June 15th: I wobbled The Dragon Ride

Over the weekend I did The Dragon Ride, a 117 mile race from Bridgend across the Brecon Beacons and back. 3100 riders took part. It is one of the UKs premier Sportive events. Here is the race report:

I drove down to wales on the M4 on a sunny Saturday afternoon. I was staying with family friends in Pencoed (just outside Bridgend) on Saturday night. Nice and convenient for the start being only a mile away. Upon arrival I was greeted with a nice welcoming hot lasagne dinner and a comfy bed.

My day started at 5:30 am when I was woken by the baby in the next room babbling before he decided he had had enough and started to cry for his first bottle of the day. No need for an alarm when there are youing children about. It was bright and sunny outside, no point in staying in bed any longer. I got up, showered, breakfasted (I had Weetabix and Croissant whilst the baby was enjoying his bottle of milk with his Dad) and left for the start line before 7:00 am.

I met up with my friend S from RBS/Guildford Peloton / Team MK in the car park and we proceeded to the start arriving just before 8:00 am.

We were about the fourth group to start at 8:12 am. The start was much more efficient than last year where we had to hang around the start for ages . It was obviously early on that S was chomping at the bit. He had said at the start that as he was on his new Scott bike (he has a new bike so now his wife wants new golf clubs) he wanted to beat last years time even though the course was 20 Km longer than last year (the generous organisers had slipped a new hill at the start and another at the finish). After about 10 miles I let S go and proceeded on my own.

At 42 miles in the middle of the Brecon Beacons National Park I was with a group that was moving quite nicely (but probably faster that would have been good for me overall) when there was a loud "BANG" and my bike shook. The guy next to me said that it was probably a stone but the guy behind me corrected him and said I had lost a spoke and my back wheel was buckled. I got off and my wheel was badly buckled as I had lost a drive side spoke. The wheel was rubbing on the brakes and frame.

As there was no telephone signal and I would have had to wait hours for the sweep wagon I loosened off my brakes and decided to cautiously proceed to get to civilisation. This proceeding cautiously turned into 18 miles of cautious riding until I reached the food station at 60 miles. As I arrived S was just leaving. There I telephoned the mechanical support (provided my Mavic, real French mechanics in a yellow Mavic Tour car with French plates. They didn't swap out my back wheel, the mechanic tweaked a few spokes to slightly correct the buckle so that it was not rubbing too much and told me that should get me home.

As I left I got into a bunch from De Vere cycles who were wearing a bright canary yellow strip and were storming along . I raced with them for the next 25 miles swallowing up groups and spitting them out. At one stage I was racing downhill at 45 mph with only a front brake and a tremendous wobble on the back of the bike.

Eventually I could keep it up no longer and got spat out. A few miles further on I was greeted with a "Welcome Back" as I was swallowed into a group of guys who had similarly been dropped. This group broke up as we hit the hills again.

All the way people kept coming up to me and telling me "do you know your back wheel is buckled", "that looks dangerous", "wow", and "that looks nasty". I don't think anyone behind me could but notice it was so bad but hearing these comments some 100 times over 87 miles got a bit repetitive.

I throttled back as I knew the Bwlch (big mountain 4.5 miles at 8%) was coming up. Last year I had to walk some of it but this year I was determined to get at least further before dismounting. It hurt but even in my lowest gear and with the afternoon heat coming off the road (yes, it was hot and sunny all day with temperatures in the 30s, unlike the usual rain Wales usually guarantees) I managed to get to the top. I knew there was less than 20 miles and only one hill to go. As I came over the top there was a guy lying in the middle of the road who had had a nasty fall and was waiting for an ambulance. While I was waiting to get through I heard some of the guys say he had had a mechanical failure causing the fall. He was obviously badly hurt. I saw the ambulance coming up the mountain as I was going down.

From there to the end I formed a tag team with another guy and we took turns pushing the pace on finishing the last few miles with a sprint .

I finished in 7 hours 38 minutes against 7 hours 10 minutes last year over the shorter course. I would have been pleased with this time even without the mechanical shenanigans so I was very pleased. I met up with S at the burger bar (he had done 7 hours 17) and managed half a burger before my tummy protested as we analysed the race. I then went back to my friends for a shower (very welcome). I had a cup of tea whilst the children were having their sausages and potatoes (I was offered some but after eating stodge all day I wasn't hungry).

I was on the M4 on my way home at 5:30 pm and home at 9:00 pm.

Now to get to the bike shop to see if I can get my wheel repaired before the Etap.