Taming The Dragon.

When I first signed up for the Wiggle Dragon Ride last year it seemed a long way off and now it's been and gone. Five of us (Myself, Steve, Simon, Gavin and Mark) all made it round in good time (I'll let the others regale you with their experiences of the ride) and I was very pleased with my showing and learnt a few things on the way.

For those of you not familiar with the Dragon Ride, it's a major cyclosportive event in the Breacon Beacons. This year there were three routes, the short course was 37km, the medium route was 125km and the Gran Fondo route was 206km. All three routes started and finished at Margam Country Park near Port Talbot.

Along with Simon, I opted to tackle the medium route for a couple of reasons, the first is that the Maratona Gran Fondo course is slightly shorter than 125km and the second was that I hadn't done any serious climbing as part of my training and didn't want to get demoralised doing the Gran Fondo route (better to do the medium route and finish well than struggle round the longer route and not enjoy it).

On Sunday morning we set off from Warwick just after 5 O'clock aiming to get to the start at around 7 O'clock, so that we could start at 7:30. In the end due to roadworks, navigation issues and queueing traffic at the venue we didn't get started till almost 8 O'clock and we got split up, so our plan to start together was a no go. Simon And I set off in a relatively small group of about 30 riders and it very soon became clear that sticking in a big group wasn't going to work for me. I was struggling to get warmed up and keep my heart rate high enough due to the low pace the group had settled at. Luckily a small bunch (from Kenilworth Wheelers) was going at a better pace and I tagged on the back. This allowed me to make good time and still ride at endurance, however, when we started to hit the first few climbs I lost the back of the bunch (mainly due to me getting boxed in behind some slower riders we had caught up with). In hindsight at this point I had two choices, the first was to ride at my own pace and keep my heart rate down, the second was to put in a proper effort and catch up to the back of the group again. What I ended up doing was riding at a faster pace than I should have, but, not fast enough to catch the group. This was my first mistake of the day and would come back to bite me later.

The next few miles were relatively uneventful, there were a few rain showers and the view was generally pretty good. I spent most of this time riding at my own pace, I never seemed to be able to get a group that was going at a pace I could settle with.

It was just as I was getting comfortable that the Dragon bared it's claws for the first time. At around 20km, as we turned at a set of traffic lights in Maesteg we hit the first climb. I hadn't made a route card, so this one came as a bit of surprise to me (I don't think I was the only one) and there was the general noise of other riders scrabbling to recleat and find a suitable gear as we rode away from the lights. The climb turned out to be a lot less difficult than I had anticipated and (while I wasn't the fastest up the climb) I was passing other riders. The climb did hurt a bit, but, clearly my training was paying off. The climb was an average gradient of 7% for 2km with a maximum of 12%. The reward for this was a cracking descent in to Bryn.

From this point on the rest of the ride had some pretty serious climbs. The next climb (Cimla) was only short (1km) but had sections of 17%. This is where I made my second mistake, I stood up and attacked the bottom of the climb, which pushed my heart rate over threshold. After this there was a descent into Neath before another climb to the first feed station. I stopped briefly to refill my water bottle and grabbed an energy bar, then we were off. This brief stop was enough to make my legs tighten up a bit, but, they soon loosened up after a couple of miles with a decent pace.

It wasn't long after this that the Medio route split from the Gran Fondo and I peeled off from the majority of the other riders. There was only one significant climb on this part of the route and I decided it was probably a good place to try and rest up for the final three climbs, so, I tried to climb this hill (Coelbren) in my endurance zone. Unfortunately, this meant I lost touch with Simon and so spent the next couple of kilometres riding harder than I would have liked to catch him back up.

After this short section the two routes rejoined for the climb up Glynneath Bank, which was 3km at an average gradient of 5% with a maximum of 15% (although it never felt like that). On this climb I lost Simon and the other riders who had been around me and so rode to the foot of the Rhigos, the first of the two really serious climbs, on my own.

This was the point at which I started to feel the 70 kms I'd already ridden and my mistake on the second climb and as I started to climb my legs started to object. I stuck to my plan, which had been to just settle into a pace where my heart rate would stay within threshold and to stay seated. As I was approaching half way up the climb I was willing the road to level out, so that I could get a short rest. Thankfully, not long after, just prior to a hairpin bend it did just that and it was just enough to let me regroup to tackle the rest of the ascent, which was now into a headwind. The sense of achievement on reaching the top was immense.

Just after the summit of the Rhigos was the second feed station where I stopped again to fill my water bottle, answer the call of nature and wait for Simon. My mind now turned to the Bwlch, the final and longest climb of the day. At 6km with an average of 6% and peaks of 10% this was going to be harder than the Rhigos.

After Simon and I regrouped we descended to Treorchy where the route turned to take on the Bwlch. The descent was fast and we made good time, partly due to having to pedal to get the legs woken up again. It didn't seem very long before we started up the Bwlch and I had to remind myself to take it easy and not attack the shallower section at the bottom of the climb. It was here that I lost Simon again due to his legs cramping up. I spent most of the climb on my own trying to enjoy the view and ignore the protestations of my legs. I had watched the recce video for the climb and so I thought I knew that the summit was, shortly after the T-junction at the top. As it turned out I obviously hadn't watched the video all the way to the end as the climb continued on for another 2km after the junction. However, I made it to the summit and at that point I knew I was going to make it back. The rest of the route was mostly down hill with the odd blip.

It was here I made my second mistake. I forgot to eat. I knew it was about another 25km to the finish and I knew it was downhill, so I assumed I'd be finished in about half an hour and there was no point in eating. Big mistake! What I had failed to realise was that the last 5kms were uphill and into a head wind and I was now riding on my own. As I turned made the turn onto the last stretch I was caught by another rider at the traffic lights. This was my opportunity to get a bit of a free tow to the finish. As the lights changed we set off, but, I missed clipping into my pedal on the first attempt and the other rider was gone. I didn't have enough left to dig in and try to catch him, so I was left on my own to face the wind.

These last few kilometres seemed to go on forever, made worse by the fact that some of it was on the road we had queued on to get into the car park, so it felt like you were nearly there only to discover that the finish line was beyond the turn off to the car park. As I made the final turns into the finish area I had a massive sense of relief, but, it also felt odd, since I finished on my own and there was no-one else in the finishing area.

It was an amazing day and, for me, a massive achievement for only eight months of training. According to the official results I finished 266th out of 1368 riders who tackled the medium route. My time was 5:27:40 and was just inside the cut off for a bronze medal. Simon was only a minute behind and also got a bronze medal.

I have to say a big thank you to the rest of the team for there support through out my training and also to Dr. Garry Palmer of Sportstest.co.uk for the training plan that got me to where I am today. Just two and a half weeks to the Maratona, so hoping for a similar success.