for all those who stopped and the people at the feed who sorted me out – cheers

I had fresh pads at the start well 20km old pads and had nothing left at the 2nd feed stop at 45ish km. Bailed out for the 50km route. They are great events but seems crazy that there are 3 feed stops on the shorter routes and only 2 on the long one?! Also I know the distances are approx. but i’m sure there was only about 10km between them.

Hey ho they do say be prepared to be self sufficient! Look forward to the next one, double whammy with the sportive!

I couldn’t be arsed to stop at any of the feeds, I just wanted to get it all over with as quickly as possible – but it did seem weird that there were only two feeds on the 80K route.

My apologies to anyone within earshot of me. I pissed and moaned the whole way round. Mostly about the rain and the mud but I also had a pretty good whinge about brake pads, chain suck, the uphills and even the downhills. I probably managed to moan about the flat bits too.

Pics now posted here

didn’t get to ride it as my back is still jiggered, but saw some interesting stopping methods as people came down the road to my place in Bwlch

the later riders seemed cleaner too? more rain maybe?

Just took a look at the route for this, and interesting to see that the route north through the Black Mountains went a fair old way on roads up to Grwyne Fawr Reservoir.

There are quite a lot of bridleways marked on the map running in the same direction to the ridge above Talgarth. Also Mynydd Du Forest is right there with all of it’s fireroads – don’t know about access in there, though.

Anyone got any clues why the route went on the road? Were the ground conditions too bad for going on trails??

Cakefest, I think you’ve got it in one. I know some of the end of the route was changed due to conditions and I would expect that the start may have been tinkered with too. On the day in question it was a pretty tough course even with the road sections.

how was the road ride up to Grwyne Fawr Reservoir? and what about the bridleway beyond the reservoir up to the ridge – is it rocky, muddy?

thinking of heading over there this weekend as it’s not rained for a couple of days, and forecast is dry.

The tarmac section was over relatively quickly. The actual off-road climb was very rocky, lots of standing water and seemed to go on for ages. Then a muddy section up to the ridge, which was fairly exposed and windswept – a lot of people were getting blown off line and it was a bit hairy. It would be an ace ride in nicer conditions though.

ghislainlambert HELLO FACE SURGEON IS HERE 😆

I was the guy who nearly followed you into the pit ! But managed to stop
i have a picture of you (another guy took it on his phone)
if you can give me your email i’ll get it too you.
Anyway i hope it aint put you off riding and i’m sure your bike is ok
hope your war wounds heal mate all the best

I don’t recall talking to anyone who had much brakes to speak off. Mines were certainly halfway through the metal backing with much of the disc paying the price. Although i could at least slow myself sufficiently so as not to bail with regularity i feared at the start.

There was a guy at the first feed station with what looked like a broken nose! If that was you hope it wasn’t as bad as it looked.

I had a great day out anyway (although it wasn’t reflected in my time of seven and a half hours for the 80k).