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@youramericanlover
This deserves a write up. Haven’t really ridden in Wales or seen the Brecon Beacons it really is incredible. The space and scale and drama of the valleys and its views really are on another level.
@TTM, his friend, and I did the loop below, set off about 9am. Hoowee they are strong riders and they were patient with me as I little ringed it all the way round. I woke up with a bit of a bad cold so never felt inspired to really push it to the top – on the other hand I would say that I enjoyed every single climb as I didn’t ever really go into the red trying to chase them down.
The roads south of Abergavenny to Blaevon at the start were fairly rowdy and chewed up, and I found that first climb the hardest, but it opens up to moorland type views which wiped the difficulty away. West of Crickhowell was badass, after mile 20 the shrouded lanes fall away and it’s really exposed and open and fucking hell Wales was green, man it was so green! The descent to Llangynidr 30% that had my whole body clenching, if I’da swung by a colliery and eaten some coal I coulda pooped a diamond. Brakes got HOT.
It was steady and pretty to the Devil’s Elbow. What a climb! Sun came out for the next 4 hours at this point and the roads were empty and out here the tarmac was gorgeous – I thought it was going to be ‘I would loved 32c etc’ after the first 10 miles but especially the descents I was whizzing around, looping and feathering the brakes, roads were ace. From here past the three reservoirs the pine forests and roads next to them were about a good as road riding as I’ve ever done. If my nose was working I bet it would have smelled incredible. I did fuck up the lunch break though as I thought I had routed us past some shops but no, and we ended up having to piercing the ring of grim surrounding Merthyr Tdfil for a raid on the Spar. The single low point. I’ve fixed that on the route below. It was straightforward cruising after that to Hay-on-Wye where I enjoyed a shandy before Gospel Pass. Such a nice climb, enjoyed every second of it. I think I was only 6-7 mins behind TTM and Hugh so wasn’t too self-conscious as it was a bit blowy and cold at the top (would you believe it, on top of a Welsh mountain).
Descent was great but a few cars at tricky points meant we could never just go full send which was fine as again the roads were a bit choppy. I would do it all again in heartbeat and I think the route is pretty fucking great not to brag too much. It was all a little sharp to be fixie friendly though, and I’m glad I had gears. Those audax nerds looking for AAA could get a lot of quiet bang for their buck adding on another 10 miles. I accidentally overwrote the 200km version, but for the distance plus climbing head north of Hay-on-Wye and then descend into it. You’d end up with close to 13k feet of climbing in less than 130 miles.
Some pics. Thanks mega for the company @TTM
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