Dragon Ride 2018

mamil314

MTBMick wrote:

Did this at the weekend. Originally signed up for the Devil but got caught by the tacks on the Bwllch climb at start and suffered a little with heat and just missed the cut off. I had previously done the 230km route a couple of times but found this year a lot harder and assume this was related to the heat. Climb up Devils elbow and also Black Mountain was so hot with no shade.

Picking up on comments made earlier. Staff / volunteers at the feed stations were excellent and very helpful and not as mainc as previous years.

Always a Great ride and well organised.

There was a single tree on the 'Black Mountain' climb and i enjoyed the whole second of sun cover it provided!

ugo.santalucia

davebradswmb wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I like the scenery and as far as scenery goes, the Dragon Ride is by far the dullest event in Wales... mind you, I've never done Veloton... :roll:

Wow, I really must see more of Wales, I was blown away by some of the scenery.

Mind you I only know North Wales very well, Mid Wales moderately well, and only really the coast of South Wales, so that leaves a lot more to explore....

I can't claim to know all of Wales, but a few of my favourite bits, which are not featured in the Dragon Ride... not necessarily in this order

1) Lake Vyrnwy and the three climbs up Bwlch-Y-Groes (from the Lake, from Dinas and from Bala)
2) The Gospel pass from Hay
3) The Elan Valley reservoir system
4) The Llanberis pass
5) Surprisingly, the A5 to Llyn Ogwen from Betws-Y-Coed
6) The climb and descent to Devil's Bridge
7) The Bwlch Goriwared from Llanuwuchllyn
8) The coastline between Barmouth and Harlech
9) The Great Orme from Llandudno
10) The Pembrokeshire coastline north of Fishguard
11) The Hirnant pass from Bala
12) The B4391 from Bala to Llanfyllin
13) The Llangollen canal culminating in the Pontcysyllite aquecduct
14) The coastal path that runs along the A55 west of Conwy

jethers77

mrfpb wrote:

Can I check stats with other Gran Fondo riders.

Strava says I did 12,160ft of climbing. That's more than I expected. I did go off course at one point, but that wouldn't have added more than 100ft to the official figure.

11,770 feet for me but I saw anything from 10,500 to 12,500 on my feed.

drlodge

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I can't claim to know all of Wales, but a few of my favourite bits, which are not featured in the Dragon Ride... not necessarily in this order

1) Lake Vyrnwy and the three climbs up Bwlch-Y-Groes (from the Lake, from Dinas and from Bala)
2) The Gospel pass from Hay
3) The Elan Valley reservoir system
4) The Llanberis pass
5) Surprisingly, the A5 to Llyn Ogwen from Betws-Y-Coed
6) The climb and descent to Devil's Bridge
7) The Bwlch Goriwared from Llanuwuchllyn
8) The coastline between Barmouth and Harlech
9) The Great Orme from Llandudno
10) The Pembrokeshire coastline north of Fishguard
11) The Hirnant pass from Bala
12) The B4391 from Bala to Llanfyllin
13) The Llangollen canal culminating in the Pontcysyllite aquecduct
14) The coastal path that runs along the A55 west of Conwy

What length ride would one need to cover these, or most of them? Could be an interesting Audax :-) Not sure of the geography, I guess some of these are North wales, I recognise some in the south (hollibobs near Fishguard).

ugo.santalucia

drlodge wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I can't claim to know all of Wales, but a few of my favourite bits, which are not featured in the Dragon Ride... not necessarily in this order

1) Lake Vyrnwy and the three climbs up Bwlch-Y-Groes (from the Lake, from Dinas and from Bala)
2) The Gospel pass from Hay
3) The Elan Valley reservoir system
4) The Llanberis pass
5) Surprisingly, the A5 to Llyn Ogwen from Betws-Y-Coed
6) The climb and descent to Devil's Bridge
7) The Bwlch Goriwared from Llanuwuchllyn
8) The coastline between Barmouth and Harlech
9) The Great Orme from Llandudno
10) The Pembrokeshire coastline north of Fishguard
11) The Hirnant pass from Bala
12) The B4391 from Bala to Llanfyllin
13) The Llangollen canal culminating in the Pontcysyllite aquecduct
14) The coastal path that runs along the A55 west of Conwy

What length ride would one need to cover these, or most of them? Could be an interesting Audax :-) Not sure of the geography, I guess some of these are North wales, I recognise some in the south (hollibobs near Fishguard).

At a guess, one could fit half of them in a 200 km and maybe 10 of them in a 300 or so. The problem with designing Audax rides is validation. If the ride turns around itself too many times, then you need a lot of controls and info controls and people don't like to stop too often. SOmething like the old Etape Cymru would be impossible to run as an Audax



The Dragon Devil would be equally problematic to run as a Brevet 300

davebradswmb

ugo.santalucia wrote:

davebradswmb wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I like the scenery and as far as scenery goes, the Dragon Ride is by far the dullest event in Wales... mind you, I've never done Veloton... :roll:

Wow, I really must see more of Wales, I was blown away by some of the scenery.

Mind you I only know North Wales very well, Mid Wales moderately well, and only really the coast of South Wales, so that leaves a lot more to explore....

I can't claim to know all of Wales, but a few of my favourite bits, which are not featured in the Dragon Ride... not necessarily in this order

1) Lake Vyrnwy and the three climbs up Bwlch-Y-Groes (from the Lake, from Dinas and from Bala)
2) The Gospel pass from Hay
3) The Elan Valley reservoir system
4) The Llanberis pass
5) Surprisingly, the A5 to Llyn Ogwen from Betws-Y-Coed
6) The climb and descent to Devil's Bridge
7) The Bwlch Goriwared from Llanuwuchllyn
8) The coastline between Barmouth and Harlech
9) The Great Orme from Llandudno
10) The Pembrokeshire coastline north of Fishguard
11) The Hirnant pass from Bala
12) The B4391 from Bala to Llanfyllin
13) The Llangollen canal culminating in the Pontcysyllite aquecduct
14) The coastal path that runs along the A55 west of Conwy

Well I know most of these apart from 2) & 3) and I won't disagree with any of them. I don't cycle along canals, but I have paddled a canoe from Llangollen over the Pontcysyllte aqueduct - looking over the edge is very scary. Nevertheless I still found the Bwylch and the Black Mountain stunning, and the descents of both were amongst the best descents I have done in this country, although I wasn't looking at the scenery much when I was going downhill.

ugo.santalucia

There you go, it features 1,4,5,8,9,11 and 14

https://www.strava.com/routes/13902798

A grand day out on the bicycle

N0bodyOfTheGoat

ugo.santalucia wrote:

There you go, it features 1,4,5,8,9,11 and 14

https://www.strava.com/routes/13902798

A grand day out on the bicycle

Curse you, Ugo, my still theoretical ride this summer around Bwlch has just got bigger at a cursory glance... Seems criminal to not visit Hirnant Pass, after doing the Bwlch Y Groes "triple" and possibly doing "The Big One" heading towards the area from Dogellau! :twisted:

ugo.santalucia

If you descend the Hirnant towards Bala, don't miss the B 4391 to Llanfyllin... it is a stunning stunning pass, from Llangynogg you can then easily rejoin lake Vyrnwy.

I did the Bwlch-Y-Groes three ways last summer... a nice little ride

https://www.strava.com/activities/1130006755