20th June 2010 David Lloyd Challenge

Being not far from home and running out of Ruthin in amongst the Clwydian Hills, the David Lloyd Challenge sportive has 3 routes, of which I chose the shorter.  Shorter being 50 miles and a total of 1300 metres of climbing for which the route and profile is published here.

This isn't a tale of success and daring-do, but it is a story of a ride that was hard, incomplete and yet still something that's given me a lot of benefit to my riding.

Heading out of Ruthin school on the via Nirone 7, it was straight into the climb along The Shelf (it runs from left to right and slightly down across this satellite photo) towards the East of Ruthin:


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  This went well - its not VERY steep, but it does go on for some time.  Halfway up the climb the sleeves came off as the Sun's heat started to make itsself felt.  Great views and surrounding countryside.

Next up was the A542 - the Horseshoe Pass ascent up to The Ponderosa Cafe - still feeling comfortable up here, passing a few riders on the climb, but a bit diasppointing not to stop at the cafe at the top - its a favourite on a sunny Sunday with all the motor bikes, classic cars etc.  The following descent would normally be great fun, but today its brakes on all the way and be aware of potholes appearing from nowhere.  There's some deep holes down here and hitting them at 40mph could be a really nasty experience.

Photo - about to overtake a couple of guys on the ascent to The Ponderosa Cafe

The next climb was over World's End.  Never been over there before (seems a bit ridiculous, given how close it is to home), neither in the car nor on a bike.  Its a long long climb up to the main plateau (which continues to climb for most of the way, but its only gentle) which is wild and a bit desolate. A couple of cyclists when past me on this climb, but I caught another couple up too, so no net loss or gain - not that its a race of course.  In the valley and up the climb the temperatures had climbed to over 20, at a guess, but up on the top it was distinctly cooler.  Once over the top, there's a very fast, very long descent towards Llangollen, turning left and heading through  towards Llandegla, just before getting to the final descent into Llangollen itsself.  The road is pretty rough and you need to be prepared to stop at the t-junction at the bottom which comes up pretty quickly.  The lightweight waterproof went on for this descent as its long enough to bother and it was chilly enough to care.  You can see the road snaking across World's End from Egwyseg to Minera below:


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When I think back, I probably wasn't drinking enough - I don't remember taking any fluid on during the World's End climb - I currently find it difficult to drink / breathe / climb at the same time.

From World's End it was a flatish / downhill run towards Rhydtalog, which was very welcome, but then the climb up through the village and passing close by my usual MTB haunt at Llandegla forest.  This was followed by the roller coater road down to Llanarmon-yn-lal.  From there the route headed over another less vicious climb over to the main A494 Mold to Ruthin road.  Just before the A494 and some 35 miles in was the one and only refreshment stop.  It was here I realised that I hadn't been drinking enough as I still had half a litre on board and the plan would've been to have finished pretty much all of my 1.5 litres between 30 and 32 miles.  The section along the A494 is a bit dull, but at least the newly resurfaced road is very smooth and makes for swift progress.

Turning left at Tafarn-y-Gelyn and then immediately right onto the road to Cilcain its back onto single track roads and some undulations but with the general lie of the land being upwards into Cilcain itsself.  Once past Cilcain there's another section of downhill to the A541 between Mold and Denbigh - turning left here.  After a very short section its left again and onto another main climb over Moel Arthur.  The scenery here is great, as is the view from the top, but this was a real struggle for me this time.  I've created a ride on the cycle routes site that includes this and the next climb as a route out of Mold so I can start to practice them somewhat more often.  The descent is really fast and again the road is very rough in places.  By the time you join the road to Llandebr DC, the hands are aching somewhat with being on the brakes for so long.  The descent goes right to left and you can see the peak of Moel Arthur in the top right of this image:


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Heading along the reasonably flat road back over to Llanbedr DC and the A494 again, I began to realise just how tired I was becoming, with concentration becoming difficult and even the reasonably small rises being quite hard work.  And there was still the 1 in 4 climb up to Moel Famau to come.  Realising that was more likely to be a walk than a ride for me, I took the decision to cut the route and turned right on the A494 and headed back to the event HQ at Ruthin School.  Of course, this resulted in a "DNF" (did not finish) and no official time, but at least I know where my limits are at the moment!
Had some advice from a local enthusiastic roadie about tyre choice for this event.  Lots of advice about the very poor state of the roads and where to avoid pot holes etc.  I managed to avoid any serious trouble, but there were a number of potholes and road edges that caught me out, but suffice to say that the Conti Gatorskins peformed with utter reliability, even with only a 23C tyre.