Ambler's - Sunday 19 April

[Mark Pope]

As a precursor to Andy's excellent idea for a longer and hillier pre-Velothon recce ride over the May Bank Holiday, I thought we'd bag one of the climbs this weekend. The Ambler's haven't visited Caerphilly Mountain for over a year so my proposed route for this Sunday takes in the Tour of Britain climb up to the cafe on top of Caerphilly Common.  I have tried to avoid too much main carriageway riding so the route is as follows:

Brackla - Ewenny - Post Office Hill - Llandow - Cowbridge - Aberthin - Welsh St Donuts - Gwern-Y-Steeple - St Brides Super-Ely -Fairwater - Radyr - Taffs Well - Nantgarw - Caerphilly - the Mountain - Taffs Well - Pentyrch - Groes Faen - Miskin - Llanharan - Pencoed - Coychurch - Brackla.

It's around 50 miles and we will have a coffee at the top of the Mountain. The weather is forecast to be dry and around 12 degrees with a fresh Easterly wind, so we should have a bit of tailwind home. See you there!

Mark

[Andy S]

Mark,
I have video evidence of serious slacking from this morning's ride.
Mr HL was certainly not trying hard enough,and Mr PL for smiling far too much bearing in mind his lanterne rouge effort and for blaming it all on the lack of "climbing juice"
Hahaha it's easier in a car

[Jason T]

Andy @ Pentyrch Today;



 

[harpo]

That's why he's got sore knees!

[RichardB]

Great route today thanks Mark.

[mal jones]

Bit disappointed to get dropped today was a bit slow getting off the mountain and then had a red light at nantgarw hill so at the next roundabout didnt know the route so came home the only way i knew , down treforest estate and new road to llantrisant . Still a good ride but dont think these pacers/amblers rides are  for me after all Im way the wrong side of 60 and new to cycling

[Tom]

Mal-I'm very sorry to hear that.We normally pride ourselves on making sure we never lose anyone.Today's ride wasn't really typical-give us another chance!
You should have stuck with me&Kate-we waited for Carrie to catch us up(see below)then had a very pleasant ride through Radyr,Gwaelo-yFarth,lanes to Power Station Hill,Efailisaf,Craigau.Miskin,Pontyclun&lanes to home.
No idea of distance,speed,metres climbed etc but very high score on the only statistic that counts-the enjoyment factor.
BTW-you will all remember shouting me down when I said we should turn left at the first cross-roads at Llandow(towards Nash Corner)-well Carrie assumed that's what we'd do and waited 20mins or so for us.If you'd all listened to me.....(only joking Mark)

[Jsaunders]

Tom it was only last week that you assured the 25ers that if they stepped up that nobody would get left behind, only mentioning this as around five of us was going to move up for the next amblers outing.

[Tom]

Jonathon-I'd like to think if I'd been there it wouldn't have happened and I'm sure Mark will be mortified.It#s not something I can recall happening for many years-let's see what Mark has to say

[Tom]

Before I upset Mark I don't mean he wasn't doing his job Jonathon-normally he rides at the front and I (or someone else old)ride at the back to make sure we don't lose anyone but as you will have seen I dropped off to wait for Carrie due to a misunderstanding about the route.There were a lot of people out today and it can be difficult to make sure everyone is together but we normally manage it!

[Mark Pope]

Yes I'm very disappointed that Mal thought he'd been left behind as he was ahead of most of the group when we got to Taffs Well on the return leg. We actually thought he'd decided to go home via the shorter route as he was on the front. He must have been slightly disorientated when we turned back on ourselves to climb up to Pentyrch. There are sometimes problems with people being dropped when we combine with the Pacers, as obviously the average speed picks up a notch and most of the Amblers want to hang on to the leaders. The size of the group didn't help either and with people joining the group on route and splitting off to ride slightly different routes it makes it difficult to know who's off the back of the bunch and who's just decided to cut the ride short or ride a different route home.

We actually started with 17 riders today, which briefly rose to 19 when we were joined by Kate and Carrie. However, at least two smaller groups split off at various points and a few others decided either not to 'do' the Mountain or not to stop at the cafe break at the top, which is their decision to make, it is a democracy after all! It can be like herding cats when we get beyond a certain number on a ride, but overall it works well. For the most part I thought today was a really good ride with a fantastic turnout. However, perhaps on future runs, if we combine with the Pacers, we may need to nominate a formal 'sweeper up' to bring home the back markers.

Out today were:

Tom
Terry
Tony
Paul N
Paul Longthorn
Haydn
Rob Hunt
Carrie
Kate
Mal
Steve Chapman
Richard B
Jason T
Mark P
Wayne
Pete Phillips
Neil B
Jonathan S
Chris Reed
Andy Storrie
Beelzeebub on camera!

I clocked 55 miles in total, with just over a 1000 metres of climbing. The average speed was around 16.2 mph, which isn't bad considering the terrain. There's no Club Ride next week due to the Carl Roach TT but I look forward to seeing you all on the next Sunday ride when hopefully I'll be able to count you all out and count you all back in again at the end of the ride. I managed to count everybody back in in Afghanistan but the Oggies are obviously a far tougher proposition that the Taliban!

Mark     

[harpo]

Thanks mark for a great ride!
 good marshalling and directing us all in the right direction!! We regrouped on numerous occasions
My enjoyment factor was 9 of 10!!

[Jsaunders]

Hi Tom Mark done a very good job today getting that number of riders home, it was hard enough today with Ron confusing us as we thought he was riding with us on our way to Port Talbot. I will still give it a go on the next amblers ride. Somebody said Friday night that the amblers should be called the chasers.this would make more sense to new riders.

[Tom]

Good stuff Jonathon-I hereby give my personal undertaking to be last in the group at all times so no-one is left behind!
Hoping to get out Tuesday&Friday this week in case you're about

[Mark Pope]

Glad you enjoyed the ride Haydn, it was a good pace and suited most people. Tom will be an excellent back marker on future rides, except on the hills when he'll fly past all of us whilst still in full chat mode (unless he's riding his 15 kilo shopping bike)!