Holyhead to Chepstow in 2 days

earth

A few of us at work are planning a charity ride from north to south Wales next year. The exact route is undecided but it will be from Holyhead to Chepstow and is about 215 miles according to google maps. I've read people saying this can be done in 3 days but 4 is more achievable. I've done 100+ miles rides before and personally I think they are not to be underestimated. Most of my colleges have never done over 30 miles and are hoping to train over the winter for the ride in May. My thoughts are that as training progresses people will realise doing two 100 mile rides back to back is very challenging. Has anyone attempted this in two days?

whoof

I've done Bristol to Holyhead mostly following the Lon Las Cymru route. This is a very lumpy route, quite a lot of climbing much of it really steep. We carried a pannier each and stayed at B & Bs. We took 5 days which made it very enjoyable. It also gave us time to look at castles and things and also to avoid really bad weather. It was August last year and the end of hurricane Bertha arrived on the day we were going to ride up the Gospel pass so we waited for the afternoon and the windy to die down ( a bit) before setting off. Whilst you would be unlucky to be hit by something similar if you only have 2 days you are doing to have to ride no matter what.

http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/lon-las-cymru-holyhead-cardiff-chepstow

Please also check forums on the CTC etc for routes changes. Some bridges have been closed adding 20 miles detours.

I take it you have someone carrying your stuff in a van. It is doable and you will probably look back with a great sense of achievement and recall incidents that you can laugh about. However, whilst you are doing it it might be less enjoyable.

earth

I think that's roughly the route we want to take except that most of us want to use road bikes so we don't want to do any heavy off-road but a few miles of gravel would be ok.

We will have someone following in a van to carry our changes of clothes and necessary things.

Detours are something we have not predicted. Good that you mentioned that.

whoof

[url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19719011#p19719011]earth[/url] wrote:

I think that's roughly the route we want to take except that most of us want to use road bikes so we don't want to do any heavy off-road but a few miles of gravel would be ok.

We will have someone following in a van to carry our changes of clothes and necessary things.

Detours are something we have not predicted. Good that you mentioned that.

We did it on road bikes with 25 mm durano plus tyres. We avoided any rough off road sections but the biggest one is the Taff trail if you finish in Cardiff so you'll avoid that anyway. This is advice from someone else about avoiding offroad
'From Machynlleth to Porthmadog, don't be tempted onto the NCN 82 alternative route on a road bike, but stick to NCN 8'. If you look at the sustrans map of the 82 it shows exclamation marks indicating 'rough gravel track'.
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/route-82

Instead we wetn from Machynlleth north to Dolgellau and then followed the off-road river path, which was either tarmac or light compacted gravel to cross at Barmouth. This was one of the nicest parts of the trip. Unfortunately there are plans to close the bridge.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/spectacular-barmouth-bridge-footpath-could-9722565

Please see link to post about Briwet Bridge closure. This is on the section between Porthmadog and Harlech
http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=83459&hilit=lon+las+cymru
It looks as if it was closed for two years where they carried out some work. They then opened it and found it wasn't wide enough and closed it again. Might be sorted by the time you go.

nicktheluddite

I'm sure you'll find audaxers who do it in two days.
We did Bristol to Holyhead on tourers staying in B&Bs and with diversions to see friends in mid-Wales over 6 days. If your colleagues have only ever ridden 30 miles then like you say they'll find 2x100+ mile days too hard. Wales is really quite hilly - not just Snowdonia but all the way.
We mostly followed Lon Las Cymru - sustrans maps are good.
Between Porthamadog and Dolgellau there are two routes - we took the east route which goes through Coed-y-Brenin on dirt tracks. Sustrans map says not suitable for road bikes for this route - I agree. Other option is the A470 but that looked no fun the few times we crossed it.