MACMILLAN AFAN MONSTER 100KM

I've been away working for a few days so haven't had a chance to post the outcome of this. Well, I won it with the fastest time of 6 hours 8 minutes, which was quite unexpected, but I am very happy about it. Not sure whether I should use the word "win" as it was all for charity, but it felt like a race, and I rode it as if it was a race, and I crossed the line first so, yeah, I "won" it.

The organisers, mostly from Rush Cycles promised a monster challenge and it was the hardest 100km I've ridden so hats off to them for delivering what they promised. On top of that, they couldn't have asked for a nicer autumn day, with stunning clear views of the whole of the Brecon Beacons in the distance.

The ride started at The Bryn Bettws Lodge and I rode the first 40 to 50km with Dave and it was a pretty sociable affair, happily chatting away on the flats and climbs and it seemed to be going well for us both. I'd leave Dave on the longer climbs while he'd catch me up on the downs (the boy's too fast on them sometimes. I think it's his shoes, or glasses, or gloves, or something), but overall we were riding together.

The route took us up the first of many climbs for a bit of a warm up, before looping back onto the Wall descent, past start at the Bryn Betws Lodges and down the final Wall descent before crossing over the valley to the Afan Argoed visitor centre and a nasty technical climb out onto the moor towards Cymer. I'm not fond of hike-a-bike action and prefer the challenge of impossibly steep climbs. I rode most of this section apart from a couple of stretches, while most pushed, so although it probably wasn't the best thing to do during the first 10km of a 100km ride, I had some satisfaction out of it and it got me properly warmed up and settled for the remaining 90km.

The next challenge was the long climb out of Blaengwynfi, making me shudder with the memories of the last time I was on this fireroad when I got my work (Forestry Commission) van stuck on a site visit, with no mobile phone signal, 5pm on a Friday night with darkness fast approaching....It's scary out there! Anyway, I digress. It was a long climb. At the top we were rewarded with some Skyline singletrack.

Dave and I at this point were both convinced we had punctures, but it was the slightly damp sandy ground that was making things somewhat draggy. That is until Dave did actually pick up a tear in his back tyre. Running a tubeless there was no way it was going to seal, even after repeated attempts of stopping, pumping it up and riding on. The inevitable eventually happened and Dave had to stop to put a tube in. I didn't know this at the time as I'd headed down the last descent of Skyline, on a roll, as I was really enjoying the ride. At the checkpoint I hung around for Dave but there was no sign of him. With the clock ticking I headed off convinced he'd eventually catch up with me. But unfortunately the rest of the route was a pretty lonely affair. I'd been told I was the first to have passed through although I had no idea at that point I would actually be the fastest through as well (it was a staggered start between 7.30 and 9ish, so I assumed there'd be quicker guys coming up behind me).

Onwards and upwards I went, out from Abercregan onto the climb that crosses Whites Level and eventually reaching the 75km/100km cut off. There was no way I was going for the shorter option so rode on to get treated to some excellent descents on the 100km loop. But as they say, what goes down, must come back up, and up it went, up, and up and a bit more up. I cursed after passing the marshall point for the second time only to be told I was 60% up the climb, after I'd been climbing for what seemed like an age. I cursed. Twice.

The final few kilometres were a bit of a blur as I felt like I was just surviving, although according to my GPS and stats from it, I kept up the same pace I'd been doing throughout the race, if not a bit faster. I didn't feel like it, and by the time I was climbing back to the Bryn Bettws Lodge and the finish line I was hanging off the bike. But funnily enough after I got off and had the chicken sandwich I was looking forward to for hours (half of which Hamish the Hound stole) I felt fine.

We were treated to some excellent trails both known and unknown to me, joined together with some brutal climbs, that really did make this event a monster. I hope it stays a regular fixture in the MTBing calendar and it is also for a very good cause (Macmillan Cancer Care and Support Charity).