A New 'High'

Woke up to a misty, cold morning in the Brecon Beacons, but that wasn't enough to put me off today's planned ride.

Once I'd donned of all my cold-weather gear, I headed out along the back road out of Talybont towards Brecon. The Brecon Bypass allowed for a relaxed time trial section to get the blood pumping and the muscles working, before the first climb of the day up to Mynydd Illtud. The descent from the moorland at the top would've been great fun, if I could've seen more than 5m ahead of me:

Rather than risk bending a wheel on a rogue sheep, I rode the brake back down the hill (note to self: do this hill again in the summer - it looks fun)



After that I headed north to Sennybridge, then along the A40 to Trecastle. From there I headed south and climbed up through the the Glasfynydd Forest to the Bwlch Cerrig Duon pass, the highest point of the ride at 490m. The climb itself was great - 5km at an alpine-like gradient of 5-6%. It was easy to get into a rhythm and enjoy the scenery which was belatedly appearing from the mist. The descent proved to be the most enjoyable part of the day - a snaking downhill with excellent visibilty which allowed me to use the full width of the road and really get some speed up (apart from when taking the photo below!)

This downhill was followed immediately by a leisurely climb (4-5%) back up the A4067 towards Heol Senni.

Just before the village there's a set of steep ups and downs which I'm sure were strategically placed just to empty a cyclist's tank just a little more before the big climb of the day.

The ride along the valley is lovely, but those who've been before (or studied the profile map) know what is just around the corner. After the cattle grid, the Sarn Helen road begins to ramp up to between 10-12% until you reach the 1st switchback (with a near vertical gradient on it's inside). After that, it's a evil section of 14-15% until the second switchback (where the photo which adorns the title of this blog is taken), after which the gradient eases off to the top of the climb. I'm not too proud to say that I was in granny-gear for most of this, changing to 30-25 when I could for a little out of the saddle work. I made it up in one go, which is an improvement on my only other effort, and was rewarded with a spectacular view. A quick break, and a chat with a photographer who was enjoying the same view, then it was the flying descent all the way down to Ystradfellte. The fact that I was losing height just to climb again did not humour me at this point.

After the devilish 15% climb out of Ystradfellte, it was on to Penderyn, and the climb up Cefn Sychbant and the descent through the forest to the Llwyn-on Reservoir. A short stint down the A470 to just north of Merthyr and I finally turned for home along the road which follows shores of both Pontsticill and Talybont reservoirs. Only there's one more hill in the way.

The climb up to the waterfalls was an absolute brute. I was out of food, and I couldn't take the spare energy gel I had brought with me as I was out of water too! So I just ground it out, watching the metres climbed slowly increase on my Garmin. When 2000m rolled around I had a temporary feeling of euphoria. But only very temporary.

With one last effort I was over the top, and descending towards Talybont. I gave the bike a victory pat as I entered the village, then it was time to get off the saddle and eat the contents of my Dad's fridge.

In all, I had ridden 110kms and climbed 2080m. These were the only stats I could get however, as my new Garmin computer refused to play ball. I'm not having much luck with bike computers at the moment.

It feels great to have completed this ride, and I'm refusing to let the fact that the etape is longer and climbs higher temper this. For a start, there'll be feed & water stops when I finally get to the Alps!