PTW

The route: Bynea, Loughor, Gorseinon, Pontardulais, Fforest, Tycroes, Gorslas, Maesybont, Llanarthne, Carmarthen, Bronwydd Arms, Cynwel Elfed, Hermon, Newcastle Emlyn, Cardigan, Nevern, Fishguard, St. Davids (via the coast road, natch), Whitchurch, Llandeloy, Newgale, Broad Haven, Johnston, Neyland, Pembroke Dock, Pembroke, Lamphey, St. Florence, Saundersfoot, Kilgetty, Stepaside, Tavernspite, Llanddowror, St. Clears, Carmarthen, Kidwelly, Pembrey, Burry Port, Llanelli, Bynea.

With the requirement to start and finish in the dark my bike was festooned with lights and together with all the spare clothing, food, saddlebag and saddlebag support weighed a ton.

Anyway, I think that about 20 riders started on a chilly morning at 6.00am and silently moved through Loughor, Gorseinon and Pontardulais before climbing up to Fforest and taking a minor road with a succession of steep hills before reaching Golden Grove and then rolling through Llanarthne and Carmarthen. With brevet cards stamped just outside Carmarthen we moved out heading for Cardigan and I soon hooked up with a Velo Tiefi rider basically for the next 250km.

The route to Cardigan took a scenic detour with a monster climb. I'd noticed that everyone else had a triple chainset except me and I was beginning to understand why as I winched my way up one moster climb after another until we sped downhill into Newcastle Emlyn. In contrast the road to Cardigan was quite gentle but the first cafe stop control point was still a welcome relief and we reached in with 87km done and 213km to go.

By now it was 10.30am and finally starting to warm up so the bib-tights were swapped for bib-shorts and we struck out for Fishguard via a quieter coastal road. By now, I was in a group of four riders and we were destined to stick together for the remaining 200km. I must mention a guy in our gang of four called Dave Armour whose jersey was emblazoned with ;Blackburn and District CTC so I asked him when he'd driven down to which he replied, "Well actually I rode down from Blackburn yesterday.... It's about 330km" Insane!

The climb out of Fishguard is an absolute brute and the organiser threw in another brute just for good measure within 50m of levelling off after the first! My legs were screaming and the turning down to the coast road was a welcome relief. It was early afternoon by now and the coastline looked superb in the Spring sunshine and we rolled down to St. David's town centre or should that be city centre?

We made our way down to Neyland via a meandering route that went north of Brawdy but then dived down south to Newgale and Broad Haven before cutting across to the Cleddau Bridge which we crossed in a big-ring burst until we petered out on the climb from Pembroke Dock to Pembroke where the control was close enough to a cafe with outside tables where we spent at least 30 minutes eating and drinking ready for the final 100km.

Leaving Pembroke, we cut across The Ridgeway to Saundersfoot and headed up to the Kilgetty rbt and descended down to Stepaside before cutting over to Ludchurch, Tavernspite and downhill to Llanddowror and then taking the main road to St. Clears for the final brevet card control.

By now it had turned chilly and night had descended faster than JD on steroids so donned our longs and switched on our lights for a fast big-ring blast over to Carmarthen using the dual-carriageway and then taking the A484 down to Kidwelly. It was pitch black by now and the descents on the rolling road to Kidwelly were interesting to say the least and it was one of those rare occassions where motorists were helpful as their lights, from both directions, really helped. My lighting setup which seemed so adequate when I rode the 24-hour in 2004 seemed totally inadequate and was the worst set-up of the four in our gang of four with the Blackburn CTC's guy having a superb dynamo set-up. The final 15km was a fast run through Pembrey, Burry Port and Llanelli and we reached the Bynea clubroom at about 10.00pm for a well-earned cuppa .

I've ridden three 12's and one 24-hour so this was only my fifth longest 'dayride' but probably my best as I'm nowhere near fit and it was just so enjoyable.

Good read Alf - thanks!!

10.00pm though?! Long day in the saddle!!!

Makes you realise what the pro's go through in the long one-day classics but they go twice as fast

Well done indeed.

I was going to ask about the lights. For the PBP you'll need something to cover maybe 30 hours of darkness(?), and you can't carry *that* many batteries. But on the other hand it's easy to get dynamo setups completely wrong. In the past I've tried building them out of the cheapest bits possible, and the friction is appalling, reliability terrible and bulb-life minimal.

So, in the end you actually consider buying the whole kit and kaboodle from Busch & Muller, or have your bike rebuilt around hub dynamos. Lighting can get very costly (at least for skinflints like me ) so I was wondering what your plans are now?

Thanks Bill. it's a problem that I'm agonising over at the moment. The hardcore AUK's really do favour the front hub dynamo method with Solidlights (LED's with sophisticated innards) being the new kid on the block. However, I've really got to look at the cost/benefit factored over a short period of just five months and, potentially, just three events (the 400km, 600km and PBP itself). Plus, I've invested in some top quality hand-built wheels (not the Dave Hinde's mentioned previously which are for training purposes really) and I really can't afford to have another front wheel built up.

I haven't ruled a hub dynamo powered light out just yet but I do seem to be leaning towards the latest Cateye EL-530 an LED with a claimed 1500 candlepower. It's not that expensive and alkaline batteries can be bought (and disposed of) en route. One 'must have' will be a head torch however.

Ah, I have to say that I've got a Cateye HL-EL320, which the blurb claims:

Quote

gives you a constant 1,200-candlepower beam that illuminates dark streets and a flashing beam that attracts attention among city lights.

And you are welcome to give it a go, but IMO it's completely useless. Sorry about that

I've used the EL320 to ride up the cycle path from the Liberty Stadium to Ynysforgan in the pitch dark, and could barely ride faster than 10mph. The beam is too narrow (watch out for that), not ideally dispersed (what is the Opticube FOR if it doesn't produce a perfect beam pattern?) and there's something about the colour of LED light. I don't think it has enough red and green in it, and you end up staring at ordinary objects in your path and wondering what on earth they are, like you sometimes can do under Sodium lighting.

Not a patch on my previous light, which used a single halogen bulb (can't remember the precise wattage, but <= 5W) with 5AA cells, and came with built in recharging circuitry. Brilliant, but which, much to my utter annoyance, I managed TO LOSE, somewhere in the house! It cost 35 quid from Halfords, but I bought it just as it was being discontinued.

Would be no use to you anyway because battery life was 2.5 hours max, so you'd have to use at least sixty batteries. Buying them en route is the only option, assuming they don't sell out. There's 3000 cyclists stripping every shelf bare for miles in every direction

And then you've got the batteries for your headtorch as well. Perhaps TWO LED lights are the solution? I get about 10 hours from my Cateye on continuous, and it takes 4 batteries. Two EL550's, assuming they have a better beam pattern, would be even better. This could literally affect how fast you can go, as I'm sure you're aware, so worth getting right.

Take care.

It's the EL-530 I'm looking at and one of the guys had one on his bike last night which was at least three times better (i.e. spot on the road three times bigger and not so blue) than my 'first generation' Opticubes.

Base camp is about 300km into the ride and thus 300km from the finish so perhaps I'll Mandy to hand me up a musette full of duracells! I was thinking of pairing them up as you can switch between them when going through well lit areas or when riding behind someone with the real McCoy.