Amblers Club Run - Sunday 15 November

[Mark Pope]

The weather is forecast to be grey, damp and windy this Sunday, so I thought we'd stay reasonably low and use the wind for the first part of the ride. The proposed route is:

Brackla - Ewenny - Death Valley - St Brides - Wick - Llantwit Major - Llanmaes - Llantrithyd - Bonvilston - Gwern-y-Steeple - St Brides-Super-Ely - Pentrebane - Radyr - Morganstown - Pentyrch - Creigau - Groes Faen - Miskin - Pontyclun - Talbot Green - Pencoed - Coychurch - Brackla

It's around 51 miles, with a coffee stop planned for St Fagans or Pugh's Garden Centre in Radyr. There's only one hill of note and that's up to Pentyrch, although this time we'll take the easy (ish) way up to the Village rather than climbing the 'Hill of Death' from Gwaelod-y-Garth.  See you Sunday.

Mark

[Mark Pope]

The signs were not good this morning, with grey, overcast skies and winds gusting up to 50mph, so I was not surprised to be standing on my own outside Physiques at 8 50am. However, just as I was secretly looking forward to an early 'Costas', who should come round the corner but Harpo so a ride was on the cards after all, with me expecting a 3 hour thrashing. Luckily we were then joined by Toestrap Steve, Terry, Tony and for his first club ride in a dog's age, Shawn Murtogh. As there were so few of us we decided to ride as one group and follow the planned Amblers route out via Ewenny, Wick, Llantwit and Llanmaes towards the tea stop at St Fagans. Needless to say, with Harpo and Steve in the mix and with a strong tailwind on the route out, we flew along the main road to Llantwit. Just after Wick we were also joined by Paul Jenkins, a Bush Health Care rider (well he's got the kit), and he stayed with us for an hour or so.

After the tea stop we headed out through Radyr and climbed up to Pentyrch before heading home via Miskin and Pencoed. The ride was slightly shorter than planned as we cut off a loop around Pentyrch but we still managed around 46 miles at an average speed of 17.2mph, not bad for such a windy day. After the really grim weather forecast it turned out to be an enjoyable, rain free morning and we cunningly managed to make good use of the wind, as well as using Harpo and Steve as super domestiques into the wind (cheers boys). Out today were:

Toestrap Steve
Harpo
Terry
Tony
Shawn
Paul Jenkins
Mark P

Next week a bit further and a slightly cheeky climb!👒

Mark

[Tony M]

Thanks for the well thought out route with regard to the wind. It would have been much harder the other way round.

[mal jones]

I was really looking forward to a ride this morning (honest) but I'm bike less as Neil in llantwit is servicing my bike and putting mudguards on hope to have it back by thurs