I’m in. 8.25 start.

Supposed to be doing it with two mates…140km.

But, one of them will have a week or two old baby by then and has pretty much said he won’t be doing it (understandable).

And the other one has barely ridden since the middle of last year. We went out a couple of weeks ago planning to do 30 miles, but had to knock it on the head at 20 miles. So, I reckon he won’t manage it and will knock it on the head a few days before.

So, need to decide whether I will enjoy doing it on my own having to drive all the way there on my own, stay over night, do the ride and head back….!
I haven’t ridden much myself lately so will be taking it easy if I do it.
Gonna try and squeeze in a 70 miler next weekend to see how the legs fair…

7.45 start for me. A bit early but I’ve only got a 15 min ride to the start so not to bad.
Setting of in waves of 500 every 5 minutes, should be interesting 😯

So, need to decide whether I will enjoy doing it on my own

We’ll be with you 🙂

Re carnage.. there’s quite a lot of street furniture and the like on some of those roads, and 500 roadies hammering along with little experience of closed roads and peletons.. I think there will be some.

Re carnage.. there’s quite a lot of street furniture and the like on some of those roads, and 500 roadies hammering along with little experience of closed roads and peletons.. I think there will be some.

That’s why I put a quickish finishing time on my entry. Starting near the front I should be in with more experienced riders. That’s the plan anyway 😕

I said 4 hours, assuming there’d be a peleton. that was when it was 120km too.. 😯 I know all the roads though, and they should be pretty fast.

PS you sell those forks in the end?

Start time 8:55 for me…

Still got them. I’ve been to lazy to put them on ebay.

7.45 start for me. First 140km wave off.

Anyone travelling for this? Are you staying over? Looking for something to do on Saturday?

Just checked the route – looks like there are some potentially dangerous spots with thousands of ill-experienced cyclists hurtling through in a peleton…

Yeah. molgrips, I am travelling over on Saturday, supposedly with my mate (Dangerous) Bryan. We need to register at some point in the afternoon.

Still have a feeling my mate will bail out at the last minute.
We are staying a few junctions further west along the M4, in an ‘interesting’ looking hotel.

Luckily we managed to get parking in the second car park that was made available for the day itself.

What were you thinking of, for Sat afternoon? I think we were just gonna have a mooch around and see what was going on in Cardiff itself once we’d registered, before finding some kind of carb load dinner and having a relatively early night….

molgrips – Member

Just checked the route – looks like there are some potentially dangerous spots with thousands of ill-experienced cyclists hurtling through in a peleton…

I’ll be near the back, so reckon I will miss any potential carnage….

Well, if I can swing it with the family I might do a pootle around town or the vicinity, if anyone wants to join.

Slightly concerned about the descent after the tumble.. Long, fast, lined in places with traffic calming chicanes, houses, parking spots etc etc. Also, after the last steep climb is a 45mph descent, where we have to turn 90 degree left at the fastest part into a singletrack lane.

molgrips – Member

Slightly concerned about the descent after the tumble.. Long, fast, lined in places with traffic calming chicanes, houses, parking spots etc etc. Also, after the last steep climb is a 45mph descent, where we have to turn 90 degree left at the fastest part into a singletrack lane.

When I did the Dragon Ride last year (first Sportive), I couldn’t believe the level of mince down some of the descents.
I put my awesome speed and ability to zoom past all the roadies down to years of honing my mountain bike skills. (ahem, tongue in cheek etc.)….
In fact, my brakes are rubbish. Wonder if it’s worth buying some new pads like I said I was going to over a year ago!

Might do 70 miles this weekend to see how the legs fare (weather dependant & if I can be arsed dependant too)…

What about money on a mega crash coming down the descent to Thornhill? The first section from the top of Caerphilly mountain is massively fast.

In, 8.50 start. Happy to mince the downs, I need to be able drive the family home.

Dragon – edited.. same concern!

Those corners on Wentloog road are going to be a laugh too. Expect to be walking, like on the first lap of Mayhem 🙂

I couldn’t believe the level of mince down some of the descents.
I put my awesome speed and ability to zoom past all the roadies down to years of honing my mountain bike skills. (ahem, tongue in cheek etc.)….

I find the same! By no means am I an adrenaline freak, but tend to find myself passing the vast majority on the descents. The way some folk descend you’d be forgiven for thinking they’ve only ever trained on the turbo.

TBH I’ve no idea what’s going to happen.. I gave myself an optimistic finish time based on being in a bunch, but it might end up totally fragmenting without even small groups.

My wife’s ordered me a short sleeved Captain America jersey with matching shorts. She seems to think it’s important.. 🙂

Btw, anyone tried changing their start time?

Yes – and succeeded. Now starting at 7:45. I emailed the organisers email address.

BTW I’ out of a Saturday pre-meet I’m afraid I’ve been told asked to focus on the kids, who need to be in bed at 7.30 and seeing as we are sharing an albeit large hotel room, I need to be there to attempt as much sleep as possible before the morning.

@molgrips make sure you remind us of your finish time for the sponsorship

i’ve got a place and hotel but can’t go now, so if anyone’s interested please let me know.

750 start here, someone else chose the optimistic finishing time to get that slot :). I’ll be mincing along in white/blue DHC team kit.

Re carnage.. there’s quite a lot of street furniture and the like on some of those roads, and 500 roadies hammering along with little experience of closed roads and peletons.. I think there will be some.

Another warning for the out-of-towners: in the first few miles the road from Cardiff to Newport along the coast, known locally as the Newport Flats, is hellishly potholed in places. Some of these have been filled in the runup to Sunday, but by no means all of them according to people who have ridden down there this week.

As the name suggests its flat and fast, and with the likelihood of large groups being together that close after the start, at least one pileup from someone hitting a pothole seems almost inevitable. I wouldn’t want to be sat very far back in a group doing 40kph along there.

EDIT: I’m out spectating on Sunday, I’ll be on caerphilly mountain somewhere – never mind the climb, I am quite tempted to stand on the fast right-hander on Thornhill Road and help pull people out of the hedge 🙂

It seems the organisers are expecting TOB type crowds spectating. I honestly do not see many at all bothering too though. General feeling I get is that locals are not exactly onboard with this event.

Hope weather stays dry for yous.

I should be coming up Caerphilly mnt about midday Ant. Feel free to be there shouting abuse 😉

8-35 start for me and 6 mates in pen K1 wave 13, 1 hour ahead of the broom wagon.
Driving down Saturday morning staying 2 nights then 2 weeks off!
Going to be riding steady and enjoy the ride, weather is looking slightly less cold & damp

Im in! 8:30 start. I work in Newport/Valleys and there is a lot of hatred for the event. It seems that the organisers haven’t planned a route in/out of Caerphilly for drivers.

Yes – lots have no way of getting out in car, myself included. My wife has had to take day off work and some elderly neighbours none too happy to say the least. And they all seem to think I personally organised it because I ride a bike … wife included lol

Col, as for going up Caer-mtn to watch … giggling at 15,000 red faced mamils pushing bikes up the mountain is tempting, but is not that high on my Sunday to do list unfortunately lol

Is Caerphilly Mtn really that bad a climb? I’ve done The Tumble many a time and it’s fine really. Will there be a lot of walkers up Caerphilly?

@ rocco, it’s not very long about 1k but about half of it is 15-18%. It’s never easy and only gets worse with tired legs. My guess there’ll be a few pushing but most should be able to ride up in some fashion.

What do you lot think would be a good time to be at the top of The Tumble to watch?
I’d like to watch the ordinary riders, but also the pro’s. What sort of time difference will there be between them?
Not sure how long I want to hang around on top of the mounain.

8:10 start for me, looking forward to it. Good luck everyone

Anyone have tack issues? Seen a horrendous pic
of someone that had a big off on twitter

Got to walk the climb near Celtic Manor as I arrived there just as everyone realised there were drawing pins around and everyone was stopped and walking. But I didn’t actually see any myself.

My puncture was more embarassing – rolled over the start line to discover my rear had gone flat while sat in the pen 🙁

Got through without incident but was caught up in the walk/push through Celtic Manor while they cleared the tacks, was a great day although there were rather a lot of triathletes in my wave demonstrating their famous bike handling early on, sadly it took the crash just after Celtic Manor (hope the chap is okay, looked bad) to calm some people down.

Edit: aerobars, **** aerobars, on a sportive, FFS

There was a bloke on a full on high-end time trial bike -but he’d removed the tri bars in an attempt to make it more of a normal bike.. 140km on that, no ta.