25 - 29 Aug: Final prep for the Raid

Sat: Coffee in vill with G&N, then I drove off to Hay-on-Wye.  Decided on way that I needed better tyres so nipped off at Witney and found a bike shop and bought 2 puncture resistant 700x24C with some tread.  When got to Hay, parked at bottom of hill and changed tyres, then rode up to top of Gospel Pass, it wasn't too bad for one of the '100 Greatest Cycle Climbs' in the UK.

view over over side down to Abergaveny

17km in 1:10hr with 461m of climbing.
Straight back down to car, then off to Bala!  Found campsite, cycled into town for a lamb stew dinner and 1 pint, then down to sleep in back of Rav4 (v. comfy and cosy) at 9:30pm.

Sun: Woke at just before 6, up at 7, off to start - very crowded over 600 entrants.  Off at 8:40.  First hill was Hirnant Pass (another one of the 100) which was long but not too steep, so went well.

Almost at the top of the Hirnant

Had a word with the legendary Frank Kinlan (his weightloss and Garmin blog http://frank.kinlan.co.uk/ was inspirational to me in Bahrain) who was struggling and bailed out on a couple of steep bits - I lost track of him for the rest of the day.  Very busy at controls and feed stations, but I had my own supplies.

queue was for food, not control, but you didn't find this out till you got to the head of it

My lunch stop

Up we go again!

Lots of ups and downs, some very steep sections (17 and 20%) to finish with Bwlch-Y-Groes, the highest tarmac pass in Wales.  And it was.  To quote: "arguably the hardest section of relentless steep tarmac in Britain".  I walked some of it, as did most others, even the cycling club peletons broke up and many walked - people saying "dig deep" didn't work for me, I dug as deep as I could.

Near the top, only a short push to go!

Looking back down, notice people pushing

Then a glorious fast 10 miles downhill and along the lake back to Bala.  134km in 7:50hr moving with 3,100m of climbing.  This was the hardest day of cycling I have ever done.

Straight back home via A5, M54,M6 and M1 in 3:30hr, no probs with traffic.

Mon: Enough is enough.  No exercise today.

Tue:  Cycled to Watford along Ebury Way, back along roads through Croxley, with Mrs M, managed to squeeze all the shopping in my backpack.  Only 15miles.

Wed: 45mins spin @ William Penn, good session of intervals.  Then out to Hit or Miss pub at Penn Street for lunch, which was a Miss as they had a full house with a wake, so went to the low key Squirrel round the corner - nice fish and chips.  Bromptoned up to Victoria to see John to plan Pyrenee walks at the Cask pub.  Too many pints consumed today!