Due to the absence of kev (family commitments), or had you checked the forecast kev? i met tony at the plaza at 8am and we headed off into a nightmare headwind up to the top road at pen-y-cae, we continued up the valley past afan,cymmer etc and onto the bwlch.
This is where puncture no1 occured! after a few minutes of struggling to get the tyre seated we continued for oh at least half a mile then puncture no2!!!
This time i triple checked the tyre for the cause, but nothing found.
Anyway, onwards and upwards.
The remainder of the bwlch climb went extremely quickly and thankfully puncture free!
Then we got to to the summit, turned the corner and nearly got blown clean off the top and straight down to treorchy!!!
The wind was howling across from bridgend direction and it was seriously hard going to keep upright let alone trying to ride in a straight line.
We took a right turn at the junction and headed down to nant y moel, and honestly i have never experienced wind like it, it was actually harder going downhill than climbing the bwlch, we were both grinding the gears out and probably doing 10mph!! DOWNHILL!
Anyway, we continued down the valley, through bryncethin before turning left towards pencoed then back to bridgend and onto the caff, arriving 10mins before the 9.30/10.30 boys.
Two coffees/teas and a few well deserved welsh cakes later we were off again.
And guess what, puncture no3! Fair play to tony he had spotted i was not with the group and doubled back to the caff to wait for me.
We managed to catch the tail enders of the group on the climb near parc slip,and we rode home with colin and vernon,again into a tasty headwind.
Then just over a mile from home, youve guessed it a BLOWOUT to the same tyre, (is this a club record?), this time i couldnt be arsed to fix it so rode home on a flat and happily dumped the tyre and tube straight in the bin!
Distance wise, 55-60miles, so not exactly long, but trust me ive done far easier 100s.
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Carpe Diem.
Carpe Diem.
