A couple of weeks ago I set off on a 40 mile loop to the welsh village of Llangollen and back, but ended up having to get Becki to rescue me from Llangollen as I was too tired and it had taken far longer than I expected. Fairly disastrous. I was too tired, and I got caught on extremely icy roads whilst cycling across moorland and had to walk on and off for the best part of 5 miles. It was one of those situations where I’d gone too far to turn back so had to just battle through it, not much fun at all!
The route, 41 miles through rural Wales
Roll on several weeks, and today it was attempt number 2. In terms of difficulty, it’s by far the most demanding ride I’ve ever been on. A total gain of 3000ft, that’s the height I did my first skydive from!
I completed the 40 miles in around 4 hours, including a 30 minute break for a bite to eat next to the canal in Llangollen. I made a few short stops to rest my legs, snack, and take in the incredible views. There were also a couple of steam trains running on the tracks in and out of Llangollen which I just had to stop and check out! I love the smell of steam trains.
Check out the views:
The second half of the ride was pretty hard going, and I had to get off and walk on a steep uphill section:
So, 40 miles in 4 hours with a couple of breaks and I’m fairly happy with that. We only hope to cover around 40 miles a day on average whilst on our trip, so we’ll have the whole day to play with. We’ll be carrying tons of gear of course, but we’ll be going slowly and taking our time. This was the ride I needed!
