Monday 5 March 2012

Daytrip to Afan on The Spare Day 29th of Feb

I'd not done a long ride on a mountain bike for a few week. Plenty of long training rides on the road bike in the bank but not off road. With a new saddle to test and 24hrs of Exposure only 5 weeks away I took a day off on the Spare Day of the year. A spur of the moment thing due to the good weather we were having.
The plan was to catch the train to Port Talbot from Paddington, London and ride up to Afan Forest on the road from there.

Waiting for the Train at Paddington
One thing I have to do once a week is travel from Wales to London and back. I don't always take a bike but when I do I fear the journey on the train. You have to leave the bike in the baggage cart. Problem is your not in control of your bike for 2-3 hrs and anything could bloody happen.
Strapped in and ready to roll
Last real food of the day as I'd be just on Gels and Energy Bars for the day. That Bagel was pretty good. The coffee was rancid. At Paddington some Mars reps were handing out little 'In case of emergency' Snickers gift boxes. Nice touch. I ate it straight away. I had a few Accelerade Gels for emergency.

Snacks for the journey
The train was delayed for almost an hour so that was riding time lost as I wanted to catch a train back that got me back to London before midnight if possible. Last time I took this trip on the train was two years ago and it was similar weather. I couldn't believe my luck when I got off the train at Port Talbot Parkway.
The sun is out in South Wales (Time to ride up to Afan Forest on the road)

Pontrhydyfen Aquaduct (Which is now a bike path)
Enjoying the need for sunglasses
Skyline
The Excellent White's Level


Out enjoying myself (White Assos top was probably not the best idea)
Lots of fire road on The Skyline Trail (lights needed for later)
Nice view of Llyn Fach lake
I had a good ride around the 1st 2/3 of the Skyline trail. The climb is good fun but then you get too much fireroad. Great for training as your always pedalling but not so much fun. Anyway I missed a way marker and went a little off course. I rode back up the fire road I had been down retracing my steps. I found where I had gone wrong and went down a nice bit of single track i had shot past. About 20 mins later I'm riding down some more fire track and the yellow arrows run out. Where the hell had I gone wrong this time. I had my Garmin with me so I was never that bothered about getting lost. I followed this trail until it ran out. It came to an abrupt end with a bit of a swamp. I could see the trail centre so I put my bike on my shoulder and walked it through the marsh and down a steep field to the road. What a cock up1?!
Impact puncture number 1 (Not tubeless on my training wheels)
Back to the trail centre to top up my bottles with Accelrade 4:1 drink and time to head up the White's Level trail. This has the same starting climb as The Skyline trail but heads South rather than North. About 2/3 up the climb I hit a rock and a flat fast part and blew the rear tyre. I took my time fixing the puncture and put the wheel back, took a bit of food and carried on.
Used one of the Lezyne patches for the 1st time. (Worked a treat)
Impact Puncture number 2
White's Level is amazing. I had so much fun on it. It flows so well and i was bombing through the sections with a bit of caution as it was the first time I had ridden most of it and it was dark. Part of my plan for the day was to get a good bit of riding done in the dark on my own. By the time I got to the 'Two Tombstones' section of single track it was pretty dark in the trees. I hit a log with my left pedal when I was going too quick for my skill. Although I didn't crash bad I seemed to have another impact puncture to the rear. This time I fixed it really quick and continued.
The Trail just seemed to get better and better. I have bugger all experience on duckboards/Northshore (only the very small amount at 24hrs of Exposure (still need to right that up) so I took a bit of care as I rode in the dark through it.
One thing was clear by now that I wasn't going to get the amount of riding I wanted in. The train being late and getting lost on Skyline ment I was never going to get all of W2 done and ride to the train on time. (Looking back I could have but if I had a miss hap I'd be staying the night in Port Talbot)
The gate for CX Bikes
The gate for MTB Bikes
So I decided that when I finished the descent of White's Level I would ride down the trail to The Afan centre and do the Climb and descent of The Y Wal trail joining them up with the fire road. It started to get a bit misty up on Y Wal so I tuned my lights down a bit. The climb was a bit easy and crap compared to the White's Level and the descent was fun but not a patch on what I had done earlier. I had done Y Wal before. Thing is it wasn't very memorable.
Ahh my old Uni mate Nick. I will be seeing him in Boulder in the summer
Straight back down the road to Port Talbot I found myself with 30 or so minutes to kill so I went for a bit of a ride down to the beach and back just to keep warm. Went I got back to the station I took off all the sweaty clothes I'd been in all day and changed into a fresh jersey and my new down jacket. I was glad I took the jacket as the temperature dropped a hell of a lot.
A change of kit and a sort out at the Station

Bloody glad I took my warm jacket and cans for the journey
I look forward to returning to Afan but next time I will go with some people. It was nice to have a day to myself just training but it would be good not getting lost. Gutted to get so bloody lost and miss out on some good riding.

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