Favourite Ride

Pross

I'm sure this must have been done before but I haven't seen it. There are people from every part of the country on this forum with some fantastic cycling routes near them in the most beautiful areas whether it's the Highlands, Lakes, Peaks, Devon, Snowdonia or my own part of the world around the Brecon Beacons, Black Mountains and rural Monmouthshire. So let's have your favourite routes and a brief description of why you love them. With a bit of luck they'll be of use to people who may be visiting your area with their bikes.

Like many of you I suspect, I'm spoiled for choice with loads of variations on a theme taking in single track lanes or quiet rural A and B roads in fantastic scenery but this is an example of one of my favourites.

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/gb/abergavenny/687127357593461432

It starts in Abergavenny (which is a good starting point for loads of rides from tough hills to gently rolling countryside) and heads towards Hereford before turning up the Llanthony valley (nice little pub in the old abbey) and on over what I know as Hay Bluff but I think others call Gospel Pass. This is a steep climb with fantastic views over the Black Mountains and South Herefordshire with a steep technical descent into Hay (the elevation on Map My Ride doesn't reflect how tough the top of the climb is! From Hay head west to Talgarth and on to Llangorse which offers superb views over the lake to Pen-y-Fan and the rest of the Beacons. A turn of this road then takes you over Mynydd Llangors to Cwmdu and then joins the A40 (a fairly quiet road is this area!) where you can either go back straight to Abergavenny or turn up through Llangenny to Forest Coalpit to add a slightly more scenic finish.

I haven't ridden this for years as I'm not up to it yet but I will be doing it again shortly

Over to you lot!

Matt the Tester

well im useless using that mapmyride thingy so i will tell u if i can lol.

if anyone is familier with southport and the area heading towards rufford and newburgh i enjoy that ride going over parbold and over hunters hill towards ashurts hill and stoney lane some fantastic climbs and im going to do it very shortly

SteveR_100Milers

Pross wrote:

I'm sure this must have been done before but I haven't seen it. There are people from every part of the country on this forum with some fantastic cycling routes near them in the most beautiful areas whether it's the Highlands, Lakes, Peaks, Devon, Snowdonia or my own part of the world around the Brecon Beacons, Black Mountains and rural Monmouthshire. So let's have your favourite routes and a brief description of why you love them. With a bit of luck they'll be of use to people who may be visiting your area with their bikes.

Like many of you I suspect, I'm spoiled for choice with loads of variations on a theme taking in single track lanes or quiet rural A and B roads in fantastic scenery but this is an example of one of my favourites.

http://www.mapmyride.com/route/gb/abergavenny/687127357593461432

It starts in Abergavenny (which is a good starting point for loads of rides from tough hills to gently rolling countryside) and heads towards Hereford before turning up the Llanthony valley (nice little pub in the old abbey) and on over what I know as Hay Bluff but I think others call Gospel Pass. This is a steep climb with fantastic views over the Black Mountains and South Herefordshire with a steep technical descent into Hay (the elevation on Map My Ride doesn't reflect how tough the top of the climb is! From Hay head west to Talgarth and on to Llangorse which offers superb views over the lake to Pen-y-Fan and the rest of the Beacons. A turn of this road then takes you over Mynydd Llangors to Cwmdu and then joins the A40 (a fairly quiet road is this area!) where you can either go back straight to Abergavenny or turn up through Llangenny to Forest Coalpit to add a slightly more scenic finish.

I haven't ridden this for years as I'm not up to it yet but I will be doing it again shortly

Over to you lot!

That's slightly understated...it s b******d of a climb that kicks and kicks again, more often than not into a headwind. I've done this route or very similar a couple of times with the Ross boys over the last couple of winters. It's a great route.

NB you doing our club 10 this evening?

Pross

Glad you agree about that climb, I reckon it's closer to 25% for the last 100m or so. Map my Ride always seems to underestimate gradients although it was nice when I mapped my route on Sunday that went from Mitchel Troy to Trelleck and what I thought was me struggling on a 4 or 5% climb turned out to be an 8% climb :shock:

Not doing the 10 this evening as I've cycled in to work today plus with a 50 miler on Sunday and 2 hours at the 'drome last night I reckon I've earned a rest. Hoping to do the club 10 on Thursday though.

jackfeeder

Did most of that route a few weeks ago - didn't think Gospel Pass was as hard as we thought it was going to be (it was still hard) - good preparation for the Dragon ride I hope..
Fantastic descent and a great route back as we headed back to Talybont way.
One of the hardest but scenic climbs I've done recently is the Betws mountain over Ammanford (South Wales) way. Did that after going up and down and up and down the Black mountain over Brynaman way and the Betws almost finished me off - it's a s*d.
Got some great cycling over where I live (Gower/Swansea) - v.lucky.