Banjo
Fuelled with Jelly Babies
- Location
- South Wales
Having signed up for the Dragon sportive I have been trying to do some training rides on the route ,specifically the climb up the Bwlch .but have been thwarted by weather a few times.
Weather forecast for today looked ok ,bit of mist early on then sun and light winds. Yippee.By 8 am you still couldnt see the end of our street in fog so I loaded the Scott into the car and headed North for Cowbridge hoping it would be better a bit further inland. It was but not much and I had to scrape hard ice of the Windscreen, not a good omen for heading up a 500m mountain
Cycled off from Cowbridge with the visibility at a few hundred meters and improving,not entirely sure if this was madness or not North of Porthcawl the fog thickened briefly but I plodded on without much hope of actually going up over the Bwlch today suddenly the sun broke through the fog thinned out and it felt great having the warm sun on my face after the freezing fog.
Slowly dawned on me that unless something catastrophic had happened out in the solar system the sun should in fact be on my back
.I had ,managed to loop around in the fog and was now heading the complete wrong way past Kenfig nature reserve. bugger .(May have said something stronger).No alternative but to turn round and cycle back a couple of miles to the correct road. Happy again now whizzing along towards Port Talbot on a surprisingly quiet A48 .
Just short of Port Talbot turned inland and started the steady climb of Bwlch 2 .Its not excessively steep as climbs go but its 14 miles upwards and has some annoying downhill bits where you lose precious altitude again .Starting to feel good now fogs gone suns out Gods smiling down on me ,or is he ?
Gaining altitude now past Cymer and the next problem rears its ugly head, its bloody icy up here, all the puddles are solid and the road is glistening in places. Im not turning back now so decide that the sun will be on the south facing descent off the mountain but if any danger of ice I will walk down the hill if neccessary.
Above Cymer it gets steeper and a stiff Easterly breeze in my face has decided to join the party. Im knackered towards the top but determined not to stop until the top. One lone rider whizzes past me I can see him ahead powering upwards through the hairpins near the summit.Flash Git.
The top of the Bwlch is a bit of an anticlimax, you only realize your there when you start changing up through the gears then a bit further on some spectacular views unfold.
Well the view would be spectacular if that bloody cloud wasnt there
Theres a couple of mile of gentle flat/ downhill at the top which is the Bwlch Y Clawwd pass, then you get to the T junction to turn left if you want to drop down into Treorchy then straight up the Rhigos Mountain or Right down through Nantymoel Llangeinor Pencoed then back to Cowbridge. I stopped in the Layby at the junction for a sandwich and took a few more pics before whizzing down through Nantymoel and onwards to home.The descent was ice free thankfully.
Looking down on Treorchy with Rhigos mountain in the background.
One of Lukesdads friends.
About 58 miles all in and up from sea level to over 500 meters .The Easterly wind hurt a bit and was quite scary buffeting me about at the top but all in a great ride and very glad I didnt cancel it.
Celebrated back at Cowbridge with a coffee and cake sat on a wall watching the world go by .
Weather forecast for today looked ok ,bit of mist early on then sun and light winds. Yippee.By 8 am you still couldnt see the end of our street in fog so I loaded the Scott into the car and headed North for Cowbridge hoping it would be better a bit further inland. It was but not much and I had to scrape hard ice of the Windscreen, not a good omen for heading up a 500m mountain
Cycled off from Cowbridge with the visibility at a few hundred meters and improving,not entirely sure if this was madness or not North of Porthcawl the fog thickened briefly but I plodded on without much hope of actually going up over the Bwlch today suddenly the sun broke through the fog thinned out and it felt great having the warm sun on my face after the freezing fog.
Slowly dawned on me that unless something catastrophic had happened out in the solar system the sun should in fact be on my back
.I had ,managed to loop around in the fog and was now heading the complete wrong way past Kenfig nature reserve. bugger .(May have said something stronger).No alternative but to turn round and cycle back a couple of miles to the correct road. Happy again now whizzing along towards Port Talbot on a surprisingly quiet A48 .Just short of Port Talbot turned inland and started the steady climb of Bwlch 2 .Its not excessively steep as climbs go but its 14 miles upwards and has some annoying downhill bits where you lose precious altitude again .Starting to feel good now fogs gone suns out Gods smiling down on me ,or is he ?
Gaining altitude now past Cymer and the next problem rears its ugly head, its bloody icy up here, all the puddles are solid and the road is glistening in places. Im not turning back now so decide that the sun will be on the south facing descent off the mountain but if any danger of ice I will walk down the hill if neccessary.
Above Cymer it gets steeper and a stiff Easterly breeze in my face has decided to join the party. Im knackered towards the top but determined not to stop until the top. One lone rider whizzes past me I can see him ahead powering upwards through the hairpins near the summit.Flash Git.
The top of the Bwlch is a bit of an anticlimax, you only realize your there when you start changing up through the gears then a bit further on some spectacular views unfold.
Well the view would be spectacular if that bloody cloud wasnt there
Theres a couple of mile of gentle flat/ downhill at the top which is the Bwlch Y Clawwd pass, then you get to the T junction to turn left if you want to drop down into Treorchy then straight up the Rhigos Mountain or Right down through Nantymoel Llangeinor Pencoed then back to Cowbridge. I stopped in the Layby at the junction for a sandwich and took a few more pics before whizzing down through Nantymoel and onwards to home.The descent was ice free thankfully.
Looking down on Treorchy with Rhigos mountain in the background.
One of Lukesdads friends.
About 58 miles all in and up from sea level to over 500 meters .The Easterly wind hurt a bit and was quite scary buffeting me about at the top but all in a great ride and very glad I didnt cancel it.
Celebrated back at Cowbridge with a coffee and cake sat on a wall watching the world go by .
