Sandals, Celebrations and Ambitious about Autism (Rapha 220).

June saw some nice weather. So much so, I was able to cycle wearing sandals once more. Ha!

June was also the month that saw a short trip to Weston. We celebrated SJ's birthday which just happened to fall on Father's day this year too. Melody suggested we go away to the beach and get some tattoo's...

Mudguards were fitted to GerTruDe too. Doesn't she look awesome. Packed and ready for adventure!

And adventure came real soon after! AdVeNtUrE sQuAd embarked on a rather fancy trip to Holyhead and back! Yes indeed, Jamie and I cycled 414k raising monies and awareness for autism as part of the Rapha 220 Ambitious about Autism event.

This was a 2 day event and we left Wellington on a rather sunny morning. Cycling was beautiful and the scenery just appeared to get more beautiful the more we cycled. Our first stop was at the lovely lake Vyrnwy. Our tasty super sausage sandwich was almost as lovely, but not quite!

Lovely roads followed and they took us higher and higher. Was in awe at the beauty of God's creation. Fantastic.

The road stretched long and far. Our journey took us through Oswestry, Llanwddyn, Bala and Cynllwyd. That's into Snowdonia basically. How cool is that?!

First slight menace happened not long after. This menace was in the form of a slipping seat post. No matter how much we stopped and tightened the post, it continued to slip for the remaining duration of the event. Most annoying. (I have a cheap naff post on my bike whilst I await delivery of my Thomson post).

With post tightened and having completed some serious hills, we had further hills to conquer! Having cycled over Bwlch y Groes, we took the mountain road to Trawsfynydd, past Snowdon and onto the Llanberis pass. Soon after we crossed the Menai Bridge and hit the terrain of Anglesey. 

Once in Anglesey, we figured we should start finding a suitable place to (wild) camp. Then just like that, pfft, I experienced further menace in the form of a puncture. Swapped tube and that wouldn't inflate. Grr. Grabbed a third tube and all was well. Just as we fixed this tube issue, a fellow came from his house (we were on his drive) and asked if all was OK. We replied that all was well and informed him of our plans to find a pitch to camp. This fellow suggested we camp out on his paddock and said he had an on-site tap we could use. We were happy to crash and took him up on this offer. Better yet, as we pitched our bivvy's, he came out and watered us with tea and fed us with butties!

Relatively good sleep, which helped as we had an early doors start. I think we were awake at 5 and off not too long after. Much of Holyhead cycled and then a return direction headed for.

Much of the return route was a busy menace A5 road. I daresay, it would have been quiet if we didn't camp and travelled back at night. However, we did experience some delights along the way. One such delight was cycling through Llanfair.... the longest place name in Wales! We also passed a stone circle (not sure which one, not sure if historic or modern, but do know it was in/near Bangor and Garth) and a rather fancy pier which reminded me of my trip to Weston.

Relatively fast pace took us back to the start. Jamie was racing against time to ensure he could pick up his son and I was racing to get a Burger King. All in all, a great trip and good preparation for the King Alfred's Way which we start after just 1 day of rest.

Brum 200 2021

Sometime back in June, I cycled a wonderful cycling event called the 'Brum 200'. I had cycled this event at least once before, however, previous time(s) were 'permanent' events as opposed to this 'calendar' event. Certainly remember cycling the event back in 2019 with Louy and Toll. Louy was super fast and Toll was super sick. The lovely yellow patch from completing that event is stitched to my saddle bag. I thought I had cycled it another time solo too but I'm struggling to recount any details. Hmm.  Anyways, this latest rendition was cycled with my buddy Ron and his niece Catalina. 

The event started (and finished) in Balsall Common. The trip was a circular route and visited Cannock Chase, Iron Bridge, Kinver and Balsall Common. Essentially keeping Birmingham in the centre and ensuring we stayed far away. Ha!

Covid had prevented this event running earlier - it was planned for 2020. A wonderful pink badge was awarded for completing the ride - this was to originally match the day the Giro was decided. I wonder if other colours will become available?!

High-lights from the day included the fact that Catalina's club mates got 'chicked'. These club mates set off fast and stated they would like to complete in '6-8' hours. They didn't, and Catalina beat them back easily (with Ron and I). The chips at Iron Bridge were lovely. It was a super hot today and cycling outside of rush hour was a bonus as little traffic hogged the roads. Was nice to meet the organiser, Paollo at the start. Was also great completing a 200k event on my new Kinesis steed.

Job Done!

April to May (Something in the way)

Whoa, haven't blogged in a while but taken part in much adventure. Was getting a bit frustrated with this blog platform to be honest and toyed with the idea of creating a new blog. However, for now at least, have decided to stay put. This blog platform is free and despite the others have many improved features, they all charge fees for blog hosting etc and despite talking about monthly fee's what folk to pay up annually. Pah!

Naff pic, great badge

Ron the Phantom

Our trusty steeds

Ok, so what have I been up to since my last post? Well, the first kinda cool thing I did was to cycle to Dynamic Cycles and collect my 'A Day in Hell' pin badge. I collected one for Ron too. Hmm, this means I'll have to cycle this event with Ron one time. Ha!

Next awesome adventure was a 200k audax event. I've since lost most of the info about this ride but let me tell you what I can remember. It was an event titled 'Goats Head Soup' and was about 160k long. I cycled this event with Ron, Jamie and Kay who was cycling her brand new bike. We passed through 2 tunnels including the longest tunnel in England at just over a mile long. Amongst the wonders of the day was a stone circle in or near Compton Martin. We cycled a long stretch without food. It was a lot of fun. This was the first Oliver Ile's audax that any of us had cycled.

The 1st May was the night of the Big Brummie Campout. My girls both wanted to camp initially so we all snuggled into my little 2 man tent in the garden. All was well for about an hour and then the girls decided to abandon camp and go back indoors. I went back indoors too, but only to get Ernie. Ernie and I had a boys night out. At least a few quids were raised to help the homeless.

Lovely views on Gospel Pass Skivers

Fed this horse a locket as had no polo's

Rainbow Dash's last trip

The Gospel Pass Skivers was a further 200k audax that was completed in April. This was an interesting ride and was Rainbow Dash's (my Specialized Roubaix Comp) last trip. Relatively unusual for an audax to start on a Friday morning. This was not the first time I had cycled over the Gospel Pass, however, cycled a different route round. Cycles a stretch with this fella called Frasier who was an interesting guy - though he dropped me when the serious climbs kicked in. Small stretcg cycled with Phil Whiteman (organiser) and about 25% cycled solo style. A nice, relatively tough route (about 3,000m climbing) with Ankerdine Hill (freshly gravel surfaced) proving to be the final sting in the tail.

GerTruDe

Rainbow Dash had seen a number of adventures, however, decided to retire her. I was not happy with the 'suspension' for the front bars and felt it knocked the geometry out and essentially made the bike less comfortable. My previous Roubaix (which I still use) feels way more comfy. Anyways, I had ordered a MTB via the cycle to work scheme but delivery wasn't expected to next year. So, I cancelled the order and replaced with a nice shiny new titanium frame. Yup, I've gotten my hands on a Kinesis GTD ('Go The Distance') V2 frameset. Rainbow Dash's guts (groupset) was used to build up my Kinesis. Welcome GerTruDe, am sure you're gonna be an awesome ride!

Before the month of May was out, I was able to combine 2 great adventures into 1. Rob, Ron and I went for a wild camp and I used this as part of my Gravel Union Doorstep Challenge. The wild camp was fun, despite it raining from start to pretty much finish.

The Gravel Union Doorstep Challenge was a lot of fun. It was a good excuse to pedal a few local miles really and take a few random photo's. I doubt my entries will win a prize.