Ride Clwyd 2022 - second 25mile exploration

For the 2022 edition of Ride Clwyd I want to go North to explore routes all the way to the coast and then West into the remote parts of North-Central Wales. Very different from 2021.

First 25miles took me out over the high Halkyn mining and quarry area last week - great scenery relatively near Chester and Broughton - see previous post.  

The second 25mile was going to be completely unfamiliar:

Looking West

 

South out of Dyserth there are good roads rising up to give great views to the West.  There's a flat ride across the top part of the Vale of Clwyd and then it gets back to climbing after Henllan.  A long ascent with chunks of 10%+ got me over to Plasisaf - Strava link (2.7miles long, 1,000ft gained).

The roads were in excellent condition, many sections of new, super-smooth tarmac well up to Formula 1 standards.

10% climbs out of Henllan

It was after Llansanan that things got properly serious - the climbing went up to 18% very quickly and stayed that way for a good while - Strava link (2.3miles, 700ft gained).

18% out of Llansanan

More lumps and bumps after that before eventually emerging onto the remote, windswept moors. Here you really are alone in a massive landscape.

This could be a challenging area in poor weather conditions... Easy riding and very little traffic took me over the Aled Isaf reservoir and then onto the bigger Lyn Aled.

Approaching the reservoirs

 For the event we are likely to have a food stop somewhere on the moors so at least there'll be a friendly spot for participants to call in on.

Previous post - the first 25miles

Next post - more remote riding before a return to civilization...

Evans Ride It Cannock 2018

Good weather forecast for Sunday turned sour on Saturday night - this was going to be wet, wet, wet.

Packed the car in the rain.  Drove an hour in the rain.  Assembled the bike and registered in the rain.  Set off in the rain.  Rode all the way around in the rain.  Finished in the rain. 

Got home, rain stopped.

The organisers had already cut out the Long Route option - 80miles+ in rain just wouldn't be fun.  I switched to the 30 mile Short option to keep my exposure down to a couple of hours.

Event HQ was in a forest, down a track which meant the first/last 200metres of the course was on forest gravel track.  Well jacketed up I had a brief briefing and then sent on my way  - just about the last one to leave but caught up various soggy participants pretty soon.

Have I mentioned the rain?  Not cold, not windy but after a while it got to me - you kind of shrivel up inside your rain jacket and "cope".  Unfortunately that means you aren't going very fast and that means you start to get cold. 

Luckily the food stop arrived just in time (about an hour in) and re-energised with jelly beans I resolved to "push on" in an attempt to generate some internal warmth, and finish the event off as quickly as possible.

Another soggy rider completes

 Managed to pass quite a few pairs of riders on this more determined leg of my ride and found a single easy climb back up on to the Chase to give me confidence that I was nearing the end.  One disturbing thing I noticed - my leggings were oozing soap.  Clearly the last washing machine rinse had been less effective than the current "rinsing" I was getting on the ride.   

I'd have got less wet inside a washing machine.

Pretty low key end was fine and Evans had set up a rough changing room so it was possible to get dry.  Immediately on finishing I experienced the only pleasure such a ride affords - the pleasure of it being over - "I'm glad that's over" and then once changed the intense pleasure of having dry socks and a hot cup of coffee - life made simple, forget your worries, you've got dry socks and that's enough for now.

Training Notes #5 - warm toes

When you ride for a long time in the cold its your feet that can suffer.  No amount of socks and over-shoes can resist the gradual, icy onset of frozen toes.

They may take an hour to get cold, and may be you can cope with another hour of pain but when you go longer it can really start to impinge on the ride.  If you're doing 3 hours or 4 with painful, frozen feet it can become the main limit on your performance.

With a 4+ hour cold ride set for last weekend I decided to do something about this.

If all the socks and overshoes aren't enough, what next?  Ah ha, heat is what I need.  Yes, some actual warmth inside the shoe.  A quick internet trawl brought up various electric foot warmers from £20 to £70 and upwards, and a range of reviews about them.

And then I came across "Hothands Foot Warmers" - £4 for a 5 pack from Tesco. These are slim pads that you stick to the underside of your sock.  Unwrapping them from their packet activates the pad and it starts generating gentle heat.

On Sunday the temperature started at 0deg and rose to 2deg by mid-day.  My feet were toasty the whole way around!  So just one less thing to deal with when your out on a big one, and with probably just 4 or 5 big rides planned for these deep winter months it looks like a single pack will do me.  Sorted.

Training Notes #4 - cold weather riding

When it gets really cold you may need to take extra measures, above you regular winter set-up, to keep yourself warm:

• Double leggings - so 2 layers.  Your legs never feel cold but giving them extra insulation means they don't loose heat
• Multiple, multiple layers - consider wearing many cycling jerseys.  You've got enough clothes on when you feel your movement is slightly restricted.  Another sign is when you feel slightly over-dressed whilst indoors - uncomfortable is good when indoors
• Scarf or neck tube - this can really be effective, and easy to remove if things get too hot
• Gloves - inner and outer gloves, the outer should resemble motorcycle gloves and should cause your hands to go moist on warmer days.  Consider carrying extra gloves just in case the first pairs get wet
• Balaclava - this is really extreme, on really cold days you can still build up quite a heat wearing one of these
• Thermos with hot coffee - now you're talking!  You can get dehydrated because you're reluctant to drink the cold water in your bidon.  A warm drink can also help keep your core temperature up
• Shoes - lots of shoes have large vents for summer riding.  No amount of socks or over-shoes will make up for this fundamental gap.  Solution - wrap gaffer/parcel tape over the main holes.

Anyone else got any tips?

sunday snow ride

 

 



It stopped snowing by 4pm and the roads looked dry so out I went for a quick ride.

Snow road riding tips:

1)  Watch out for birds roosting in the hedges - who decide to fly out into you as you go by - they must have been forced out of the trees

2)  Drifts and snow falling off trees -the road is clear bu then there's this drift of icy snow - sometimes the entrances to fields allow the wind to blow snow onto the road

3)  The gritter.  Spreading razor sharpe salt.  Take extra spare inner tubes because you can get more than one puncture.

4)  Don't stay out too long - its too cold and you've done well to go out at all!

sunday snow ride by rideventures at Garmin Connect - Details

A quickie

Miserable day but tempted out by late arfternoon sunshine (that quickly disapeared).  Anyway, here are some more pictures from yesterdays much nicer bike ride:



a quickie at Garmin Connect - Details

Sun

So good to be out in the sun and not have to worry about the cold, the rain, the wind!

This picture has special significance for me - I spent 10 year commuting along this rail line - until 2 days ago.



Condover village

sun at Garmin Connect - Details

Lunchtime ride

Quick lunch session to get out for the first time in 10 days. Sunshine and brief showers, and a modest pace and distance so it was easy to get back to work immediately afterwards - and so much easier when the weather is just a bit nicer and you don't have to tog up to the gills.

Makes 100km total for Feb so far - of 400km target, so more work to do this month.

lunchtime at Garmin Connect - Details

Pretty and cold

Felt sure it would warm up - but it didn't - despite all the lovely sunshine.  Made it all the way to Market Drayton - it's great when you have a bike ride that actually goes somewhere!  But by then the cold was too much - when you are on the edge, pushing your limit in terms of distance it's just too much to have all this cold and wind at you on top.

So at Market Drayton I turned for home, as planned, but saw a 16 miles to Shrewsbury sign and just decided to get home the fast, main road way - and have to say it was a relief after all the car free, little roads full of mud and potential wrong turns and with no ability to just cruise along.  There are time when just blasting along is good!



pretty and cold at Garmin Connect - Details

Too cold!

Planned early morning and lunchtime training sessions but heavy frost and temperatures rising to -1 by mid-day meant I cancelled the lot. 

OK its cold but I also felt cycling on fresh gritted roads (razor sharp salt crystals) means I could end up trying to mend a puncture in minus temperatures....

....and then I just felt if I got into trouble or fell off or even ended up needing the emergency services (yes I know an extreme thought but more likely on such a day) then they would be justifiably cheesed off about having to help someone taking an unnecessary journey on an already busy day.

So a day to stay indoors and be ready for another time.

At last back on the bike!

road ford in full flood



All the snow has gone overnight - had almost forgotten what it looked like without white all over the place.  Cautious start to ride but grew in confidence as aches and pains of inactivity dropped off.


Windy then rainy - needle sharp rain right in the face, then it started going dark, then my front light wouldn't work so turned for home.  and 5 minutes later the rain stopped, the clouds parted for an extra bit of daylight and the front light just came on all by itself - so I went for more and managed to get a whole 50km in.

All goes towards the Strava Baseline Challenge - I'm now at 177miles so just 23 miles short of earning the first Starva badge - so I spent most of the ride planning when I could fit in the final distances before the end of January.  Might still do it...


At last back on the bike! at Garmin Connect - Details

Weights

Winter is for weights.  I really believe these work wonders - I can feel the difference when I ride.  Hopefully this is the last day of snow - tomorrow will be warmer and wetter!   And in the meantime I can stay indoors and build strength - ready for better times.

I'm not a fan of turbo training.  The comment one often hears is about how boring it is, and somehow that puts me off.