Review: Dragon Ride…
The forecast for Sunday was wet, wet, wet. Eight hours of cycling in driving rain was not an appealing prospect and on another day I wouldn’t have made the journey down the M4 to Wales. However, there are only three weeks to go before I have to cope with 200k in the Pyrenees and as yet I have never cycled 200k, or even cycled up a mountain. It had to be done.
So we headed down to Bridgend on Saturday evening. Checked into our Travelodge and headed out for a hearty supper. Only we got sidetracked by Ocean’s 13 meaning that our carbo-loading supper was popcorn & Doritos. Not exactly sure if that is textbook? Many thanks to Bridgend Travelodge for a good night’s sleep – of course this was nothing to do with the room or mattress just the lack of a crying baby. Bliss.
The following morning the rain was teaming down as we drove to the multi-storey car park at the start line. However, by the time we had unloaded the car & got ourselves ready it had started to brighten. When we rolled across the start line 15 minutes in a group of a hundred-or-so (setting off in two minute intervals) the rain had ceased.
The first few kilometres rolled out through Bridgend and all was going swimmingly in the middle of the bunch until traffic lights turning red meant half the group disappeared off up the road as we waited at the lights. Having learnt from previous sportives we knew that taking long pulls on the front or riding without a group this early in the ride was a recipe for ‘bonking’ later in the ride and we opted to throttle back and let a group form. And that is what happened, pretty soon a few stronger riders came through, and we jumped on the back.
As can be seen from the profile the first climb (Bwlch) comes pretty early into the event. This was a monster of a climb (please remember I live on the flood plains of London and sometimes get to ride the “hills” of Surrey). The Bwlch is circa 18 km / 11 miles long. The first 12k are fairly gentle, averaging 2-3% with a few steeper bits and a few short dips. It was at this point, before the climb proper starts that the first feed station was sited. We had decided in advance to give this a miss as we were just over 35k / 1 hour into the event. So it was onwards and upwards… This is where the climb started to ramp up a little – 7km at an average of 5% with some steeper sections. It was incredibly scenic, but felt like it just went on, and on, and on. However, whilst it was tough, I felt like I coped OK. My stats for this section are 6.9k in 25:01 at 16.5kph with an average heart rate of 157 and an average cadence of 82.
The decent of the Bwlch is fantastic; Firstly, it was nice to no longer be climbing, Secondly, it was a first real go at a mountain style descent, long & fast (60kph). What wasn’t so welcoming was that the descent of the Bwlch is followed so closely by the next climb – the Rhigos). Initially 3k at 1% through the town and then up into the hills for 6k at 5+%. The Rhigos is also an incredibly scenic climb and quite a challenge, but by now my legs were well warmed up and the ascent felt steady (stats for this climb are 6.7k in 23:36 at 17.0kph with an average heart rate of 154 and an average cadence of 84). Two big climbs down…
Next up was the third major climb of the day – yup, that’s three mayor climbs with very little respite in between – this time though, a little more gentle, with 12km of ascent at 3%. However, more of a concern now was the fact that I was all out of drink. Having dismissed the first feed station I was now rather in need of the second. It finally arrived after 103km and 3hrs 47. The feed station was packed. The food had run out, the queues for the energy drink were 20-or-so deep. Fortunately, I had sufficient food and energy drink mix in my pockets so filled the bottles with water, added my mix and we were off.
The section to the next feed station was just 29.2km and largely downhill and was completed in just over the hour without too much drama. Fortunately by now the riders were more spread across the route and the feedstation was a little less hectic. More water was taken on board together with a banana and some local welsh cake.
It was about now that a fellow rider pointed out that my rear wheel had buckled and was not in a good shape. This didn’t seem to be slowing me up too much, but, I was a more than a little concerned about whether the wheel would hold up and the prospect of having an off on a 60kph descent wasn’t something that I wanted to experience. I asked MM to stick behind me on the descents and to keep an eye on my rear wheel. Pretty soon there were other issues to worry about, namely the second ascent of the Bwlch. The only positive to climbing this thing a second time was the fact that I had already conquered it earlier in the day and therefore new that I could get over the top. Once again we opted to miss the feed station and push on. If anything the second climb was easier – as I knew that this was the last major hurdle to cross before the finish. This time round stats for this section were 6.7k in 26:04 at 15.4kph with an average heart rate of 151 and an average cadence of 75. The climbing was completed and pretty much all was left was 23km of descending to the finish. Job done.
So we headed down to Bridgend on Saturday evening. Checked into our Travelodge and headed out for a hearty supper. Only we got sidetracked by Ocean’s 13 meaning that our carbo-loading supper was popcorn & Doritos. Not exactly sure if that is textbook? Many thanks to Bridgend Travelodge for a good night’s sleep – of course this was nothing to do with the room or mattress just the lack of a crying baby. Bliss.
The following morning the rain was teaming down as we drove to the multi-storey car park at the start line. However, by the time we had unloaded the car & got ourselves ready it had started to brighten. When we rolled across the start line 15 minutes in a group of a hundred-or-so (setting off in two minute intervals) the rain had ceased.
The first few kilometres rolled out through Bridgend and all was going swimmingly in the middle of the bunch until traffic lights turning red meant half the group disappeared off up the road as we waited at the lights. Having learnt from previous sportives we knew that taking long pulls on the front or riding without a group this early in the ride was a recipe for ‘bonking’ later in the ride and we opted to throttle back and let a group form. And that is what happened, pretty soon a few stronger riders came through, and we jumped on the back.
As can be seen from the profile the first climb (Bwlch) comes pretty early into the event. This was a monster of a climb (please remember I live on the flood plains of London and sometimes get to ride the “hills” of Surrey). The Bwlch is circa 18 km / 11 miles long. The first 12k are fairly gentle, averaging 2-3% with a few steeper bits and a few short dips. It was at this point, before the climb proper starts that the first feed station was sited. We had decided in advance to give this a miss as we were just over 35k / 1 hour into the event. So it was onwards and upwards… This is where the climb started to ramp up a little – 7km at an average of 5% with some steeper sections. It was incredibly scenic, but felt like it just went on, and on, and on. However, whilst it was tough, I felt like I coped OK. My stats for this section are 6.9k in 25:01 at 16.5kph with an average heart rate of 157 and an average cadence of 82.
The decent of the Bwlch is fantastic; Firstly, it was nice to no longer be climbing, Secondly, it was a first real go at a mountain style descent, long & fast (60kph). What wasn’t so welcoming was that the descent of the Bwlch is followed so closely by the next climb – the Rhigos). Initially 3k at 1% through the town and then up into the hills for 6k at 5+%. The Rhigos is also an incredibly scenic climb and quite a challenge, but by now my legs were well warmed up and the ascent felt steady (stats for this climb are 6.7k in 23:36 at 17.0kph with an average heart rate of 154 and an average cadence of 84). Two big climbs down…
Next up was the third major climb of the day – yup, that’s three mayor climbs with very little respite in between – this time though, a little more gentle, with 12km of ascent at 3%. However, more of a concern now was the fact that I was all out of drink. Having dismissed the first feed station I was now rather in need of the second. It finally arrived after 103km and 3hrs 47. The feed station was packed. The food had run out, the queues for the energy drink were 20-or-so deep. Fortunately, I had sufficient food and energy drink mix in my pockets so filled the bottles with water, added my mix and we were off.
The section to the next feed station was just 29.2km and largely downhill and was completed in just over the hour without too much drama. Fortunately by now the riders were more spread across the route and the feedstation was a little less hectic. More water was taken on board together with a banana and some local welsh cake.
It was about now that a fellow rider pointed out that my rear wheel had buckled and was not in a good shape. This didn’t seem to be slowing me up too much, but, I was a more than a little concerned about whether the wheel would hold up and the prospect of having an off on a 60kph descent wasn’t something that I wanted to experience. I asked MM to stick behind me on the descents and to keep an eye on my rear wheel. Pretty soon there were other issues to worry about, namely the second ascent of the Bwlch. The only positive to climbing this thing a second time was the fact that I had already conquered it earlier in the day and therefore new that I could get over the top. Once again we opted to miss the feed station and push on. If anything the second climb was easier – as I knew that this was the last major hurdle to cross before the finish. This time round stats for this section were 6.7k in 26:04 at 15.4kph with an average heart rate of 151 and an average cadence of 75. The climbing was completed and pretty much all was left was 23km of descending to the finish. Job done.
My stats:
Dist: 193.5 km.
Elapsed Time: 7:18:07 = 26.5 kph.
Ride Time: 7:06:41 = 27.2 kph.
Max Speed: 61.7 kph.
Av HR: 143. Max HR: 167.
Av Cad: 87. Max Cad: 118.
Ascent: 2,800m.
Energy: 5,262 KCals.
And how this compares with the previous sportives…
Dragon = 193.5km with 2800m ascent (14.5m/km). Speed = 27.2.
Highclere = 187.8km with 2528m ascent (13.5m/km). Speed = 29.0.
Chiltern = 156.9km with 2625m ascent (16.7m/km). Speed = 27.3.
SWRC = 139.1km with 1783m ascent (12.8m/km). Speed = 26.4.
Posted by Richard Allen
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