Bwlch y Groes

Pross

Has anyone on here ridden this? I'd never realised how close I was to it on my drives to Holyhead until today so took a look. Drove up it from Lake Bala and thought it was a beautiful climb but not very difficult. I then drove down to Dinas Mawddwy and realised what the fuss is about with it being about 15% or more for the final mile and the stretch from Dinas to the mountain itself seemed to on for ever with steep ramps broken up by slacker grades and short downhills. I fancy giving it a crack at some point but need to get fitter and fit a compact first. Not sure if it is on mroli's list? I assume so but not done yet. It'll be interesting to see how it rates to some of the tough climbs up north, it must be the toughest in Wales?

campagone

Iv'e tried it a couple of times but failed to get to the top both times got to the cross the first time though which I was quite happy with.
The thing is I live in Bala and to get to Dinas Mawddwy you either have to go to Lake Vyrnwy and head towards Llangadfan and come up the A458 to Dinas which isn't an easy ride, or go past Dolgellau the you've got a nasty climb to contend with on the A470, so you end up pretty tired before getting to the Bwlch. Not making excuses but it's a pig just to get to.
I go up the Bala side most weeks, and your right it's not that hard but having said that most people I see ride it struggle up it.

batch78

Yes. In the 100 Greatest Climbs book its rated 10/10 from Dinas Mawddwy side, I found it very hard even on a compact, once you round the right hand bend and leave the trees it just keeps going, and going, thankfully I rode it first on a day long hellish 'interval session' consisting of Bwlch, Horseshoe, Shelf, Moel Arthur and another road I thought was Penbarra but not! From Bala side it appeared quite a nice segmented climb.

The rest of my interval involved driving nearly 150 miles from Barmouth and between climbs, christ the roads in Wales perambulate!

As an aside I also rode Ffordd Penllech whilst in Wales, 40% over such a short distance is amazingly easy to accomplish.

Ron Stuart

Done the Bwilch Y Groes (pass of the cross) several times and also all three ways and you are correct, from Dinas Mawddwy it is the hardest. There was a guy from my gym who died this year on the descent training for the E2E. The hardest time I did it was after 70 miles into a Wild Wales Challenge some years back after doing lots of other climbing earlier, I nearly didn't make it. :oops:
Worst section is shortly before the road junction By the way the Groes isn't at the summit; it's at the junction with the road up from Lake Vrynwy the Eunant Pass. I often ride out from near Shrewsbury to Lake Vyrnwy, have coffee then do the Eunant Pass go down the back of the Bwilch to Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake Tegid) past Llangower then right on to B4391and then up over the Berwyns via the Milltir Gerrig then on down the Tannat Valley. Another very picturesque route is to take the right after Llangower then shortly right again through Rhos-y-gwaliau ,up and over the Hirnant Pass to Lake Vrynwy, carry on to Llanwddyn (2 dd's make a th sound) after Llanwddyn take left to Penybontfawr left and over the Milltir Gerrig and on to Bala.

Bit more here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bwlch_y_Groes enjoy.


ps. A lot depends on what the winds doing up there

celbianchi

Yes, did it in Feb as part of a weekend in mid Wales with a few chaps. Was tough, - we rode it from Dinas side, up it in the 39*25 pretty much from bottom to top. It was on the 3rd day of hilly riding down there.

mroli

Yes - on my list, but not done yet. That and Rosedale are the two "biggest" challenges I have left I think....

Pross

celbianchi wrote:

Yes, did it in Feb as part of a weekend in mid Wales with a few chaps. Was tough, - we rode it from Dinas side, up it in the 39*25 pretty much from bottom to top. It was on the 3rd day of hilly riding down there.

That's pretty impressive. I don't think I'll be trying it any time soon unless I've got a 34 on the front at least :oops:

celbianchi

Pross wrote:

celbianchi wrote:

Yes, did it in Feb as part of a weekend in mid Wales with a few chaps. Was tough, - we rode it from Dinas side, up it in the 39*25 pretty much from bottom to top. It was on the 3rd day of hilly riding down there.

That's pretty impressive. I don't think I'll be trying it any time soon unless I've got a 34 on the front at least :oops:

We had a great weekend, late Feb so just before racing began again. We rented a cottage in Buillth (sp). Day one saw the Devils Staircase and Devil Elbow which was pretty tough, day two was very wet so we reduced the ride to about 50 miles and came over the staircase the other way.
None of us had ridden the Bwlch and there was nervous trepidation as we got about 5 miles away from the foot of it. Took about 15 mins to grind up it IIRC. Was great, There were 5 of us and whilst the man ahead may have only been about 30m in front the time it took to cover the distance was unreal, there wasn't much scope for attacking one another, was just a war of attrition.

celbianchi

Oh, and to add a bit of fun for forum regulars P_Tucker snapped his frame once we had descended the other side of it and had to get an £80 taxi back to Llandrindod Wells. how we laughed.

batch78

15mins, fierce! I did it in 19 solo, book puts it at 23. Celbianchi thats an awesome weekend of climbing, don't think I'll be doing anything similar for a while. If you've got 100 Climbs # 14,17 and 18 are my regulars and much more suited to my style of climbing, 92 I could do every day and get it to aerobic levels!!!

ps Maybe not with 92 but 1'40 easily possible

pps Laughing at other peoples frame breakages is just mean, he obviously puts out an awesome amount of power.

Davey C

celbianchi wrote:

Pross wrote:

celbianchi wrote:

Yes, did it in Feb as part of a weekend in mid Wales with a few chaps. Was tough, - we rode it from Dinas side, up it in the 39*25 pretty much from bottom to top. It was on the 3rd day of hilly riding down there.

That's pretty impressive. I don't think I'll be trying it any time soon unless I've got a 34 on the front at least :oops:

We had a great weekend, late Feb so just before racing began again. We rented a cottage in Buillth (sp). Day one saw the Devils Staircase and Devil Elbow which was pretty tough, day two was very wet so we reduced the ride to about 50 miles and came over the staircase the other way.
None of us had ridden the Bwlch and there was nervous trepidation as we got about 5 miles away from the foot of it. Took about 15 mins to grind up it IIRC. Was great, There were 5 of us and whilst the man ahead may have only been about 30m in front the time it took to cover the distance was unreal, there wasn't much scope for attacking one another, was just a war of attrition.

We reduced the ride?!!! Speak for yourself. 8)

JamesB

IMO probably hardest in UK although years since rode Hardknott / Wrynose ---pleasure of those awaits in FWC 2012... but rode Bwlch y Groeslast year;
Llanfyllin> Milltir Gerrig> Bala> Bwlch y Groes, down steep side, turn around, back up to top, > Lake Vyrnwy> llanfyllin. All sides offer different experineces; from Bala a lovely steady climb, working away up into mountains. Steep side is just horrid took 21 min with compact just turning
On a nice sunny spring day a great ride, in poor waether maybe avoid !

celbianchi

batch78 wrote:

15mins, fierce! I did it in 19 solo, book puts it at 23. Celbianchi thats an awesome weekend of climbing, don't think I'll be doing anything similar for a while. If you've got 100 Climbs # 14,17 and 18 are my regulars and much more suited to my style of climbing, 92 I could do every day and get it to aerobic levels!!!

ps Maybe not with 92 but 1'40 easily possible

pps Laughing at other peoples frame breakages is just mean, he obviously puts out an awesome amount of power.

Seeing as this has re-opened - I think the 15 mins was to the Lake Vrywny turn off where we re-grouped then pressed on over the top for the Bala descent. So would be closer to the standard 20+ mins i reckon.

mroli

Holiday/Cottage booked - heading up w/c 9th March to do the N Wales climbs and then w/c 16th March to do the Yorkshire Dales climbs.

Have had this stinking cold that's been going round and almost broke myself on Crowcombe last weekend, so hoping for better lungs/legs in 3 weeks time!

JamesB

any particular day in mind for bwlch y Groes ??

sub55

http://app.strava.com/segments/629900

mroli

Not yet JamesB - will give it some thought and post a likely riding schedule on here (or may keep it quiet so people don't get to witness my grovelling up the thing!)

JamesB

(or may keep it quiet so people don't get to witness my grovelling up the thing!)

i`m sure after all you`ve doen it will be just fine

Low gear from very start, break it down into bits, keep going !

Weather is at least looking reasonable, seems to be possibility settling down and not too cold !

Pross

sub55 wrote:

http://app.strava.com/segments/629900

That fastest time's not a bad effort on a 120km ride!

It's a shame the standard of road isn't a bit higher as it would be brilliant to see the Tour of Britain go over there!

Butterd2

Tried it once, got to within 100m of the top and just ground to a halt - on a triple!

Later that month I did the Grossglockner no problem.

kettrinboy

As the bottom few times on the Strava segment have an average speed of below 3 mph i assume that involved some walking as my hill walking speed is ~ 3.5 mph, ive only been up it on my motorbike and i was thinking that it would be one hard bastard of a climb even with a granny ring.