My Community
General Category => Club Runs => Topic started by: Dave W on September 16, 2021, 01:04:50 PM
-
route provided by Rob C
trip out to Ammanford and back - 71miles
coffee stop here Coaltown Roastery Espresso Bar in Ammanford
-
And if you use Komoot : https://www.komoot.com/tour/488215085
I haven't ridden this, but it looks nice on Google Maps street view, although the sun was shining the day they were out around Ammanford.
-
Six pacers out today. Myself, Dave, Paul, Nigel, Angelo, and Alibaba ambassador, Mark. Setting off in bright sunshine it was nice to catch up with the Chasers for the early part of the ride. It was surprisingly mild in Brackla and after steady effort towards Maesteg there was a collective cheer as we were all able to enjoy a refreshing shower. Those of us who had glanced at the profile were happy to let Karl and Lee do the bulk of the early pulling. At Neath the Pacer and Chaser routes diverged, before re-verging about 200 yards later, and we rode en masse to Pontardawe where we made a more concerted divergory effort.
On to pastures new and coming into Rhyd-y-fro we turned onto the lane up to Capel Y Baran where Angelo used his trademark climbing tactic of starting hard, going hard in the middle section, but then finishing hard. Sadly he stopped about 6’ short of the KOM, had a picnic, completed a moderately hard Sudoku and only managed 3rd fastest on the day.
Luckily for us a short descent lead to the Heol Grenig Climb, 3/4s of a mile averaging 11.5% but enough sections nudging over 17% to keep it interesting.
Dropping down into Ammanford we tried Coaltown Coffee. Good cake, and a lot of care taken over the coffee, although a few of us jumped up a Strava age category while waiting. We were also honored by a visit from club president Norman and his wife who had heard what a stirling effort we’d been making on the climbs and had stopped by to lend their support.
A bit of a chill as we got going again and so it was our extreme good fortune to be able to warm up immediately coming out of Garnswllt and up Heol y Mynydd, with the odd 17% section again. Very strong effort once more from Angelo on a bike 5 years older than he is. A strategy that would lead most of us to have to change gear by turning round the back wheel, and some to needing a step ladder to dismount.
Sadly the climbing was over after Heol Glyn Dyfal, and having sent Mark off on the narrow, twisty descent to sweep aside any cars, we were grateful to Dave (who had been saving himself by climbing several minutes slower than everyone else) for coming to the front, assessing a group with sore legs and guiding us gently around Swansea.
Quick stop at Lidl outside Port Talbot for Coke, and Paul to show he hasn’t forgotten what an inner tube looks like, and lead back to Margam by Nigel.
Everyone agreed the route planning was exemplary and wished we could find multiple stupid steep climbs every week.
-
Good route today Rob
-
Great route but an even better write-up!