Kit:
On-One bootzipper rigid 29er with 2.1” tyres.
Garmin etrex 10
2x 750ml bottles
Small frame bag:
Spare tube, pump, levers, spare pads, quick link etc
Phone, battery pack, AAs for etrex
Lights - cheapo eBay one for bar plus spare battery and bulb, lezyne micro drive rear and joystick on the helmet
Some hydration tabs, pro plus, 1 x chamois cream sachet, 2 x alcohol wipes (in case of greasy chain repairs not actually a Covid thing but could be used for either!)
Any spare space here stuffed with food.
Handlebar bag:
Down gillet
Homemade bivvy bag
Homemade apex climashield 100 quilt
Alpkit cloudbase mat
Saddlebag:
MSR trailshot filter
Haribo
Montane prism jacket
Small first aid kit
Waterproof jacket
More food: granola bars, brioches
Warm gloves
Extra jersey
Top tube bag:
Vaseline, buff, multi tool
Headtorch
Couple of bars
The plan:
I had already booked the weekend in October (11?) that the event was supposed to be taking place on so I stuck to it, rain or shine.
I was initially planning on parking in Hay and starting there, mainly because that would have been England and thus easiest from a ‘restrictions’ point of view. In the end I decided to just minimise my overall driving time and start in the south east of the route. Near Pandy there’s a pub on route called the Queen (Inn?) which has a walkers car park for a couple of quid a day, so I chucked a few coins in their letter box on the day. From what I could decipher from the Welsh government website I was allowed to travel to this area. The big disadvantage of starting here was that the big climb over Hay Bluff would come late in the ride...
As far as stops on the way my only real target was to get to Subway in Builth Wells before they shut at around 6pm.
The ride:
I opted to get an early start from home having packed the car the night before. I set off around 4am to get parked up for 6ish and then set off at very first light. I had a couple of instant porridge pots so filled a thermos with boiling water at home and this saved the faff of boiling water for breakfast once I was parked up. After breakfast I checked my kit, took a deep breath and set off as planned. This was my first BB200 and I was a bit apprehensive about it all to be honest. I was really looking forward to the ‘event’ of what I’d read about in previous years. Chatting with others, probably riding alongside others at times and generally not feeling too alone on the route. I felt very much alone as I made mental note of the time on my gps and with no fanfare whatsoever rolled out of the car park.
Upon exit from the car park I was rather glad no one was around to witness my first pedal strokes. There was a punchy little climb straight off the bat, a crunch of gears and I thought I might be driving home before that Subway even opened. The nearest thing to lean my bike on was in fact my car, 50m away, so I walked back there to correctly set the limit screw on my mech (once my chain was extracted from the spokes). 5 minutes in and my net distance along the route was zero.
My second depart exceeded the first and I was away. Several sharp little numbers ticked by and I was mostly distracted by a blazing sunrise to the east. A lovely HAB section through Mynydd du Forest was the first time on this ride that I would I question my life choices that had led me to where I was now.
Eventually I broke free of the trees and was able to make use of the pedals, chain and sprockets instead of taking them for a walk.
The open section of moor here gave a number of options on the ground, the etrex being a simple piece of machinery just showed me a single line. Me being a simple human obviously chose the ‘wrong’ line and I certainly got value out of the climb to get up here by trying out many of the available paths. Eventually I Goldilocksed the right one and had my first taste of the rollercoaster of emotions that this ride was to be. Truthfully I didn’t really enjoy the climb up but I was whooping with elation to myself at the swooping turns opening up in front of me.
Another try-before-you-buy on a number of paths through a gate into some woods led me to the road and descent into Crickhowel. I was probably only about 20km in so I nimbly (or not as the case probably was) snuck through the one way system and launched into the large road climb out the other side. This went on for far longer than I can remember, thinking back it felt like hours. A quick descent on some backroads covered with acorns caused much amusement at the ‘popping bubble wrap’ sensation of riding over these and crushing them as I went.
More back roads eventually resulted in a long a slippery climb which had me swearing a plenty. I popped out above Talybont reservoir and was ill prepared for the bone shaker ride down through a stream the other side. It wasn’t half fun though! I felt overloaded and underbiked but that makes you feel harder for even trying it. The disused railway path afterwards just felt tame. I was running out of water by this point so pulled over at a stream and gave my forearms a workout on the Trailshot. Winding onwards through the valleys I had a feeling I was coming up on The Gap. Never having ridden around here I was a bit apprehensive as to what I would find here. I didn’t help myself by having a stupid crash just before the main ascent. I had a ‘oh dear Legs old chap, your foot hasn’t quite unclipped in time here’ moment but instead of falling into the hill, I took the long route to the ground and fell downhill, bike on top of me. Images of crawling back to the car park to hail an ambulance briefly crossed my mind as I thought I’d split my kneecap open, but I soon laughed it off. They were tears of laughter. Definitely laughter. This was followed by a significant volley of swearing.
Plenty of folk out around The Gap and there were more than a couple of tricky sections on the descent but I was feeling very cautious after my crash so took it easy. In order to finish, you have to actually finish! I had been keeping an eye on who else on the forum had been riding the route and so far there had been no finishers that had posted publicly of their ride. So, either I was stupid for thinking I could take this on, or all I had to do was look after myself, look after my bike, keep riding and I would be ok. Every kilometre ridden would be one less that I had to ride to get home.
Coming away from The Gap, I started to recognise a pattern to the route, just as I was being lulled into a false sense of security of a few tarmac miles, I saw a small gap in the hedgerow and a rotting sign for a bridleway. I didn’t even need to look down and check the Garmin, I knew I was headed through that bush. This time was a mercifully short hop of trackless-ness across a field before falling back into lanes heading for the Brecon visitor centre. I actually didn’t even look to see if this was open as I was pretty set on my Subway in Builth.
The next section of 30km or so was brutal. Fortunately for the reader I’ve blanked most of it from memory. What I do remember was endless trackless boggy HAB. And the field of turnips, Sweary Dave would have been proud of some of the things I called those turnips. At least the descent into Builth was fun if wet. The weather hadn’t actually been too bad so far, drizzle in clouds but it kicked it up a gear here.
These last joyful hours went on a little longer than I had planned and Subway had shut it’s doors. Burger King it was then, two double halloumi burger meals with fries, one coke and one coffee. I’d like to apologise to the staff for the pile of mud, rain and crumbs that I deposited on the floor but I really needed those burgers. A moral boosting phone call home was also had and I shuffled my way round the Coop picking up some drinks and cookies for the night. It was proper dark and raining when I left, total stopped time was probably about an hour but I needed the fuel and mental break. I wore my spare jersey and warmer gloves from here on. I also splashed out 20p on two carrier bags from the Coop to add a layer between my socks and my shoes. One of my favourite tricks for warmth, I’d usually opt for Subway bags, since they’re about a foot long (
) and inherently better foot shaped.The next 25km or so I felt like I was flying, no idea what goes into a BK halloumi burger (yeah, it probably isn’t that much halloumi...) but it was working for me. The clouds cleared for a starry sky and I was felt privileged to be able to ride on into the night.
There were three big ‘up-and-over’ sections between me and Hay. I had scouted the shop in Hay as a possible food stop. These sections were all relatively easy to follow on the ground but heck were there some steep sections!
I saw what I presumed to be another rider here, the only other possible BB rider on the whole route. A tent at the side of the path and a gravelly looking bike parked next to it. I could hear some serious snoring as I passed by and I tried to manage the gate as quietly as possible so apologies to that rider if I failed there.
I had to refill water at one point, I’m pretty glad I had some Haribo in the same bag as my filter as stopping for 5 mins was balanced by a nice sugar boost!
I also had the infamous run in with the land owner somewhere around here, he obviously wasn’t happy with my transiting around his property in the small hours and took after me shouting something or other. I didn’t hang around for a reasoned conversation with this chap but I did notice my front tyre was slowly coming down. I figured I’d get some distance between us before I tended to the puncture...
At around midnight I had made the decision to try and push on through. I chucked back a couple of pro plus and these saw me through to around 4am which coincided with my arrival in Hay. After a longish descent I was pretty cold and tired, I’d been slower than my on the fly calculations and knew that I didn’t have it in my legs to carry on too much longer and didn’t need to risk an injury in the dark up on Hay Bluff.
I figured Hay might be able to provide a church porch for a few hours kip. I might even get a wake up call from the early morning congregation.
Three laps of the town I did. Three. And in my clumsy state I couldn’t find anywhere suitable, of course I’d seen a perfect church about 2km back on the route but it was both backwards and uphill. I eventually gave up and carried on along the route. I knew I was headed towards the ford crossing that had been much discussed. I managed to ride through ok and stopped at the trail side a bit further on. Hardly a flat spot but I had my bivvy bag out and alarm set before I could care too much more. I forced down some food and slept until my alarm at first light.
Just under two hours kip. I found it hard to get going again but the daylight was a positive boost, much needed for the climb up to Hay Bluff. I really struggled to get any food onboard here and felt as if I was running on fumes as I pushed and carried my bike all the way to the summit.
I think I finally snapped after about half an hour of pushing through boggy tussock-y crap on top before realising there was at least some semblance of a path about 50m to my right. I was minutes away from listing the kit above in the classifieds thread: job lot, buyer collects (from Hay Bluff), any offer accepted.
Once on something vaguely resembling a path and having carried my bike up to the top, I promptly carried it right back down again. Kudos to anyone who rode that descent.
I just about kept it together for the last 10-15km or so but really the end couldn’t have come quicker. I was knackered and not being able to eat properly had me on empty.
However, as soon as I saw the car park, I bounced back and was happy as Larry! Funny that...
I made a note of the time (approx 28.5hrs in total), packed my kit up much to the bemusement of the walkers who were getting ready for their Sunday stroll and headed for the Golden Arches I had spotted near Abergavenny on my drive in. Suitably filled with junk food I trundled back home, stretching out the return journey with more fast food stops and power naps. I was excited to email Stuart my gpx file and confirm my blue badge and I was indeed the first rider to contact him claiming completion of the route.
Reflections:
Dave Barter wrote in one of his BB200 reports on here that it’s easy to look back and think I could have gone faster if X, Y and Z. Maybe I could, but that’s the performance I did on the day. I’m just pleased to have actually finished it! I wasn’t anywhere near the pace of the fast guys, I think Matt Page nearly halved my time.
Despite what I told myself for weeks afterwards, I’m now chomping at the bit to come back for the next one. I think riding with others around would be much more fun. Fingers crossed for a slightly less individual ITT in 2021.
Would I do anything differently? I think some kind of very accessible stem cell feed bags would be good so that getting food isn’t any effort at all. Even getting stuff out of my jersey pockets with layers on top was too much faff sometimes.
My thanks must go to the organisers, plotting a route like that takes time and thought and there are certainly sections that I would seek out to ride again.
I only took one photo on the entire round, apologies for those who like pictures. Taken during that stop at Burger King in Builth, here it is, and no it’s not pretty.
