Brevet Cymru 2015

Brevet Cymru 2015

It was a dark winters evening and I was looking for inspiration for some cycling activities during 2015 when I came across a forum and a thread for the Brevet Cymru 2014, having read the epic stories I knew that I wanted to do this. 

Brevet Cymru is 400 kilometers or 250 miles(Ish) in old money which is a blimmin long way in anyones opinion, it's not something that you can simply go out and do so I knew I had to do some proper prep for this latest hair brained idea. Why not build up to it by doing shorter events so that when the event came it wouldn't be such a jump up, so I joined Audax UK the governing body that ran the BC and looked at the long list of other events on offer. I found my first event starting in Somerford Keynes near Cirencester, not a million miles away and at 150kms do able for my first event.

Audax are non competitive and the best description is they are like orienteering by bike, you have to pass through certain points but have time constraints so you can't do it too fast or too slow. At each point or control you have to prove you have been there, so you are given a card at the start called a Brevet card, this has several squares on it with the controls location and the times it opens and closes. There are several ways that you can prove you have been at a control, the organiser may ask some to be there and put a small rubber stamp mark in and sign it with the time, sometimes it might be that the organiser has asked someone at say a pub to stamp your card. Other times you simply need to either buy something and retain a receipt which has the location and time on or you can make a small cash with draw from an ATM and keep the receipt. There are also secret controls or Info controls which are basically a simple question about something at a certain point for example "What are the numbers on the fire hydrant next to the Kings Arms in Ludlow", you may get several of these cryptic questions per event.

So my first event came the morning dawned and the car thermometer proudly stated it was -3C, erm Yikes! I arrived at the village hall come Cricket pavilion which was the HQ for the event, the car park was made from compacted hardcore which was frozen solid!. Luckily inside the HQ it was lovely and toasty which actually made it harder to leave when the time came, I picked up my Brevet card and made a mental note of the location of the info controls. Once the bike had been assembled and I had changed into my gear I decided perhaps I needed to use the loo there was a few minutes before the off so no great issues. I used the loo and walked out to the car park to see the field departing out the gates! damn I didn't want to ride 95 miles on my own!!. Anyway due to the relaxed nature of Audaxing I wasn't that worried as long as I got to the first control and had averaged 9.2 mph it was cool, so I got on my bike and wafted out of the car park onto the road and away although I did question my sanity as just as I was leaving snow began to fall.

Routing a Audax is also quite relaxed you can choose any route you like so long as you arrive between the times stated in the Brevet card at each control, organisers make a suggested route and you get a route sheet which is basically a text document telling you to turn left or right at certain junctions, you get the idea. Many organisers also produce a GPS route which can be downloaded and saved onto the cycle sat nav if you have one, which makes life very easy as all you have to do is follow the sat nav's instructions.

The route sheet and its text I found hard to comprehend and cycle at the same time, perhaps its a male thing! so I used the GPS routing and wound my way out to the first control stopping en route for the info control entering the answer onto the Brevet Card. I got my card stamped at the first control and decided to keep going as the small cafe was crowded with cyclists and I didn't want to get too cold. The second control was a village run pub with very cheep Beer although with 50 miles to go I decided to stay dry, after getting my stamp a hot coffee and a Bacon roll I was away, I stumbled across a group a few miles down the road who had obviously missed the control and were stopped in the road deciding what to do. I said hello and kept going. The final control was a village hall with plenty of food (free) so I had my card stamped once again and tucked into hot Rice pudding and cake.

Only 27 miles to go now so I cracked on feeling quite good despite the cold at least the snow had come to nothing, with 10 miles to go I started to get the first pangs of hunger even though I had eaten plenty, the cold really makes it hard as the body uses up lots of energy to keep warm. I finished my bottle and had my final energy bar and pressed on by now my legs had known that they had done 90 odd miles but at least the final few miles were dead pan flat, Through tiny villages and soon the finsh came into sight 97 miles and I had finished.

My plan was to do an event each weekend so the following weekend came a 200km event starting and finishing in Tewkesbury going north into Herefordshire before heading through Monmouth and over the Severn Bridge to Malmesbury and then back to Tewkesbury. This week it was a tropical -2C the ride went off without a hitch and I ended up riding 136 miles the furthest I had ridden in more years than I care to remember. I had entered Brevet Cymru and looking through the calendar I spotted a 300km event a month before which started again in Tewkesbury and went out to Llandovery put in a loop in the hills and then came back to Tewkesbury. This would be nearly as far I have ever cycled in one day even during my racing days, I felt good on the day and finished the 194miles in just under 14 hours including stops, I was now confident I was ready for BC!

The weather forecast for the big day was not good, strong winds and rain! well it is Wales in spring, I decided to leave my car in Aust just on the english side of the Severn Bridge with the event HQ just on the Welsh side and would cycle the few miles to save the £6.50 toll. This also meant that I had to cycle back over at the end of the event with the bridge itself having quite a gradient when you are tired.

My alarm went off at 4am and I crawled out of bed and got changed, I had put the bike in the car the night before so all I had to do was get some breakfast and leave, Aust is only 25 minutes away so that was one comfort. I got to Aust it was still dark and the place I was to leave the car was unlit so I got ready in virtually total darkness save the interior light from the car, there were a few other riders that also arrived whilst I got ready and we all did our own thing in total silence all still half asleep. The moment had arrived I powered on my bike lights locked the car and set off into the darkness to cycle to the event HQ, Bulwark Community Centre.

The toll booths blazed away as I joined the cycle path over the bridge, onwards and over the bridge itself was was quite devoid of motorway traffic.

After a bit of a faff finding the hall I got in picked up my Brevet card and was supplied a coffee by Louise along with a hot cross bun, I sat and people watched as riders came in and did the same process I had just done.

The hall slowly beginning to fill up with riders talking to friends and others.

Before long it was nearly time to start so I finished the dregs of my coffee ans stepped outside, riders had begun to congregate in the car park ready for the off.

Mark the organiser gave us a little prep talk and dead on 6am we were off! suddenly this was all real ahead lay 250 miles I tried not to think about it and anyway it had started to rain, that really fine 'wet' rain which came and went but never really came to much at least as far as Monmouth. as we threaded our way through the housing estate in Bulwark rider came hammering by full of enthusiasm, I looked at them and though "you'll pay for that later". Passed the race course and onto one of my favourite roads along the Wye Valley I got into a group and sat on the back looking at my pulse rate every so often as I didn't want to go too hard too early. Once the group reached Monmouth I decided I would stop and get some cash from the ATM as they were pressing on a bit too fast for my liking.

Out under the arch and off to Hay on Wye and the first control.

 Here I decided to take a slightly less hilly route so that I would save my legs a little bit, the roads west of Monmouth are small and quite lumpy in places but progress was good and I rolled into Hay just gone 9am just over three hours for the first 80km.

The control was in a bus shelter where Mark the organiser and Louise stamped Brevet cards and ticked off riders as they arrived, the next stop was another 40 odd miles so as it was cold I decided I would have a hot drink and something warm to eat. I found a small sandwich shop down an alley opposite the bus shelter, I opened the door and the shop was tiny no seating and there was already a queue of cyclists, the poor owners were already over run. After a bacon roll and a coffee I bid a hasty retreat and went outside it was 4C and many riders were not dressed for such temperatures some were shaking with the cold which wasn't a good sign so early in the ride. I too found I had cold feet on the first section so I put on my waterproof overshoes to keep my feet warm and hopefully dry, I then added my waterproof as the rain had got a little heavier followed by my fleece neck warmer. 

Section two was 42 miles to Llandovery a mixture of A road and nice quiet lanes and not too hilly either and the bonus was that we had a tailwind, after Builth Wells I came across Steve whom I knew from the forum where I got the idea originally so we rode together all the way to Llandovery at quite a good pace. Once in Llandovery the control was in a cafe in fact this was the third time I had been to the cafe to get my card stamped and it was done every time by the same lady, as Steve and I tucked into our Beans on Toast the cafe had begun to fill up with cyclists and motorcyclists.

We had timed it right, I filled up my water bottles and was ready to go, there were more bikers outside the cafe and they all had Irish accents looking at the number plates on their bikes they had indeed travelled from Ireland. Away from Llandovery briefly on the A40 before taking a right and starting a climb that would go on for 3 miles not steep but enough to blunt the legs. On the climb I suddenly felt weak and let Steve continue at his pace where I had to slow and work out what was wrong, it then occurred to me that I had a glass of coke in the cafe and that after the sugar rush I was experiencing the sugar low. There was nothing I could do other than suffer and allow my body to sort itself out eventually, with the climb out of the way and the second info control I continued onto the third control of the day this was to be a free control where I had to get a receipt which was easy as Tregaran had a Spar shop so some milk and nibbles were purchased, I stood outside the shop drinking my milk and marvelled at the shear size of the Red Kite wheeling overhead, they really are big birds.

The next section was only 23 miles to New Quay no not the Cornish town famous for surfing and stag do's this is the Welsh and nicer version, this section would prove to be in my opinion the hardest with some steep hills along the way. It was on this section I got talking to Guy who was astride a rather nice steel Argos with electronic gears as we passed pleasantries we both realised that we only worked 100 yards apart, what a small world.

New Quay came after plodding my way over the hills, my legs still not having much go and it was at this point I thought sod it I am going to get around and not worry if I do it slowly. The control was a lovely place called the Mariners Restaurant and the owner was really friendly, I decided a proper sit down meal was called for and for some reason plumbed for Faggots and Peas with mash. It was lovely although I didn't finish it all, I had been warned that there was a tough climb out of New Quay and those warnings were true the first couple of hundred yards were pretty steep but soon eased a little so that I could take it easy and allow the food to digest. The wind was now in my face and this road seemed to continue to climb, upon looking at the data after the ride it climbed for 5 miles!! not steep but kept going up. With 15 miles to go on this section I stopped and had a drink and a bit of flapjack whilst sitting on a bench on the side of the road two riders came passed asking if I was ok which was nice.

Refreshed I continued and soon found myself on yet another long but not steep climb it was here that I could see one of the riders who had just passed me and I found that I was keeping pace with him, perhaps my legs were finally coming around. Over the top of the hill and we descended into the next town where the rider in front turned right where he should have carried straight on, but he was too far to shout so I carried on knowing he would realise his mistake pretty quickly. I stopped for a wee a few miles later and he caught up we then rode together on the next climb picking up another chap who had stopped to put on his waterproof as the rain had come back. As a trio we rde over the hill and down the descent back to the A40 it was here that we had to put our lights on as darkness had fell along the A40 and again into Llandovery and the same cafe we had been in earlier. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice so no sugary drinks I kept with veggie soup coffee and a roll, time was now creeping on I was now starting to feel tired as I had been at since 4am. 

I left the cafe and its warmth and into the rain which was now getting heavier and he darkness, the A40 was quiet and I could see red blinking lights up ahead which I found I was slowly catching up on the now famous multi mile drag out of Llandovery. I made good progress along the A40 the first big town would be Brecon some 20 miles into the section, I pressed on now feeling ok apart from a lack of sleep, it was at the round-a-bout on the outskirts of Brecon I spotted that my Sat Nav had gone blank it was now raining heavy so I stopped under a street light to sort out the device. I didnt no longer need it for navigation but wanted to record the ride, after a few minutes I decided to continue through the town and fiddle with it on the move, Brecon was like all other towns on a Saturday night and was full of drunks loudly falling around. I got to the other side of town and found a rider stopped on the round-a-bout he was also having issues with his sat nav, we had a brief conversation and I decided to sort the device out at the control which was now some 15 miles away. It was now raining heavily and I wanted to get into the dry, I teamed up with another rider along the A40 and we made good progress to the next control, a hall in a local primary school. 

After finding the school we wandered into the hall where we got our cards stamped fir the final time before the finish, the time was nearly 12.30am now the sleep issue really did kick in, I had some coffee and something to eat but really needed a lie down. Luckily the organiser had provided some gym mats for us to lie on which I took the opportunity to do, I felt a lot better after 15 minutes I didnt sleep but the rest did me good. It was now time to push on and do the final 32 miles back to the finish, I had sorted the sat nav so was happier that the final bit of the ride would be recorded I could sort out the missing bit later. Out into the rain for the final time it was now biblical and very unpleasant although it wasn't as cold as it had been earlier in the ride, the ride through Abergavenny was interesting, more drunks and I nearly got hit by a Police car in a hurry which turned out to be a fight in the Kebab shop. 

The route between Abergavenny and Usk seemed to take ages and I was now suffering from a sore arse, in the gloom I spotted a bike upside down and some poor sod trying to fix a puncture I asked is he was OK he mumbled something along the lines of yes. Onwards I was now beginning to think of the final climb over the ridge which separates Usk and Chepstow, in the general scheme of things its not that hard just a long drag, but by now I had well over 200 miles in my legs and made it a whole different kettle of fish. I decided to use low gears and spin my way up keeping from overloading my legs and this approach worked the hill wasn't bad and it didn't seem to take long to get to the top, which was shrouded in mist. 

Once at the top of the final climb I was quite elated as it was 8 miles (ish) mostly downhill, the road were awash as the rain just kept coming but by now I simply didn't care down through wooded areas and finally I could see the lights of Chepstow and as I came around a corner I caught sight of a group in front, some how I had caught them up. The final mile was mostly downhill I didn't pedal for most of it, the group in front got a little confused as to the location of the hall and ended up behind me but we all arrived together on a wave of relief.

I had completed Brevet Cymru on not a nice day weather wise but I had enjoyed it in a funny way the sense of achievement was immense.

By the time I had cycled back to the car I had done 261 miles far and away the longest single ride I had ever done, Still can't quite believe I have done it.

I must thank the organisers Mark & Louise Rigby as this really will be something I will bore people with for years to come. 

I have now decided to ride a 600km event in June, I'll let you know how I get on.

Stay Safe out there!

Clemo