Climbed the Rhigos on my commute today

cheaperholidays

Had to visit a client in Treherbert 20 miles away, so i thought it would be rude not to climb the Rhigos while i am here, took me 30 minutes from the bottom to the top,. the views at the top were stunning well worth it..

The ride back down was a bit hairy...

Lazarus

Glad you enjoyed it but you only did the one :P what's wrong with doing the Bwlch as well while your up that way

cheaperholidays

Where is that?

Lazarus

If you were in Treherbet , then head back down slightly to Treorchy , turn right at the main lights to Cwmparc .
When you approach Cwmparc, turn left then take the next right and you will be on the Bwlch.
Very, very similar to the Rhigos and also has an Ice Cream Van at the top normally

Lazarus

In all fairness well done for getting the Rhigos under your belt .

Give the Bwlch a go next time and before long all the quiet beauties in the valleys will be waiting for you to conquer.

Jay dubbleU

Maybe we need a new 'Extreme Commuting Forum' 8)

cheaperholidays

Lazarus wrote:

If you were in Treherbet , then head back down slightly to Treorchy , turn right at the main lights to Cwmparc .
When you approach Cwmparc, turn left then take the next right and you will be on the Bwlch.
Very, very similar to the Rhigos and also has an Ice Cream Van at the top normally

I am coming from Church village so my route is Pontypridd, Porth, Llwynypia, Treorchy.

So for me it would be turn left at the lights (where the road works are now) and over the bridge is this correct.

Lazarus

Yes if your headed that way. Not sure about the roadworks can't remember where they are (there's so many they all blur together ) but you will want to turn left at the lights , The Stag pub is actually on the corner.

Cwmparc is a dead end , so you don't actually go through it .When you approach Cwmparc you will see a sign saying "all other traffic " follow that and then take the next right and bingo sit down and enjoy the next three miles.

cheaperholidays

Thanks Lazarus will give it a go Monday if i can get way from shmbo

cheaperholidays

Update:

Decided that today was perfect low cloud cool, made a bit of an error getting to the Bwlch instead of going through ponty, porth, i went up past Tonyrefail which is one long climb, till you go down that steep hill by Asda.

Any way what a fantastic climb tougher than the Rhigos but that could have been the strong head wind, a real grinder, took me 29 minutes to the top, however which is the top, i went round the corner where it starts to go down hill, but you could turn right by the view station perhaps.

The descent was bloody fast though lol

Well recommended, this could start to be addictive.

Lazarus

Reel him in boys we have another one

All joking aside well done on climbing the Bwlch, so you've got both of them under your belt now 8)

If you turned right at the top them yes it does continue to climb as you saw but very rarely do we use that road , though it has to be said descending for miles and miles down to Port Talbot from that road does have it's merits

On the other hand when you went round the corner and you could have descended down to Ogmore Vale , that is a classic training loop.

cheaperholidays

Climbed the bwlcw again today and this time went down and through Pencoed to get back to church village.

On a climb like that do you spin up in a low gear or do you drop a few and stand up is there any rule.

Me i spin up in 2nd or 3rd smallest cog but fast cadence more psychological really..

cjcp

I sat down and spun the gears up the Rhigos and the Bwlch. I reserve standing up for the shorter, sharper stuff.

What a lovely commute route.

Out of interest, if I start out from Whitchurch, how long would it take to reach the Rhigos and/or Bwlch?

cheaperholidays

I takes me an hour or so to get to the bottom of the Bwlch from church village, and i routed through pontypridd.Porth

So whitchurch is another say 10 miles so maybe another half hour, want to meet up on route sometme?

cjcp

cheaperholidays wrote:

I takes me an hour or so to get to the bottom of the Bwlch from church village, and i routed through pontypridd.Porth

So whitchurch is another say 10 miles so maybe another half hour, want to meet up on route sometme?

Cheers.

Could be a plan. Only problem is that I live in London, but I'm from Penarth and stil have family in Cardiff, so do go back there from time to time. It's then a question of a whether I can get for 3-4 hours. A lot of "ifs", but will let you know if I'm comin down armed with the bike.

Benno on here might also be up for it when he recovers from his shoulder injury.

Lazarus

Absolutely no rule what so ever, it's just about getting up there in any manner you wish.

Depending on my mood, sometimes i will pitter patter up the thing in a small gear, other times it's a big ring slogfest. Either way i end up at the same place

Not happy with Pencoed had my first puncture for months going through there sunday morning, Bloody pothole.

cheaperholidays

Here is my route: Might try the reverse later in the week...

My Route 38 miles RT


That should be fun in a gasping sort of way

Lazarus

Yep that's a classic training loop

cheaperholidays

Are there any clubs around the church village area?

Lazarus

Hmm your in no mans land

I live in Ponty but being a valley lad i joined

http://www.acme-wheelers.co.uk/

You could also head to down to Cardiff and they have

http://www.cardiffajaxcycling.co.uk/
and
http://www.cardiffjif.com/

You have to kind of take your pick on which direction you want to go. A couple of our lads live out that way ( Meadow Farm ), and we also have a few from Llantrisant. So as you can see your not that to far away, but if you do come up the valley be warned we like cake way more than riding

cheaperholidays

Lazarus wrote:

Hmm your in no mans land

I live in Ponty but being a valley lad i joined

http://www.acme-wheelers.co.uk/

You could also head to down to Cardiff and they have

http://www.cardiffajaxcycling.co.uk/
and
http://www.cardiffjif.com/

You have to kind of take your pick on which direction you want to go. A couple of our lads live out that way ( Meadow Farm ), and we also have a few from Llantrisant. So as you can see your not that to far away, but if you do come up the valley be warned we like cake way more than riding

Do you have a club run on Sunday is so would like to come along

Lazarus

CH we do have a club run on Sundays and as always we meet up outside the Welcome Inn in Tonypandy at 9.30am and anybody is most welcome to join.

We meet up at 9.30 but you'll have no chance of us leaving at that time, Relaxed is the best way to describe the Sunday morning ride. Last week we popped down to Porthcawl for a coffee and I did about 60 miles just to give you an idea.

The week before that it was up to Merthyr , Garwant Cafe over the top to Penderyn and back to Aberdare and then home, that again was 60+miles.

Would expect a ride along the coast this week and then back to Cowbridge Cafe , Be warned though we are a bunch of wimps and don't like rain, so if it's wet there won't be anyone there

They never leave a man behind unless it's me, I still think they knew i had a puncture just didn't want to help

cheaperholidays

Ok could do with a longish run considering doing the welsh epic, especialy as i had to push my mc up some of the of the hills around Rhyadar last week, after i um ran out of fuel... :oops:

Lazarus

Hmm not sure if this is too late for you CH but just realised that the British Time Trial is tomorrow ! ! Should be some people at the club run but in all honesty I would not like to hazard a guess think many of the stalwarts will be going to watch the TT.

cheaperholidays

Thanks for the heads up, its bloody raining today on the plus side i reversed my route up the bwlch on Friday going church village Pen-coed then up the valley, blimey its steep when you start to climb just past that clock tower roundabout..

Well worth the effort though..