FNRttC Friday Night Ride to the Coast - suggestions for 2011 please

[Aperitif]

Not Boscastle. Did it last summer. Thank God there are no rail links there as it was the toughest 100km of my current incarnation as a cyclist. I swear there isn't a flat piece of road once you cross the Tamar. The Col de Launceston simply announces what follows. Lovely ride though.

Sounds ideal Greg! Proper cycling.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Indeed I am. Gloucester to Cardiff sounds like a goer. It would be criminal not to take the ride down the Wye valley, but it's wiggly enough to push the distance near the limit, I reckon. I suppose it depends on the hill factor. Talking of which, Cardiff to Mumbles could be a good one, and is mostly flat, but there is a reward to be had from an elective hill module - if people are prepared to give a it a Ditchling-esque push at the end, they will appreciate why Swansea is sometimes thought of as the Naples of South Wales (OK, I'm stretching it a bit, but the bay looks nice from the top of the surrounding hills, and it gives us a speedy five-mile downhill to breakfast). And I can throw in an interesting derelict Jewish cemetery for anyone prepared to fling themselves over a tall wall and a bit of barbed wire...

+1 Gloucester - Cardiff via Wye Valley.
+1 Cardiff - Mumbles

-1 on the barbed wire

 

[TimO]

Or little race numbers nameplates just behind our headtubes?

Shouldn't we have badges?

"Hi my name is TimO, and I'll be your TEC today".

 

[Andrij]

Shouldn't we have badges?

Badges?


Actually, names tags might not be a bad idea...

 

[theclaud]

+1 Gloucester - Cardiff via Wye Valley.
+1 Cardiff - Mumbles

-1 on the barbed wire

Pah! No sense of adventure. The cemetery is one of Swansea's best-kept secrets - a real gem in a very unlikely setting. Michael Howard recently exhumed his father from it and had him shipped to Bushey. But the barbed wire remained, possibly indicating that it is not there to keep the Howards in, but the vandals (and possibly nocturnal cyclists) out...

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Badges?


Actually, names tags might not be a bad idea...

Can't get youtube at work so I'm guessing - does it involve this gent?

 

[Andrij]

Can't get youtube at work so I'm guessing - does it involve this gent?

Mine is in colour, not B&W — the scene from Blazing Saddles.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Mine is in colour, not B&W — the scene from Blazing Saddles.

Ah, well that bit in Blazing Saddles (ace fillum) is a homage to 'The Treasure of the Sierra Madre' an old B/W western with Humphrey Bogart. Cool eh?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Pah! No sense of adventure.

Let's say my sense of adventure doesn't extend in that particular direction ;-)

 

[theclaud]

I wasn't thinking of suggesting the North Wales coast as a possible FNRttC destination - crappy trains and too many f**k-off great mountains in the way. But I was in Barmouth this weekend (no - not for the Line Dancing Festival) and they have some very desirable breakfast locations...

 

[Danny]

The cemetery is one of Swansea's best-kept secrets - a real gem in a very unlikely setting. Michael Howard recently exhumed his father from it and had him shipped to Bushey.

Why on earth did he do that?

 

[Crackle]

Why on earth did he do that?

More to the point why did he need to. Just wait for the sun to set and fly there, stopping for a quick bite at Widdecombe's place.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I wasn't thinking of suggesting the North Wales coast as a possible FNRttC destination - crappy trains and too many f**k-off great mountains in the way. But I was in Barmouth this weekend (no - not for the Line Dancing Festival) and they have some very desirable breakfast locations...

So, how was the line dancing then?

 

[theclaud]

So, how was the line dancing then?

Undeniably popular! There's an enjoyably surreal element to standing on a high cliff overlooking a faded Victorian seaside resort while Dolly Parton echoes across the Dyfi estuary and a sea of sequinned cowboy hats bobs about below in something approaching unison. I reckon you could have heard Nine to Five from the summit of Cadair Idris. Line-dancers never look as if they are enjoying themselves, but they soldiered on through the appalling weather on Sunday morning...

 

[Aperitif]

I wasn't thinking of suggesting the North Wales coast as a possible FNRttC destination - crappy trains and too many f**k-off great mountains in the way. But I was in Barmouth this weekend (no - not for the Line Dancing Festival) and they have some very desirable breakfast locations...

Performers breakfasting there would be a hard act to follow...