Transwales - Day 4

Today was a long day and it took me a while to get going in the morning as my legs were sore, I guess that is to be expected after three hard days of riding. I set off from the start with fay and her teammate Darryl, who now had a working bike, and we rode together all day. The day started with riding along a disused railway which is now a cyclepath, we seemed to arrive at the first feed station quickly, good to get some of the miles out of the way at the start without too much effort. After that we went down a road covered in Moss which claimed a few victims, including Darryl, who ripped his jacket but otherwise seemed fine. Once we got to Aberystwyth the climbing started with a near vertical raod out of the town, it was mainly road climbing till the lunch stop where the heavens opened. But this was one of the few feed stops where you went downhill afte it so at least my lunch had some time to digest! Went past some guy who had come off and maybe broken his ankle, but he was being well looked after so we continued. There was lots of mud, the river crossing was nothing compared to the day before, we nearly rode across this time, only failing to clear the far bank and got our feet a little wet - not that I noticed they were so wet anyway from the huge puddles I had been splashing through. After that there was a loose slate descent, that I nearly rode all the way, only two stops to relax and lots of singing and talking to myself! (I knew riding the ICR would come in useful, I need to get confident that I can clear it every time now!). On the last climb we were all in a line and I skidded on some mud coming to a halt, fay stopped behind me and a complete stranger rode into her, no apology so she said to him, "Sorry I didn't realise you were riding so close to my arse" made me laugh. We got to the campsite (which was a last minute replacement on an overflow carpark) at about 3pm, an hour before the cut-off.


79km @14.1km/h Average HR 143bpm


49miles @ 8.8mph



Best thing about this day was the hot shower at the leisure centre, hot and a good pressure!