The WRT LHC 110 miler group

Hi All,

This is the info page for the 2019 Welsh Ride Thing (WRT) Lonely Hearts Club (LHC) longer ride group over the 1st May Bank holiday weekend of Sat 4th, 5th and 6th May.

Why Lonely Heart Club?

1. Not everyone has a bike packing riding buddy and over 3 days it’s nice to ride with others, you can always ride on your own as part of a group if you fancy a bit of quiet time, just keep an eye on the others and tune out and chill out
2. Not everyone can map read, plot a route or very confident following a line on a GPS screen

If any of the above is you, then you are more than welcome to join either the short or long LHC group

This ride is planned to be 110 miles over the 3 days with around 10,000ft of ups & downs and picking up 11 or 12 of the 24 grid refs along the way

If you are unsure on your mileage abilities you have a few to build up to 115 hilly miles over 3 days, so get training. But if not there will be a shorter LHC group ride lead by Stevemorg, for info of this ride Click here

To join in this event you must have already signed up and paid your money because ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED

Now the legal stuff. If you join me on this group ride you have to be aware that I have no cycling leadership qualifications and no insurance. You enter this ride with me entirely at your own risk. I will not be held responsible for anything that goes wrong. Of course I have successfully lead lots of club group riders and no one has died. But if it goes wrong or you get lost it’s down to you to be self sufficient enough and be able to use your common sense to get yourself back to the start.

Please remember this is not a race, there are 24 Grid Refs some riders will try and get all of them, some won’t do any at all, my hope is that we will be to try and get 11 or 12 of them, but there are no prizes and no stress.

The below map shows, the red mark is the start and finish of the loop at Bear Bones, the route goes anti clockwise.

For a more detail here’s a closer look at the profile with POI marked on it

Day 0 Friday 3rd April – Several of us will be meeting up the evening before at The Star Inn at Dylife, Pub, B&B website As there is no rush to get to Bear Bones towers just down the road, their may/will be several drinks taken we’ll eat there on arrival and even bet a full breakfast the morning of the event. They have rooms but you need to be quick to book a bed for the night. Personally I’ll be in the campervan parking for free, several others will bivi out close buy on any flat ground that they can find. To see the pub it’s the white building in the middle of this Google street view Google street view link When you click on this picture scroll to the left to see the large free and flat car park where we park, if you look carefully between the pub and car park up the hill you will see an old grave yard, several will sleep up here, feel free to join them IF YOU DARE…….

Day 1 Saturday 4th April – Let’s do this, around 7 miles off road the rest on very quiet lanes.

It has 3 main climbs (but mountainous, but with plenty of “undulations” added in) at mile 23 we pass through the town of Newtown for shacks/food top ups.

With Stuart’s warning words ringing my in ears about the last climb up to the bivi spot on my original plan and thinking that day one may be a bit too long, we’ll take the 3 mainly flat miles to the bivi spot near a pub where we’ll eat drink and be merry.

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Day 2 Sunday 5th April – the long one, round 20 miles off road the rest on very quiet lanes

58 miles, but with only 4 non mountainous climbs, but again plenty of “undulations”.

At mile 10 we pass through Welshpool looking for cafes (may be a problem on a Sunday to be honest) for breakfast and SPAR snacks for lunchtime. then it’s a long a steady ride around the top loop passing through many little/tiny villages but there are very few shops and only the odd pub, so lunch may be snacks that we bought in Welshpool.

At mile 85 there is a great little store called Dafarn Newydd Stores which some serves much needed fish and chips Menu here

Then it’s a mile up the road to The Last Grouse Pub out the back of the very posh Lake Vyrnwy Hotel Pub website 

After a couple of shandies we pitch up for the night overlooking Lake Vyrnwy.

For anyone unsure of their mileage, here’s a shortcut for you to download the GPX from this website. The shortcut is 5.4 miles and it cuts the route between miles 51 and mile 80 – Day 2 short cut 

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Day 3 Bank Holiday Monday 6th April  – homeward bound

There’s a cafe a mile from the bivi spot that’s opening at 9.30am just for us for bacon or sausage butties, sorry there is nothing fancy or specialist.

But there is a 2nd cafe for a 2nd breakfast or a cuppa at mile 95 if we fancy another cake stop.

For a closer look at all 3 days riding and a look at the routes in detail  CLICK HERE

Don’t forget the “rules”Don’t be a dick, It’s not a race, No fires, Ride at the speed of the slowest, Talk shit, Have a laugh, No fires, Don’t stress, Look out for each other, Wear bright clothing for riding on the roads, No fires, Take a working rear flashing light, don’t be afraid to ask for help or bail….and did I mention No fires?

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Personally I’ll be riding this

and taking this much gear with no cooking as I’ll be stocking up on route with water, snacks and food.

Kit list as shown in the above picture, Down hat, down jacket, insulated trousers, Cumulus 250 quilt, bivi bag, air bed, airbed pump, pillow, tarp, poles and pegs, 2 x C02 (can miss out) multi tool, inner tube (tyres tubless) rain jacket, fold down back pack, loo paper, inner tub patches, wallet, ear plugs, tyre leaver, poo/bacon sticks/strips, bum butter, axle allen key, powerbank with LED light and head tourch.

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Now the finer details.

In the group I will be leading from 1/3 of the way back in the group and I will be asking for helpers.  I’ll need the help of a sweeper at the back to make sure no one gets lost, 2 or 3 fitter riders up front who are happy to get gates and wait until the sweeper has passed before riding through the group back to the front again, these 3 or 4 will need to have a GPS and be able to follow a line on their screen.

Then I’ll need turn markers, these are riders who are happy to mark a turn point as directed by the faster lead riders, Finally the simple bit to stop the group in the same area is if no one is behind you on a section that your could easily get lost on you stop and wait for the person behind you to appear in view before you ride off again. This way we should all stop if we can’t see the person behind us and the group will never too split up and ride at the speed of the slowest rider.

Please be confident in your abilities this ride will not be technical, but it will be hilly.

If you don’t have a GPS please ensure that your phone has plenty of battery power (powerbanks are essential for this) so that if you want to bail I will show you the best way back. Please don’t be offended if asked to head back or if you want to push on and do your own thing if you think that we are too slow then go ahead we wont be offended but please always tell us before you head off.

For those who want a bigger ride but want to do loops on this route and meet up for the bivi’ing out you are also very welcome to hop in and hop out as I will know the rough areas where we will be stopping over.

Confirmed riders

JohnClimber, Allen, Lee R, Alexander, Micheal P, André, Gary A, Nicola, Maliban, Gary P, Lee H, Mick K, Malcolm S, Jenn, Alec, David B, Chris F, Anthony F, Ashleigh, Adam (Artie Fufkin), Andy (Wiggles) – 21 riders

 

Possible riders 

Mark Weldon, Brian, Sam W