PTW

Welldee welldee welldee… what a fascinating and windy day in the saddle.

The club run was to Resolven then a ride of the 10mile TT. Curtis, Spot, Charles Boyo, Griff, Mike Hall, Tud (Not really riding the 10 after his recent reboot of his motherboard) and (XXXX Aargh I cant remember his name….) set off into a monster headwind…… We went via Pentyla and met Selwyn and Mark Hillier at the Bagle Brook.

Charles and Spot were feeling frisky from the off, chasing Primes right left and centre. Charles took the first two Primes, the 1st at Penrhiwtyn quickly followed by the second at Melincryddan. Spot got one back at Neath and all was quiet for while.

On the back road to Tonna the Peloton was twitchy…… Riders were looking in hedges to find anything that looked vaguely like a village sign. At the hard uphill Tonna prime…. Selwyn decided his hernia needed a test and decided to take a flyer. It almost worked but Mike had seen it and narrowly took the Points. More Primes came and went with Charles taking Clyne and Resolven. Finally with the peloton in need of a rest, we arrived at the Resolven car park.

When we arrived, Alf was waiting patiently with the other riders so those riding signed on. Curtis, Rod Hicks, Kieron John and Chris Allen, (Solo Riders). Mark Williams and Tony Cowdry (VC Escargot), Skippy and Dai Triggs (2up Teams) and a 4up team of Me, Spot, Mark Hiller and Charles. I’m sure Alf will put up the details but the two notable rides of the day have to be Rod (the bionic Knee) Hicks with a 23:47 and Curtis with a 24:39 (on a road bike). Chapeaux lads’ great rides on a tough day.

As for our 4 up it started in a gentlemanly fashion with everyone saying “after you”, no “after you”, no “after you”…. It was not until we got to the roundabout when we got in some sort of order with Spot, Charles, Mark and me all in a line. Going out we all did our bit with Spot doing a Geraint Thomas and taking much longer turns on the front. Now unknown to some, Rule 22b, sub clause 37 of schedule 4 of the Club Run rule book states:

“All prime points taken by a club rider on any given day are forfeit if the aforementioned rider fails to take a turn in a 4up team”

You can imagine my surprise having done a monster turn on the front, to have Charles push me back into the line early and thereby miss his turn… You could hear every one of his hard fought sprint points shatter as they hit the concrete road. We finished together in 25:20.

After the 10 Spot decided we’d go to the burger van at Pontneddfechan on the way I managed a sneaky prime at Pentreclwdda but failed at Glynneath. Spot and Charles once again had a go at Pontneddfechan Charles taking the prime (more points lost… its sad). At Pontneddfechan, the Burger van was awol so we headed to McDonalds for Coffee and Cakes.

On the way back down the Valley all was sociable until Selwyn dropped back to take a flyer and catching everyone unawares at Abergarwed. Griff came flying past to take the Ynysarwed prime but this just annoyed Spot and Curtis who both decided to take a long one for the Presidents Prime………………. Curtis went from the bottom of the Rock……………..Spot reacted followed by Me, Mark Hillier and Selwyn. Half way up the Rock Charles came flying past……. ¾ of the way up he went flying past again……………………….. the other way……………. Over the top the pace was quick until Mark said ease boys Selwyn is off the back….. I reminded them that he was about to take another flyer so we all Jumped leaving him 25 yards behind…. Curtis took the Presidents Prime and Selwyn offered his thanks to me……

That was it for Primes with the exception of me and Spot having a dig for the “Secret Cilfrew Prime” And Griff taking the final Penrhiwtin prime. After Briton ferry it was a howling tailwind home and Spot, Curtis, Mike and me clocked 55km per hour down the dual carriageway to Bagle Brook.

details on the following link
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154960260

Les you must have bionic fingers. It would take me a day to print all that. Great report. Keep um coming.

Well looking at the time of the 4 up shouldn't be too hard for me on my return as I done a 10 at physio in the gym this morning and clocked 26.02 and you guys have been training when I've been off the bike for the past 12 weeks lol

Look forward to these weekly write ups Les. However, I should be out on these clubruns myself. Been busy with other things on Sundays recently for some reason.
Big Kev's recovery looks to be coming on fine.
Hope you prime junkies will be entering the 'Presidents RR', as you can do it for real then!