Brecon Beacons Deluxe

i was looking at this thread thinking, hey maybe doing it fixed would justify the travel.
there would be a mid-2/3rds bailout option from Brecon with a straight return to the start point.

Yeah I am waffling about bike choice as well, but anyway it's an important point for everyone if they aren't feeling their best on the day that as you say it's a figure of 8 so can turn back if the first 25/30 miles aren't going well, and after we start coming back east can stay south and cut at least 20 miles off the route (and some elevation if take some slightly busier roads)

i have only ridden the area once but i think the Brecon>Crickowell>Abergavenny b-road is not that annoying

OK I'm all booked in, heading up to stay over on Friday night and then ready to ride Sat morning

Are you panning to head straight home on the train post ride?

Ah no, am staying over the Sat night as well!

Great. Thought I was going to be Billy no mates in a premier inn on the Saturday night!

Ok who is in for this? I can't quite tell. I only ask as that may determine the departure time and eventual routes. I've got me, TTM and ElGonzo, is that right?

As I'm now staying overnight on Friday (at a little air bnb, sorr TTM but I promise we'll hang out in the evening!) I'm not locked to the 9:30 departure, meaning that if who ever is coming fancied the 200km route then we could start significantly earlier to make most of the light etc)

Apologies, I'm not in a great place at the moment so will excuse myself from this one. Have a blast.

Premier Inn not good enough for you, huh?

My friend Hugh is planning to join us. Lovely guy, very very strong rider. He’d be happy with either distance.

Surprised not more riders for this though

To add, we’ll be driving over from Stroud and Cheltenham in the morning. It’s only about an hours drive though, so can start earlier if wanted.

Would love this, but have a running race in Cornwall that weekend.

Fyi in Abergavenny, fantastic place to eat called Portico Lounge on the high street. Good food and lovely atmosphere.

Shiiiiit better sort out of my fucking front derailleur then and bring gears

No @cagimaha @pastry_bot @amey ?

.

i cant :( too much dad-ing going on, there were high level talks about this but they collapsed

That’s a shame

Fraid not sorry! Another time.

Did a couple of rides in this area this week. Some steep ramps at the start of the climbs and one to avoid is the Blorenge back lane climb from Abergavenny. The climb to Gospel was lovely and the 15 mile descent back to Abergavenny was nice on quiet roads, I imagine the weekends will be slightly more manic with car traffic.

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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Oh yeah here's the final route. Is 12k ft of up IRL:

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/39215767

I’ll try to write some more when work eases a bit, but for now will echo Dan’s sentiments. Wales is both glorious and leg breaking in equal measure. It was a fantastic day out and a huge thanks for organising it.

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This looks incredible, great work.

I’ll be staying in Ross-on-Wye next week, got a couple of days riding planned, though this day is a bit longer than I’d like. Which bit, if you had to, would you cut to make it around 120km max?

I’m all about the big climbs (and geared) so I’m sure it’s easy enough to work out when I have a laptop in front of me, but as you’ve actually ridden it I thought I’d ask.

You could do something like this starting from Ross, Gospel pass and back, I can't speak for the roads over the border though.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40161674

Cutting some of it off though, I found the western section incredible, so if you could start from Crickhowell you'd have an amaizng time:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/40161759

I’ll have a car so planning at least one day of driving and parking at the start of a loop. Thanks for the tips.