cheers_drive I’ll be putting some 2.4 mountain kings on tonight.

The Advantage on the front will be fine but I think I’ll change the Crossmark on the back for an Ignitor. Only trouble is it’s an exception version and I’ve ripped open a few exception sidewalls at Afan.
I’m not usually a ‘what tyres?’ kind of guy but 100km on unsuitable tyres is a long way!

Rush Cycles I would say a 2.2″ on the front also, some of the decents are technical, but there’s also a fair bit of climbing on fireroad, something like a 2.25″ Ardent / advantage on the front with your crossmark would be good..

Go steady cheers_drive on facebook Rush recommend exactly you’re current set up!

I think all this talk of tyres is just a distraction from the main issue of doing 100km tomorrow 🙂

I did it. Very enjoyable too. Here is a blog post that gives you a section by section run down.

http://gothandy.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/macmillan-afan-monster/

Well done gothandy[/b}, it was tough and some people looked to be struggling pretty early on.
My rear wheel seized up at about 33km on the highest and most remote part of the course 😥 Thanks to everyone who offered support, especially the guys who reminded me that there was a marshal an mile or so back up the course. The marshal / rangers / organizers were great at getting me back and it made me realise what a logistical undertaking such an event is.
I was feeling really good before the hub packed in and was really pissed off at the time. I’ll be back next year though.

Gutted to hear that Cheers_drive, must’ve been frustrating. Although on the plus side you won’t be feeling as knackered as I do today!

Gothandy – nice one for posting your link to the blog. Going to look at the split distances in a bit more detail. Looks like the extra 25k loop was only an extra 20? That climb back up felt like absolute murder though!

Thanks to everyone involved in organising it… how you managed to get a full day of sunshine in Afan forest I’ll never know!

Yeti here is the full garmin route.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50455839

Be warned I’ve got a knackered old 301 which is on its last legs and does seem to under record total distance especially if things are wiggly. But I couldn’t quite figure the distances. I don’t want to shout it too loudly but it does look like it was 95km rather than 100km 🙂

Brilliant event. That long technical descent after the Herman section on Skyline in the extra 25Km section was worth the climb back out.

Saw quite a few photographers out yesterday on this. Does anyone know where and when the event photographs will be published? Thanks.

absolute awesome ride! bring on next year!

cheers_drive what a pain having your hub freeze up, at least after 33km you’d had a few good downhills. Glad to hear it hasn’t put you off! See you next year.

MaD agree with 100km extra downhill … it was great fun.

My mate was a happy he’d done 100 as he was only planning to do the 75. But a bit disappointed with the non-trail-centre trails. He said he got so bored with forest roads he got off and walked a km just to break the monotony!

He said he got so bored with forest roads he got off and walked a km just to break the monotony!

Somebody’s tired!
(He wasn’t rider #1 was he?)

Agreed the rocky downhill on the extra 25k was an absolute blast! Might have to ride that bit again!

(He wasn’t rider #1 was he?)

God no, it think took him ~8 hours (or perhaps you mean his race number – dunno). Frankly I told him to stop moaning because he finished without blowing up, getting cramp or suffering a broken bike. Not to mention he raised from charity money. I just wish I’d been there too.

you should have come along with us Buzz, it was an awesome ride!

#1 was a reference to a race number. If it was him, he needs to learn to be a little less intimidating to women. But also needs thanking for making me laugh far harder than I have in a very long time!

The Southern Yeti

I know exactly who you mean, clocked him as soon as we got there, a little strange to say the least! 😀

hahahaahahaaaa judderman. A couple of girls took refuge with us, for that to happen he must’ve really been quite ‘unique’ shall we say!

@cheers_drive

Felt gutted for you, glad we got you back without too much fuss and hope the “fast show” rangers kept you amused 🙂

He said he got so bored with forest roads he got off and walked a km just to break the monotony!

Yeah lots of fireroad did try to reward each climb with a good down though 🙂

We had to make some alterations to the course 2 weeks before the event due to fungus/felling/weather which took out a singletrack section and added more fireroad although it did save a climb as it went around rather than up and down a valley…

If it was him, he needs to learn to be a little less intimidating to women

Cripes what the hell was that about? I’ll try and find out his race number. Do you recall what kind of bike he was riding?

Excellent day and what a ride. Thanks go out to the organisers, marshals and staff at Bryn Bettws.

I too thoroughly enjoyed the event :). Marshals were awesome as well, really encouraging and helpful, which was no mean feet early on as it was not that warm (2 degrees at the start). That series of rocky descents on the extra bit for the 100k were really nice, reminded me of many of the loose slatey Dyfi descents, just substitute loose sandstone blocks for the slate 🙂 – let go of the brakes and ride loose :). Payback was hard though, only saving grace was the hill started off steep and then gradually levelled out!

Oh and well done MaD on the singlespeed effort, amazing time as well 🙂

Singlespeed!! 😯

We were commenting that you’d have to be mad to attempt that… seems we were right! Fair play to you!

So what’s the next big event like this? Where’s the best place to find an endurance event calendar?

Yup was a really good day out. Great course and near perfect weather for it. Loved the three main additional sections of trail.

Sign posting was a bit hit and miss in places and a few people went wrong although I understand a few signs went missing over Friday night. I went wrong with about 10 other riders after the final food station and ended up cycling around the wind farm and then dropping on to the W2 linking trail before retracing my steps – glad I did cos the last 15k were awesome.

Was definitely a bit harder than the brecon beast, and probably up there with the selkirk marathon as well in terms of quality riding.

Nice vibe at Bryn Betws afterwards as well.

Big thanks to the organisers, all the marshalls and Bryn Betws!

The Southern Yeti there is an 8 and 4 hour option at the Bristol Oktoberfest?

I keep a pretty random list of events on my blog.

http://gothandy.wordpress.com/2009-race-calendar/

Sign posting was a bit hit and miss in places and a few people went wrong although I understand a few signs went missing over Friday night.

I went to the point where if you went wrong you would end up by the windmills to see what we did wrong, and unfortunatly the sign we used for warning about a technical section (health and safety and all that) we didn’t realise putting it up that it was an arrow pointing ahead we thought it was one of the signs just saying “caution techncial section” (trust me we had put loads of signs up by this point and they become a bit of a blur) directly above it was a sign pointing to the right which was the correct way, but i can see how confusion was caused so i’m really sorry for anyone that did go astray at that point…

If it was him, he needs to learn to be a little less intimidating to women

Yep it was him (#1). Dish the dirt on what he did please. I hope it was something I can rag him about for a few weeks. Or at least instruct him on the errors of his ways.

Results are out … thanks colin@rush.

http://rushcycles.netboards.org/viewtopic.php?p=2129

Blimey 6th quickest on the 100k 🙂

Cheers Gothandy, may well have to get inolved in that!

Buzz re #1 – He seemed like a genuinely nice guy, though if you’re not already aware of his idisyncrasies….

“He seemed like a genuinely nice guy, though if you’re not already aware of his idisyncrasies”

Oh yeah absolutely. He’s very genuine, honest, kind, loyal, blah blah which is why he’s a good mate of mine. But he is idiosyncratic which sometimes gets him into difficulties. I recall when he was getting into triathlon that he bought and wore a 2 piece outfit. Now you’ve seen his physical attributes – the sight was pretty eye-watering and we jib him about it to this day!