Battle On The Beach

Brechfa is perfect so long as you don’t mind a little extra driving.

Oooh! That’s a great shout.

I’ve been umming and ahhing about driving Friday night or Saturday. I think Friday night and a day trip to Brechfa is on the cards!

can anyone give us an idea where’s best for a,3-4 hour,little bimble?

Come down to Swansea and ride Kilvey and/or Clyne. Waymarked tracks on both. You can connect them via the seafront cycle path and spend hours on either. If you’re interested I can show you around. (I’m assuming I’ll be healthy by then!)

Same invite for you as well nedrapier.

Or you could take an OS map and have a ride around the Gower?

Cheers Jon, that’s very good of you. and shedbrewed – good idea too.

Although I’ve just checked the surf forecast for Llangennith and it’s not looking too shabby at the moment.

Think that’s option 1 at the moment – surf, than a frantic spin around the dunes to warm up!

Edit: Balls. Overexcited. I was looking at this weekend, not next. Fingers crossed for next…

Thank you Jon, we’d love to have a pootle around with you, and whoever else is coming down early. How do you want to play it: where when etc on Friday morning?

Oh cool!

I’ll need to drop the kids in school, available from about 9.30 I’d guess.

Do you know Swansea at all? It maybe worth meeting somewhere like the Liberty Stadium – close enough to the riding, easy to find and close to the motorway.

Shedbrewed – fancy a trip down from Ponty?

We’ll have had a long!! journey on Thursday,so there’ll be no early starts for us. I’ll confirm eta when I speak to the boys,but they’ll want breakfast etc, then we’ll need to reload bikes. My number is 07624 450246 if you want to text me your mob no. Is there anywhere safe to park?

Cheers for the ask, IdleJon. Not sure what time I’m back from holibobs so can’t confirm anything yet.

pipiom, let me know what time start you want. (Sorry, I meant I’m available from 9.30 – wasn’t expecting you to be here at that time! Will need to pick them up at three, though, unless I can organise babysitters.) Will text my number later.

Safety? The regional police hq is in the stadium. 😉 There’s also some side-street parking nearby, supermarkets, that sort of thing if you’re unhappy leaving the cars there.

I’d say 11am would be ace Jon. We’ll just be in one car/Jeep so we’ll wing it when we get there. I’ll satnav to the stadium then call you? We’ll defo speak some more over the next few days. Thanks again.

So the consensus might be Ralph over Ron on the back (MTB) if thats what I have?

Ralph for sure Kryton, I raced all the winter xc series at Pembrey last year with Ralphs. You’d probably get away with a thunder burt there throughout winter I reckon, its so sandy its never really muddy, even when wet it just damps down nicely, mabe a little bit of sludge.

I know theres been a lot of tree felling so it might be a bit muddier in places, and I understand that some of last years singletrack is no more so course will probs be a bit differnet.

Theres now also a kids balance bike race planned for ages 2-7

Thanks Ferrals. See you there.

Ferrell, in the first BOTB there was mud and comedy lakes which came up to the axles…….

Ah I’ve never done BoB, sadly not doing it this time as got other things on. I’ve ridden Pembrey a lot though, including BoB course and I’ve not seem much mud? not for more than 50 yards of squidgy sloppy stuff. I love it over there, the single track is so much fun 😀

Thunder Burts all the way. Also if you run 1x and the beach is either calm or downwind, you’ll need a bigger chainring! Last year we were doing 35mph down the beach and my little legs were going like crazy in 34-11. Have 36-10 this year.

Clement LAS’s on the cross bike, and Burt’s on the MTB. Will have some more knobbly options with me just in case.

Also if you run 1x and the beach is either calm or downwind, you’ll need a bigger chainring!

Last year was unusual though. The prevailing wind normally comes straight up that beach into your face. 😉

9 times out of 10 it is a headwind or cross wind.

IdleJon hope you’ve finished turning your insides out? I’m not landing til 4pm Friday so no go for me. Have fun and see you Sunday.

IdleJon hope you’ve finished turning your insides out?

Only just. Turned out to be Campylobacter food poisoning. Still feeling a bit wrecked today but hope to be on a bike tomorrow, for the first time in a fortnight.

Have fun on holiday, see you in sunny Pembrey. (It will be sunny, obviously, after two years of good weather….)

Forecast is sunny and dry at the mo. and…

Light air, 1 m/s from north-northwest

😀

Fingers crossed it stays that way!

Good to hear your improving IdleJon,hope you’re good for Friday….nothing too strenuous/scary mind,I’m old and fragile

Ha, it’s only a couple of miles to the seafront with assorted bars, cafes and cakes… 🙂

The working week is done, so early start looking drive and see you all there.

Likewise, weather looks great! Look to register late tomorrow and have a lie in Sunday 🙂

Can’t bloody wait to finish work at midnight, driving down tomorrow afternoon. See you all on Sunday. Will be on large krampus 😉

If anyone is registering today can they ask if you can enter kids in the balance bike race on the day.. thanks

Is it right you can’t register today unless you are camping?

Kryton.. Can you possibly ask about the balance bike race and whether entries can be made on the day

Well, that was emotional.
Nice to see some old faces, and thanks David for the timing chip reminder on the startline. Oops.
My lack of any real training, and spending last week all-inclusive in Lanzarote gorging myself caught me out and I had horrendous leg cramps from halfway through the second lap.
Slipping gears didn’t help but mainly my poor placing was entirely due to having eaten way too much steak, cake and beer.
But I bloody loved flying down the beach on the first lap.

Had an absolute flyer of a start down the beach on the first lap and slowly lost about 40 places from there. Was aiming to get round in 2hrs but my lack of off road riding this year let it down. Finished in about 2hrs 13mins… Great fun though.

Yeh it was great with some bloody fast riders in the mix this year.
There is no way I’ll be near my 4 1st place from last year.
The end of the 2nd lap was tough for me then I was flying again on the last lap taking back the places I lost and some more to boot.
Just over 2 hours for me.
Looking forward to seeing the results tomorrow. Hoping for a top 100 but most probably I’ll be disappointed.

Was a fabulous event, certainly the must-do UK XC race this season. 800 riders can’t be wrong! Fabulous venue for everyone from families to elite riders.

We lost track of the top 5 after lap 1 but our little group had a good ride round, I ended up somewhere about 9th in 1hr36. Massive thanks to everyone who kept out of the way on the final lap as that was getting pretty hairy in places. Some very good backmarker etiquette out there today 🙂

No idea of my results yet.

But my god, what an awesome event. I’ve never seen beach which is so wide you can’t see the sea.

I was a bit down in the mouth at the start as I rode all the way to the end of the beach (8km) only to have a shell slash my tyre so badly the sealant wouldn’t work. I ended up jogging for 45 minutes back to the start (not the most ideal warm up), to visit Mr Schwalbe with my wallet expecting to be royally shafted. He then announced here was there for display only, an couldn’t sell me a tyre. AAARGH. But as my bottom lip started to quiver he took pity and GAVE me a top of the line Racing Ralph, Tube, sealant AND mounted to for me! Thank you Schwalbe!

Because of the delay then I ended up at the back, but once we were off boy did I feel good. I cant describe what an awesome view seeing hundreds of riders strung along 8km of beach looks like. Moving from peleton to peloton riding and being sucked along at 30kph – on an MTB – along the sand, what a feeling! The single track was awesome and fast also but causing some issues for the CXer’s the MTB were able to pull back some space. On we went, and I seemed to spend all three laps catching and passing people I felt very strong today, what a shame I could have started at the front. In fact I would have happily ridden a 4th lap, so perhaps I didn’t go hard enough on the 3 allocated.

All in all I put 3 consistent laps in at 43mins for 15k each, and have driven 250 miles home with a massive smile on my face. Definitely going back next year!

Haha that was my Airshot that got that tyre seated for you 🙂

You need to go and buy one of those now.

I also managed to break both my promises of a) don’t sit on the front and chase down every single break on lap 1 and b) pay attention near the beach exit on lap 1 and don’t get dropped.

Oh well. Still did better than last year!

One of the most special moments of the weekend was sprinting clear of everyone, turning round and looking at the spectacle of 800 riders from pros to complete novices doing a sport I love! Proper chill down the spine moment. Then I got back on with smashing it down the beach.

I ran out of legs again, 2/3rds of the way round the 2nd lap. Starting in the last 20 probably didn’t help as I think I overtook about 250 riders at least along the beach. Didn’t do me much good though as it went a bit wobbly at 1hr40…
My 20 year old islabike CX seemed to do alright except I couldn’t get into the big ring. Excuses, excuses…
Was good fun but hard.

Haha that was my Airshot that got that tyre seated for you

You need to go and buy one of those now.

Yet again, I thank you for that! I have a Bonty Flash charger but left it home not expecting to use it. 😐