With mine and Jim’s plans for a diagonale attempt in 2021 aborted, the Welsh end to end was our Plan B ride. The Bryan Chapman Memorial (BCM) would take us through the Welsh hills, valleys and coast line through >600Km of riding, and we were both looking forward to it.
In our discussions on doing the ride we had agreed on starting from Newtown, which was a 45 minute drive from Jim’s place. This would allow Jim’s wife to drop us off and pick us up easily.
As I was going for my 3rd Super Randonneur Award, this ride would be the last one to qualify for it, the 200, 300 and 400 being already in the bag. So, I applied to the BCM Permanent organiser (cheque for £3, a couple of SAEs and the application form was all that was needed) explaining that as opposed to starting and finishing in Chepstow, we would instead use Newtown for départ/arrivée. A few days later my Brevet card and route sheet arrived in the post.
I had found a GPX file of the whole permanent route through a link on the YACF forum in a BCM thread, so began getting myself familiar with the route, I also verified the route against the route sheet I’d been sent from the organiser. All seemed in order.
I did re-cut the route to start/finish in Newtown and I also split it into 2 stages, Newtown-Rhayader (265Km) and Rhayader-Newtown (353Km). Jim and I had discussed this, and had agreed on Rhayader being a good spot to stop for the evening, despite it being a shorter day 1. There wasn’t much in the way of lodging options at a suitable interval past Rhayader.
There were some very narrow road and footbridge sections on the route, so I checked some of these using google street view and all looked fine. Jim and I had a chat to double confirm the route and to agree on our schedule. Jim knows Wales inside out, so the route check was easy enough, we just had to make sure that we planned a stop in each control town (of which there were 15) even if it was an ATM receipt or a chocolate bar that was purchased for proof of passage. Some of the control towns wouldn’t work for us timing wise for food stops, so we added in a few stops where we knew we’d need to have food; Abergavenny, Machynlleth and Beddgelert. These were informed by Jim’s local knowledge.
Travel
Not wishing to leave my family without a car for a few days I decided I would take the train to Jim’s place. This meant 3 different trains, and booking the bike on with one of the operators. So, I reviewed which trains I would need to take; Stamford-Birmingham, Birmingham-Shrewsbury, and Shrewsbury-Church Stretton. A bicycle reservation was required on the first train only, and annoyingly, there is no way to reserve this online, so I had to call the train operator to reserve the bike… in any case, there was space and I got the reservations then made the ticket purchases. Bit of a pain in the arse, and isn’t really in line with the train operators schpeel about how easy it is to take bikes on board their trains. the inbound return journey was a straight reverse of the outbound.
There was another cyclist as I arrived at Stamford Railway Station, so that was the allocation already consumed… as we boarded the train we could see another bike in Coach C, along with a passenger with a Brompton. We all got bikes in and when the conductor came round after a couple of minutes, she asked us to re-configure a little which we were all happy to do. I got chatting to the other cyclist who boarded at Stamford, he was asking about my bike and my planned ride, and I learned from him that he was getting the train to Aberystwyth and would ride to Lowestoft. Nice.
Once we were asked to re configure I got chatting to the Brompton owner, who had been visiting his daughter in Suffolk and was on his way back to Preston. He sang the virtues of his Brompton and I enjoyed chatting with him.
Birmingham New Street Railway Station had changed beyond recognition to me, and it was not clear how to get from Platform 12 to Platform 2b… so after asking staff, I had to pass my ticket through the Platform 12 exit and then move to Platform 2b. I had trouble trying to scan the e-ticket barcode in accessing Platform 2b and then had a staff member proceed to tell me I didn’t have a valid ticket (I did), and then try and activate my tickets for the inbound journey (don’t do that you donut)… bloody hell! So different to Japan, where this stuff just works really well. Anyway, I managed to get through onto the platform for Shrewsbury and then get on the train without further issue. Journey to Shrewsbury was also fine.
Arriving in Shrewsbury I was hungry so I got myself some food and ate it on the platform during the 30 minute wait time for the next train. The train arrived on time but again there was another person with a bike who would need to board and the train pulled up looking bloody full… into the in-between spaces it was then. It was only 15 minutes though so didn’t matter to me.
I met up with Jim and his wife Rose, and then we went to a nice tea room for refreshments, my mate Chris also met us there which was great. Chris ended up volunteering to pick me and Jim up after we had finished up our ride. Excellent news and very generous of Chris to offer his time to us. I sent him a copy of the schedule.
Départ // Newtown
Jim was up at 03:30 loading our bikes into the car, and I got myself up a shade before 04:00. A decent breakfast of granola and yoghurt was consumed and then it was time to get the final saddle bag pack done. I was in the kitchen and all of a sudden Jim burst in from the garage demanding anti-histamine and paracetamol tablets… he’d been stung twice on the head by wasps! We got him sorted out but Jim was clearly in some discomfort. It turns out that he’d opened the window in the loo and a swarm of wasps had dived straight in! On later inspection a wasps nest had been made close to the window that Jim had opened. We carried on loading the car and left for Newtown at 04:45. Under an hour later we were in Newtown and preparing to depart.
We rode into the town centre from the Railway Station, simply to get proof of passage from an ATM. Once obtained we were off and quickly began climbing up to Llandrindod Wells.
Newtown // Llandrindod Wells
The road quickly started to rise as we made our way out of Newtown. It was great to be riding, the road surfacing was absolutely excellent and the hills reminded me of gentle alpine gradients. Nice start. A rattle developed on my bike so we had to stop a couple of times to identify the source, it was one of the seat rail clamps which needed tightening.
First control town was Llandrindod Wells, home of the National Cycle Museum. It wasn’t open when we rolled through so we controlled at the garage a few hundred metres down the road, which was also a timely toilet stop. We didn’t eat at the control, I just purchased a chocolate bar so I could get a receipt for proof of passage.
Llandrindod Wells // Hay-on-Wye
Due to the early hour we hadn’t encountered much traffic, but now we had turned off the main road and were on roads that felt totally empty, narrow lanes with bloody steep climbs. We headed south west, through Hundred House moor, onto Painscastle and then Hay-on-Wye. The climb up onto the moor was very steep at 18% grade, I ground up it in my lowest gear, breathing hard and thinking “shit, if there is more of this kind of steepness to come then I could be in trouble”.
We got to Hay-on-Wye and found a café to eat a second breakfast at. Coffee and two croissants each were quickly consumed, and Jim confirmed that the steepness of the climb up onto the moor would likely be the worst we’d encounter… which I was thankful for.
Hay-on-Wye // Monmouth
52Km of rolling countryside skirting south of Hereford and west of Ross-on-Wye to our next control at Monmouth. I’d been here before years ago when I was playing in a band and we’d spent some time at the residential studio in Rockfield. Good memories for me.
We arrived in Monmouth and just had a quick stop in the Lidl supermarket, I needed a proof of passage receipt for the control, so got a packet of fig rolls. I didn’t realise but Jim doesn’t like fig rolls, so I ate a few and then pocketed the rest before moving on to the next stop.
Monmouth // Chepstow
We left Monmouth, and were quickly following the River Wye all the way. It was a picturesque road, heavily tree lined and rolling nicely up and down. We caught frequent glimpses of the river and could hear the water flowing whilst riding. I remembered this stretch of road from my Lands End to John O Groats ride in 2005, which I rode with Chris, and in the reverse way to this ride. I recalled that there was an old Abbey at Tintern, which I was on the look out for.
Shortly after passing the Abbey we were arriving in Chepstow, or as Jim called it; “Cheppers”. My route had us going into town, but Jim recommended a Spar shop on the corner of the road that we would need to take out of Cheppers. So we stopped and controlled at the Spar shop. Sarnies, Crisps, Muller Rice and Coca Cola were consumed – and all very much needed.
Chepstow // Usk
Leaving Chepstow we were refreshed from having some time off the bikes and food in our bodies. We took the B4235 towards Usk and with the road climbing upwards for around 12Km, we were able to get into a good rhythm. Stopped at the side of the road for a nature break we were passed by a fella on an ebike, and returning to the road we could see him in the distance. Gradually we reeled him in and passed him! We descended onto flatter roads (relatively speaking) and arrived in Usk to control. Jim waited at the junction we’d need to take for our onward direction and I went deeper into the town to find a shop to get a receipt. We’d covered 175Km by this point and I found a pharmacy to control at. A packet of paracetamol was purchased, a note of my distance and then tuck the receipt into the brevet card and get moving again. I rejoined Jim at the junction and we pressed on towards Abergavenny.
Usk // Rhayader
Abergavenny came to us after another 20km of riding on rolling roads. Although not a control town, we had another food stop in Abergavenny as we knew we’d be losing options for food as we headed into the Brecon Beacons National Park. I’d messaged my friend Harriet who lives in Abergavenny to tell her we’d be heading through, but she was on holiday and would not be able to say hi, so we got ourselves moving again.
We left Abergavenny on the A40 and shortly after Crickhowell, we took the A479 which marked the start of a long climb up to Pengerffordd. The climb was quite challenging, not crazy steep but a long drag on legs that were becoming tired. I had us routing on a small side road after the top of the climb, but Jim had other ideas. He didn’t fancy the narrow lane that would take us down into Talgarth, so we stuck to the nice wide sweeping descent on the A479 into Talgarth then skirting Bronllys.
We continued on another 20Km of undulating road with the overall direction being uphill to Builth Wells. We hadn’t planned to stop in Builth, but we were running a little behind schedule and were in danger of not making it to Rhayader in time to eat food… So, we stopped in Builth Wells and had a chippy tea on the pavement. We were knackered after riding 244Km and over 3000 metres of uphill, so to have hot food for the first time of the day was bloody great.
Just another 20Km of uphill to go to Rhayader and the time when we could rest up in a bed for a while. Jim noticed an old CTC sign on the front of the chippy (The Merrie Fryer) and he decided to inform the owners of what they had on the front of their building… it was a calling card for cyclists of old and would have indicated a hostel/lodging for touring cyclists.
We lost the light 20 minutes or so after leaving Builth Wells and it was nice to be riding cocooned by the darkness with our powerful LED lights shining up the roads. We got to Rhayader after another hour or so of climbing, and we were all in. Very tired and looking forward to a sleep. 266Km with 3,625 metres climbed for the day.
Jim had booked the B&B and it was satisfactory for our needs, we could leave our bikes downstairs and get out early in the morning before anyone else would be up. Out of sweaty cycling clothes, toileted and showered and we felt refreshed. Lying down on the bed was absolute bliss, but Jim was making noises about not starting the next day… Just as I was getting ready to sleep my mate Chris had messaged me suggesting that the schedule had some issues with it. I was too knackered to study in detail but I knew my distances were good so I messaged him the links to our routes, assuming he had just looked at the distances between control towns without realising the route we were actually taking. This would prove to be a bit of a bastard later on…
Sleep
We both got off to sleep just fine, but unfortunately I was awakened by Jim’s snoring around 01:00. We were due to rise at 03:30 so after a while of hoping it would stop I decided to listen to some music which helped. I was able to get back off to sleep for a while longer.
03:30 and a moment before my alarm sounded Jim switched the bedside light on! Blimey, I wasn’t ready for that. After a few minutes of coming around I got myself dressed and back into the same cycling clothes as the day before… nice. We followed with breakfast, which was a yoghurt granola pot along with yet another Muller rice which we’d picked up in Abergavenny. I also put a few fig rolls down with a couple of swigs of coffee. We left the accommodation around 04:20, in the total darkness and quiet, we had a bloody big day ahead of us, that was for sure.
Rhayader // Borth
My arse was sore from the start, but after 10 minutes or so it was manageable. I had decided quite last minute to use my stub nosed ISM PR 2.0 saddle, which was normally on my TT bike. I didn’t have any numbness at all, but the soft tissue around my sit bones was in trouble. I had to lift myself up and move around quite a bit to be able to deal with it.
Total darkness when we left in the direction of Llangurig, with the elevation of the road being uphill for 28Km along the A44. We pedalled together, chatting occasionally, happy to be in the morning silence making progress. We descended into Capel Bangor and then undulated up and down towards Bow Street (not a street, but actually a small village), where we picked up the A487 for a short distance. We turned off at Rhydypennau and headed for the coast and the next control at Borth.
Catching glimpses of the coast was great for me, I love the coast line and I was excited to be riding next to it for a while, having never seen the West coast of Wales. We arrived in Borth a little before 07:00 and there were no shops open to get a receipt. We confirmed this by asking a local dog walker. So, we went to the railway station and Jim got a picture of me outside of it. That would satisfy for the control proof of passage.
We spent a little time looking out over the coast at Borth and Jim told me a couple of stories from his workdays, which had me chuckling. I ate a few fig rolls whilst chatting and then we decided to revise the route out of Borth.
Borth // Barmouth
My route had us re-tracing 3Km back along the road we’d just ridden and then heading north, but Jim suggested continuing on the B4353 north out of Borth. A much better idea as we got to see more of the coast and would rejoin the planned route at Tre’r-ddol, picking up the A487 towards Machynlleth.
15 undulating Km later we arrived in Machynlleth and it was time for a second breakfast. We stopped at the hotel on the way into the town and picked up a bacon and sausage sandwich along with a coffee. Lovely to have warm food again. Checking our timing against the schedule we were around an hour behind, and this was within expectation considering we had started later than planned, had taken a little longer at Borth than planned and had also deviated from the route leaving Borth. Machynlleth was not much to write home about and Jim was quite pleased to move onwards.
We headed for the coast again, and we also deviated from my route again. The seemingly shorter distance that I’d chosen to get over to the coast was actually over a rather large climb, so we remained close to the coast on the A493, which was not by any means flat, but was fine by me… the views were great.
We arrived in Tywyn and Jim thought we were heading inland again, but my route had us following the coast some more, up to Tonfanau and beyond. The road was very narrow and ran parallel to the rail track, it was a beautifully quiet road that we both enjoyed very much. It was also a road in Wales that Jim didn’t actually know! A first for the ride.
We were passing campsites and holiday parks lined out with rows and rows of static caravans, and since re-joining the A493 at Rhoslefain, the roads had been taking us up and down a lot. We were still following the rail tracks and it was nice to get glimpses of the tracks underneath us, leading out to clear blue green water. It must be a nice train journey to do.
I kept thinking that the towns I could see in the distance were Barmouth, but I was wrong. We had Fairbourne to get around first and then we took a small road up towards RSPB Mawddach Valley. We then had to ride up tracks to the railway station platform at Morfa Mawddach, where we then rode on the actual platform and then off the end of it to pick up the track for Barmouth bridge!
Finally we were on the timber built bridge over to Barmouth. Built in 1864 this is the only major timber built bridge still in use and is 820 metres long. It was bloody shaky to ride across as none of the timbers were particularly flat relative to each other, so it was a bumpy ride. At the end of the bridge there was a toll house to pay a crossing fee, but it was shut so we rolled through it. Immediately after the toll house was a very steep rise up onto street level. There was a guy and his wife standing at the top of the steep part, and in the middle of the outlet to the street was a post, Jim was slightly over geared for the steep climb and ended up having to emergency unclip from the pedals. Unfortunately, his balance was compromised and he kind of fell onto the back of the guy who was standing at the top of the steep section – who obviously wasn’t expecting a guy on a bike to clatter into him. Some words were exchanged, and Jim was typically uncompromising, and we waited for the traffic to pass in a semi awkward silence with the couple in close quarters. As we pedalled away the guy muttered some expletives in Jim’s direction… I was pissing myself laughing all the way to the Co-Op in Barmouth, our next stop.
We controlled and ate at the Co-Op in Barmouth, a cold can of tomato soup, Muller rice and a can of coffee was on the menu for me, and Jim was eating sandwiches and Lucozade. It was whilst sitting and eating on the floor outside the supermarket that it dawned on us that my schedule had a serious error in it.
Our scheduled arrival time in Barmouth had been 08:40, but how could that be if we were scheduled to leave Machynlleth at 08:30 and then ride 40Km to Barmouth? We arrived at Barmouth at 11:20… an oversight in the schedule had just been revealed. Not only that, but a further issue was noticed later in the schedule where I had us leaving Beddgelert at 10:52 and arriving in Caenarfon (20km further on) an hour earlier at 09:52! I’d properly messed this up by not being thorough enough in my stop time checking. An uncharacteristic error. Distances were all good for the schedule, but arrival times were now no use to us. This is what my mate Chris was trying to alert me to the night before…
Jim called home to scrap the plans for dinner upon our expected arrival time, as we now knew that it was bollocks… we would be in for a much later arrival. Chris had previously offered to collect us from Newtown, so I had to talk with him to find out if that offer was still one he was willing to carry out, given the lateness of the hour we would now predict to be back at. Fortunately, Chris was still really up for collecting us, as he’d realised the problem with the schedule ahead of us.
Barmouth // Caenarfon
We knew we had a lot more time in the saddle to go now, and strangely I didn’t feel that surprised by this. Reason being is that on previous 600k rides, I’d only really had a couple of hours sleep and they had nowhere near the amount of climbing that this ride had in it. For this ride we’d had a decent amount of time off the bike in the previous night. So, although my schedule error was disappointing and annoying, our reality, discovered in Barmouth was closer to my previous experience for a 600. We had almost 400Km in our legs upon leaving Barmouth and we knew we had >200 very hilly Km to get through to the finish. It was time to dig in.
Heading north out of Barmouth towards Harlech, we were again undulating our way forward. In the interests of speed we stuck to the main road at Harlech as opposed to taking the climb up to the east, we joined up with the planned route soon enough and crossing through Penrhyndeudraeth we spotted another vintage CTC sign, this time on the side of a pub.
We had a brief stop at Beddgelert and had a quick snack, the village was busy with walkers and outdoorsy folk and this was because we were now in the Snowdonia National Park. With 190Km still to go, we didn’t want to hang around for ages so we pressed on straight into a 4km climb up and into the village of Rhyd-Ddu. We rode up high for a while before descending fast into Caenarfon to control. I called out to Jim that we stop at a garage on the outskirts, this way we could concentrate on getting through the main roads of the town with the proof of passage taken care of.
Caenarfon // Menai Bridge
It was really busy working our way through Caenarfon and onto the main roads that took us up to Menai Bridge. It felt unusual and a little annoying to have so much noise and traffic around us, and there was no let up all the way up to the turn around point. I had hoped that we could get off onto a quieter road to avoid a piece of dual carriageway, but the quieter road was closed as we approached it! Onto the dual it was then…It felt like slow going due to the grade of the road and the headwind.
It was great to arrive onto the bridge as we knew the next control was just beyond it, and as well as being the control it was the turnaround point. We stopped at the Waitrose and loaded up on food and water, both choosing to eat pasta and washing down with fruit smoothie. Whilst eating sat on the floor of the supermarket car park we were estimating distance and time remaining and I was only slightly aware of the terrain of the roads still to come… whereas Jim knew every inch of them and kindly he kept quiet.
Menai Bridge // LLanberis
We had to re-trace 4Km along the busy road we’d arrived on before we could turn off onto the B4547 towards Llanberis. The road took us upwards again, joining the A406 to ride alongside Llanberis lake (Llyn Padarn). It felt nice to be off the the main roads and onto quieter ones, but given the tourism in this area it was still fairly busy. We arrived in Llanberis and I shouted out to Jim that I needed to control, so Jim pedalled on along the main road whilst I went into the town along a parallel road. I found a Spar shop, and as Jim was waiting elsewhere I had to faff about locking my bike up before going in to the shop. I got a couple of chocolate bars for later and popped the receipt into my brevet card, unlocked the bike and moved on to meet Jim.
Llanberis // Betws-Y-Coed
It was getting towards evening time leaving Llanberis, around 17:30 and the sun was becoming lower in the sky and this was making for some lovely vistas with the mountains around us. We had a tough ride over the next 10Km, up Llanberis pass to Pen-Y-Pass. It felt utterly endless…we were making slow progress due to the wind channelling through the valley to conspire against us on this piece of scenic road.
Reaching the top was lovely, and we crested the top, passing the restaurant and then hitting the descent… it was so good to be going downhill. We couldn’t take any advantage in speed from the wind as it was against us going down to Capel Curig and beyond. Jim and I were swapping out in the front regularly and trying to push on as fast as our tired legs would allow. The descent into Betws-Y-Coed followed and it was a great wide sweeping road that we could take at speed. Very enjoyable.
Betws-Y-Coed was yet another control town, so a stop and shop was required. I had another can of cold tomato soup whilst Jim enjoyed a hot cornish pasty. I find pastry hard to deal with on a long ride so avoided the cornish pasty, but I did have a bit of rocky road which was very nice indeed. We were still mulling over the schedule error and the remaining distance… it was 19:00hrs and we still had around 130Km to go. It’s best though just to focus on the next stop, or the next village as this keeps your targets manageable. When you begin thinking of the finish it can seem like a bloody long way off, and for us it still was.
Betws-Y-Coed // Dolgellau
Jim had been making noises for a little while about the planned route out of Betws-Y-Coed, he was unfamiliar with the road that went up and over Penmachno, but we knew that it would have a savage amount of uphill… So, we decided to deviate from the planned route again and take a known road (to Jim), the A470 over the Crimea Pass and into Blaenau Ffestiniog. This too was a road with a lot of climbing, but at a manageable grade. Now on the road, it seemed endless, but gradually we got ourselves higher up and further on. Blaenau Ffestiniog was a slate mining town and the old quarry there is huge, not that we could see it in the darkness.
Descending off the Crimea Pass was good, but we metered our speed due to the darkness, there was no point in taking unnecessary risks on tired brains and bodies. We’d joined back up with the planned route a little before the lake at Trawsfyndd, where the road had levelled out and was now presenting the very familiar up, up, down, up, up, up, down undulations of Wales. We were in the Coed-Y-Brenin Forest Park again, but we’re none the wiser to that fact, we were just getting our heads down trying to plough on to the next control at Dolgellau. From Bronaber, we dropped down a steadily declining road into Dolgellau, the penultimate control town.
We initially ignored the town centre signs in the hope of a garage on the main road to control at, but a creeping feeling and a quick check on my phone showed no garage further up the road, so we back tracked and headed into the town centre. We stopped outside a very quiet pub in Dolgellau, The Stag Inn, where I purchased a packet of crisps from some very friendly people. We stood and ate outside the pub, consuming the last scraps of food that we’d been keeping in our saddle bags. We had a few gels in hand should we find ourselves in need later. As we were readying ourselves to leave the Patrons of the pub came outside and had a chat with us. Jim gave them the rundown of our ride already undertaken and what was still left, and they knew all the places we’d been to and couldn’t quite get their heads around having cycling that lot. The patrons were very friendly and offered us shelter in their small guesthouse opposite the pub, to which we politely declined. They suggested to come and visit again and stay there, before bidding us a Welsh version of ‘Bon Courage’.
Dolgellau // Newtown (Arrivée)
I’d been keeping Chris informed of our progress via messages and we were leaving Dolgellau around 22:30. We had a reasonable climb up to the Inn at Cross Foxes, but then it got much worse. The road ramped up and was very challenging to ride up. We were in total darkness too, so estimating the road ahead was not possible. At one point Jim came to a stop and just hung his head. We were knackered. Jim proceeded to dismount and walk his bike up the steep climb. I hung back and gave him some space for a minute or two and then I got pedalling again. Jim must have got back on his bike again as he maintained a gap for a while before I caught up with him. No words necessary, we were both all in and just gritting it out along these tough roads.
We got the climb done and we knew that was the last of the big climbing, which was a bloody relief! I continued to give Chris updates on our progress as we passed through villages, and when we had the odd toilet break. We were again on undulating road and were swapping out on the front to progress as fast as we could, but the roads just seemed utterly, utterly endless. I kept thinking of the map and feeling like we had a short distance to go, but the reality was not like that. Eventually the sky changed from total darkness to a more yellow shade in the distance, indicating street lights of a more major town… Newtown! This spurred us on even more and before long we were back onto the roads we left on the previous morning.
Finished!
Arriving in Newtown, what a relief… we had completed the ride, but we had to control before meeting Chris. So we went via an ATM in the town centre to get a time and date receipt and then headed up to the railway station to meet Chris. It was 02:15 and seeing Chris was great, he was full of energy! We were both knackered and relieved to have finished, and It was so good to see Chris, and so very kind of him to meet us at this ridiculous hour. Chris had been out and about in the town, walking in the total silence of Newtown whilst awaiting our arrival. Immediately, Chris took our bikes and got them sorted out on his bike carrier, then he proceeded to open a Leffe for me and a Peroni for Jim. We all had a taste and toasted our safe arrival after an epic ride. We chatted for a while having a laugh and recounting some happenings from the ride before finally packing up and driving back to base.
Back at Jim’s we dismounted the bikes and I got straight in the shower whilst Jim and Chris chatted some more over a cup of tea. It was 04:15 by the time I went to bed and my goodness it was bliss to lie down again. I was off to sleep in an instant.
The Next Day
I don’t normally sleep that well after a long ride, my legs often feel very restless and twitchy and it was no different this time. Nonetheless, at least I was resting and there was no time pressure to get up and ride! I did end up sleeping albeit a little broken and around 09:00 I got out of bed and chatted with Jim’s wife whilst Jim continued to snooze. Once all up we had a lovely cooked breakfast and discussed the ride and the ghastly scheduling error I’d let slip through the planning stage. I got myself readied to head off, said my goodbyes and thank yous to Jim’s wife and then I left with Jim accompanying me to the railway station. We chatted whilst waiting for the train to arrive and were grateful to each other for a good couple of days of cycling together.
Train Journey Home
The first train was late arriving at Church Stretton, but I had a 50 minute stop over at Shrewsbury Railway station. What was problematic was the cancellation of the previous 2 services to Birmingham out of Shrewsbury… along with the broken down train preventing my scheduled departure out of Shrewsbury. This made for an extremely crowded train which was waiting for the green light to depart the station once the broken down train had been removed. This also meant that I would almost certainly miss my planned connection in Birmingham… FFS…
It got worse… as the two previous trains to Birmingham had been cancelled and now the train I was booked on was the next to go it became very crowded. As well as me and my bike, there was a parent with five children, a family of four, another person with a bicycle and three train enthusiasts all squeezed into the bike section along with their luggage. The mother of the five children was seemingly always angry and was so harsh on her kids – who were all on screens, even the 2 yr old. The other family, whilst not shouty and harsh, gave their 2 year old girl Pepsi, which she drank out her teat bottle… unbelievable!
It got even worse… we were informed that the train would have to terminate at Wolverhampton rather than Birmingham New St. The train announcer was excellent though and gave several announcements for alternatives, and so my new plan was to get off at Wolverhampton and get on the 15:22 to Walsall, alighting at Birmingham New St, where I could then pick up the 16:22 to Stansted Airport and get off in Stamford. Aside from the pain in the arse of lugging a bicycle up and down platforms and stairs at two stations the rest of the journey was fine. I got off at Stamford and cycled the 3Km back to my home, my un-cushioned behind complaining instantly as soon as I sat on my bike.
Validation
Max time on a typical 600 is 40hrs, but as this was a permanent ride you get a longer allowance to take account of having to find food at controls. The way the perm organiser had advised to do this was to divide the total ride distance by 14.3Km/h. This gave us a max ride time of 43hrs 48 minutes… which we ended up being 26 minutes over! Nevertheless, I filled out the brevet card with our distances and times and attached all receipts and sent off to the perm organiser. I mailed him too to inform him of our distance, elevation, riding and overall speeds etc. I wasn’t sure if any generosity would be applied for our ride, but I would just wait and see.
I followed up the perm organiser after a week or so to see f the ride would be validated, and after some some time he informed me that he’d sent my brevet off to the Perms secretary for validation. So, I got in touch with the Perms secretary and explained the situation regarding target time confusions, and our actual timings. The Perms secretary is a resonable man and after consideration, he proposed a solution.
He wouldn’t validate the ride as it stood for the BCM, this was because whichever way you looked at it, we were out of time for the BCM… However, he would validate the ride s a 600+km DIY allowing me to complete 3rd Super Randonneur award. That was a fine conclusion for me.
