Tour of the Black Mountains 2009

pantsani

With a chance of dry weather and 394 entries to date this should be a cracker.

The profile looks fairly brutal to a ToBM virgin like myself, but looking forward to it all the same. Anyone on here doing it ?

roger_merriman

pantsani wrote:

With a chance of dry weather and 394 entries to date this should be a cracker.

The profile looks fairly brutal to a ToBM virgin like myself, but looking forward to it all the same. Anyone on here doing it ?

yup, i was born in Abergavenny though i now live in londonish area, so i'll be along life has rather poleaxed any proper training so we'll have to see on the day as to which route i take, ie how knackered i am at each turn off.

pantsani

Aye, same here haven't dedicated as much time on the bike as I'd like to have recently but doing the longest route. It's all a question of pace ( or lack of ) I suppose

ledburyloafer

pantsani wrote:

Aye, same here haven't dedicated as much time on the bike as I'd like to have recently but doing the longest route. It's all a question of pace ( or lack of ) I suppose

I'm in for this, did it the first year, devils elbow will be ingteresting! and those last 5 miles are torture, especially as I'm under prepared, but still, will enjoy it!

pantsani

I know the area and the route looks great, looking forward to the climb up gospel pass with some fresh legs at the start.

Don't want to put the curse on , but the forecast is still holding for a nice day.

ledburyloafer

pantsani wrote:

I know the area and the route looks great, looking forward to the climb up gospel pass with some fresh legs at the start.

Don't want to put the curse on , but the forecast is still holding for a nice day.

Sssshhhh!

Thomas the Tank Engine

...I'll be there in my Bournemouth Jubilee kit !! 8)

Did the Marmotte coulpe of weeks ago , so looking for a nice flat route... c!!

See ya

oldwelshman

Wonder if I can enter on the sat? Fancy taking my tent and just having a ride, very little training for long rides since a crash so would be interesting

roger_merriman

oldwelshman wrote:

Wonder if I can enter on the sat? Fancy taking my tent and just having a ride, very little training for long rides since a crash so would be interesting

ring and ask they did claim a cut off though a few weeks ago.

sudholz

Thomas the Tank Engine wrote:

...I'll be there in my Bournemouth Jubilee kit !! 8)

Did the Marmotte coulpe of weeks ago , so looking for a nice flat route... c!!

See ya

Thomas.

Look forward to seeing you there. Last year, I too did the Marmotte and thought it was a matter of just turning up and riding the course.....needless to say it kicked my arse....for real.

This year I am taking it a lot more seriously...result is bound to be the same! It's a proper hard day in the saddle.

S

mark 2

Hi people, the weather is clearing and should be warm and dry for Saturday , but don't take my word for it as the weather around here changes quicker than ????????????
another heads up is that when you get to Sennybridge there is a fair bit of road resurfacing going on and if your doing the long ride as you leave the A40 out of Trecastle heading for the mountain road (Glasfynydd forest) There is also resurfacing work going on across the mountain, lots of loose chippings be careful ?? I know I live on that road, If I haven't gone fishing I will be out supporting you lot might be able to top up the odd water bottle or two, anyway iechyd da

pantsani

Have to say I enjoyed the ride on a fantastic route chatting to lots of nice people.

As stated before , it's a hard sportive, if anyone is thinking of doing this next year , don't go into it undercooked it will kick your ar$e ( I did, it did! ). I was in a group of 4 and none of us had anything left at the end.

Slight niggles on the organisation, but overall a great day.

howiejmidlands

I rode the 60 miler, didnt want to push my luck with my bad back. It was the hardest 60 miles for a long time.
I only walked twice, both becasue i had stopped and couldnt get going again, so only walked maybe 50yards on each of the big climbs.
Big thanks to the photographer at the top of the last big climb, he put his camera down and gave me a long push, cheers Mr Cameraman i appreciated your comments.
Feed station was bare by the time i got to the first one, something needs to be done there, but we were lucky with the weather.
Big hello to my new chum Bob, hope your OK mate, but remember, pre ride prep is not 10 pints and a curry!!
Focus now moves to the Wild Edric in 2 weeks time.

cyclistbruce

I did the 117 miler, and blew spectacularly on the final climb! My own fault for not eating properly and trying to survive on jelly babies and jaffa cakes! The last 2 miles seemed to last for ever!

Definitely the hardest sportive I've done. One thought though, the end was a bit of an antil climax, in fact they often are on Sportives, finishing in a out of the way leisure centre didn't seem to reward the effort! Wouldn't it be good if they could have a town centre finish for a change, with 600 riders and accompanying family and friends, surely it would be good for local business and worth the hassle of a couple of closed roads! In fact, apprarently the town centre was closed anyway for some sort of festival, so bit of a missed opportunity there!

roger_merriman

cyclistbruce wrote:

I did the 117 miler, and blew spectacularly on the final climb! My own fault for not eating properly and trying to survive on jelly babies and jaffa cakes! The last 2 miles seemed to last for ever!

Definitely the hardest sportive I've done. One thought though, the end was a bit of an antil climax, in fact they often are on Sportives, finishing in a out of the way leisure centre didn't seem to reward the effort! Wouldn't it be good if they could have a town centre finish for a change, with 600 riders and accompanying family and friends, surely it would be good for local business and worth the hassle of a couple of closed roads! In fact, apprarently the town centre was closed anyway for some sort of festival, so bit of a missed opportunity there!

I only did the 60, one i hadn't trained and i had been upinto the wee hours sorting out the mess some little scotes had caused at a house we own nr there.

the "iron mountain" spotive starts/ends in Bailey Park, are you sure they had closed the roads in the center? as to get to the leisure center from my folks i had to pass though the center and i didn't notice any thing on my ride there and back.

pantsani

Not sure if we took a wrong turn somewhere but we clocked the longest ride as 119 miles on our bike computers.

Ditto on the last miles seeming to take forever, I think most people were breathing out of their ar$e by the time they were faced with the 'mini-alp' climb out of LLagynidr, if that didn't finish you off the rolling hills from Crickhowell to Abergavenny certainly did.

Great day though, when I do it next year I will treat the course with a bit more respect than your average 100 mile sportive and do some longer distance training with a lot of climbing !

A town centre finish would have been nice but I guess the logistics make it that bit more difficult to organise and possibly more expensive than having it out of the way at the leisure centre.

KPHC

Only did the 60mile route as was my first Sportive. Had no idea what to expect but agree on the views of that final climb from Llangynidir, pretty brutal and far longer than anything climbed previously (can't imagine how that felt after 40 extra miles beforehand!), plus the cleats on my left shoe had come loose (?) somehow so was essentially locked in for the duration and meant a shoes-off roadside repair at the top...but meant I could enjoy the view that bit longer I guess! The freefall down the other side was fantastic, but the undulating lanes on the way back to Abergavenny were the real struggle to keep going on, pretty thigh/soul destroying! All in all a great day though, feed stations and route were more than I'd expected, just hope i'm not spoiled for future sportives now!

sudholz

pantsani wrote:

Not sure if we took a wrong turn somewhere but we clocked the longest ride as 119 miles on our bike computers.

That tallies with my Garmin (191kms for the long one). Total climb registered was 3345m.

I did a better time by 15mins this year than last, mostly because I still bear the mental scars of those last 20kms from the first time I did it.

If I could only find the strength to stick in a group when the road goes up...

...anyway great views, nice company on the route when it happened. Will I do it again...?

Probably

pinerellopaul

only my second sportive after doing the tour of Pembrokeshire earler in the year really enjoyed the course which was challenging right to the last miles with lovely views from peaks and amazing descents feed stops were also really well stocked
i most definitely would do again next year my only grumble long queue for toilets at the leisure centre at start as others avalable toliets were locked

roger_merriman

pinerellopaul wrote:

only my second sportive after doing the tour of Pembrokeshire earler in the year really enjoyed the course which was challenging right to the last miles with lovely views from peaks and amazing descents feed stops were also really well stocked
i most definitely would do again next year my only grumble long queue for toilets at the leisure centre at start as others avalable toliets were locked

there was toilets out side as well, asuming it was just a pee....

ledburyloafer

cyclistbruce wrote:

I did the 117 miler, and blew spectacularly on the final climb! My own fault for not eating properly and trying to survive on jelly babies and jaffa cakes! The last 2 miles seemed to last for ever!

Definitely the hardest sportive I've done. One thought though, the end was a bit of an antil climax, in fact they often are on Sportives, finishing in a out of the way leisure centre didn't seem to reward the effort! Wouldn't it be good if they could have a town centre finish for a change, with 600 riders and accompanying family and friends, surely it would be good for local business and worth the hassle of a couple of closed roads! In fact, apprarently the town centre was closed anyway for some sort of festival, so bit of a missed opportunity there!

believe me the last thing you need after 100 hard miles, is riding thru a town, towns mean traffic, and riders racing to get a time, or just knackered do not mix with traffic!, best compromise is finish out of town and maybe a leisurely ride thru a town to finishing point.

pizzoferro33

I signed up for the 96miler, clocked 103miles, I'll take that as the distance I did, sounds far more impressive when telling non-cyclists, "What, you did that on a bike?!" ....."oh, yeah, it was no bother!" .....yeah right....total bother ...but fantastic to do

Anyway, for those that remember, there was one ascent in particular that got me, it was in the middle of the Brecons, it appeared out of nowhere, rose very steeply to the left, short and sharp, but double tough. The photographer was sat at the top. Anyone remember where that was on the route?. I'd like to pin point it on my map.


Thanks all

pantsani

pizzoferro33 wrote:

I signed up for the 96miler, clocked 103miles, I'll take that as the distance I did, sounds far more impressive when telling non-cyclists, "What, you did that on a bike?!" ....."oh, yeah, it was no bother!" .....yeah right....total bother ...but fantastic to do

Anyway, for those that remember, there was one ascent in particular that got me, it was in the middle of the Brecons, it appeared out of nowhere, rose very steeply to the left, short and sharp, but double tough. The photographer was sat at the top. Anyone remember where that was on the route?. I'd like to pin point it on my map.


Thanks all

Maybe I am wrong because I was so knackered but I don't remember any 25% walls or anything but the steepest bits I can remember were up Gospel Pass between Abergavenny and Hay-on-Wye and the other was between Heol Senni and Ystradfellte which had a couple of switchbacks on the hill and the 2nd feed station was at the top of the climb

Have a look on a map like streetmap you can see single arrows indicating steepness for the points I mean.

sudholz

It is here

I believe it is called The hill with no name and it used to feature on the Dragon ride. In the course profile it doesn't appear to be of any real significance compared to some of the other ones but then those 'bumps' at the end don't look too bad either. :?

S

pizzoferro33

Thats the one, and that'll explain why I was having such trouble locating it.

Anyone have any snaps they took en route ?. Would love to pass that on to a couple of cycling friends that couldn't make the ride

P33

pantsani

If you can remember your number , the Phil Connor photos are up on t'internet here

Thomas the Tank Engine

well that was jolly good fun,wasn't it!.....to be honest with you , i found that harder than the marmotte...honestly :oops: . :roll:

The climbs aren't as long (obviously) but they are a lot steeper and they just kept coming 1 after another....the descents were just as tough being wet in places...did anyone meet that big lorry coming up on the descent just after the last feed? ....hopefully he didn't get anyone on the narrow road .....we passed him at the bottom thankfully .

So if you did the TOBM and you're thinking about the marmotte next year........i think you're half way there!

Right ....whats next then.... :?

paulcass1

Went to do the long route but after second feed stop (after hill with no name?) at around 130km decided it wasn't my day and bailed out along the A road back to Abergavenny. Pretty horrible short cut but felt better for it.

Beautiful area, ok organistaion, good motorbike support - hope not too many riders needed it.

Maybe I didn't look hard enough but didn't see any refreshments at the start/end which was pretty poor. Also the first sportive I've been on where a cash deposit was required for the timing chip, a bit annoying as I hadn't taken much cash.

Final gripe - the gold/silver standard times were pretty arbitrary and I noticed that only about 5 or 6 riders managed each of the standards out of 133 finishers on the long route - It's better to have an achievable goal to push yourself on near the end of a ride, but was out of the question for all but the fittest.

Maybe I should have stayed in bed...