This post is all about our club trip to go cycling in Wales, it’s a beautiful place to ride! The club, in this case, is Stoney Stanton Velo club, a club I’ve proudly been a member of for the last 4 years. A few months ago, one of our members, Ryan, posted on the club site to ask if anyone was interested in a trip to Wales for two days of cycling. The answer was of course a resounding yes! Six of our club members were up for the challenge! The trip was to include no less than six of Simon Warren’s 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs.
Day Two
Day two started with a much more reasonable 7am alarm after the previous day’s 5am. No driving to do at the start of the day, simply get ready, check out of the Travelodge, Porthmadog, and find some breakfast. We’d spotted signs the night before for a breakfast cafe and decided to head there. What a treat! “Breaktimes” turned out to be a superb start to the day, serving a good selection of breaksfasts. I figured a cheese and mushroom omlette with a slice of toast would power me for a good while 🙂 If you’re ever near Travelodge, Porthmadog, then check out Breaktimes for food. All the staff were welcoming and efficient, and the food was fantastic!
Setting off around 9:15am we only had 3.5 miles of mostly flat roads to get warmed up before hitting the first of 3 major climbs of the day. As always, the views for those 3 miles were beautiful.
On the way to the first climb 
On the way to the first climb
Official 100 Climbs No 190, Prenteg
With the short warm up out of the way, we arrived at the start of Official 100 Climbs No 190, Prenteg. At 0.9 miles, averaging 11.3% and maxing out at 17%, this was shorter than all three of the previous day’s climbs, but not the shortest of the day…
The climb is sharpest shortly after the start as it runs past a row of houses, followed by trees, until it winds its way through to more open views through a series of left and right bends. The climbs remains in double digit gradient practically all the way to the top. With (kind of) fresh legs I reached the top nine minutes and 16 seconds later, averaging a cadence of only 65 rpm due to the gradient.
The top of Prenteg 
The top of Prenteg 
The top of Prenteg
As with the previous day, we rode most of the route together as a tight group. It’s only when we get to a decent climb that this changes and we all tackle them at our own pace, regrouping at the summit to continue on together. After a regroup we found that the climbing was not over as we had another couple of hundred feet more elevation to gain before descending again.
On to Harlech…
With the descending completed we had a good 11 mile stretch of mostly flat road before reaching Harlech. This was to be where our second 100 hill of the day was to be found. We caught sight of Harlech castle while still a little way off, I regret not trying to get a photo of it sitting on the edge of high ground in the distance. The was an unusual silence in the group for most of this flat stretch. I know personally that this was the climb that scared me the most out of the whole 2 days riding, even though it was to be the shortest significant climb of the day by a long way. It felt like it took a lot longer than you’d expect to finally reach Harlech…
Official 100 Climbs No 92, Ffordd Penllech
The last mile or so of the 11 miles to Harlech was a very steady 3% climb, flattening off as we got our first close up look at the castle.
Just. very short way further down the road brought us out at the top of Official 100 Climbs No 92, Ffordd Penllech. This was our first sight of the beast that is the brutal 0.2 mile stretch of winding road, averaging a reasonable 16% but maxing out at 37.45%!!!
It would appear that the sign makers took the liberty of rounding the 37.45% up to 40%. If anyone asks, it was definitely 40%, right? 😉 We descended the road to the left of the photo above, looping round to the start of the climb. Officially, the honour of the steepest road in the world was handed back to New Zealand when the rules were set to measure gradient in the centre of the road. That didn’t stop me grabbing a quick photo of my bike against the Guinness World Records banner though!
It was time to bring a halt to the fear driven procrastination and tackle the climb that could well see me dismounting and walking on a climb for the first time, the fear was very real! A short way after the banner was a righthand turn onto the start of the climb. Ben was a few feet in front of me as my Wahoo Bolt chirped away and showed the segment had started. The first 12 seconds were a nice seated effort up increasing single digit gradients, this didn’t last long. As soon as the gradient started to increase into double digits I kept riding, still seated, but had to move right over to the left of the road to allow an oncoming car to pass. You see, this climb is a one-way street, with the permitted traffic flowing downwards only!
Safely past the car, the road started to wind left and right slightly, within 12 seconds of hitting 10+% it had now gone up to 30%, increasing to what I think must be its peak gradient of 37.45% as it went around a sharp left turn. I took the outside of the bend, avoiding the steepest bit on the inside. From what must have been around a 15% gradient I had been standing and pushing with whatever I could managed to keep the bike moving forwards. The sharp turn was about a third of the distance along the climb, but with the shallow start there was plenty of remaining elevation!
The middle third of the climb saw me remaining standing, trying to pick the best path around the left and right swings in the road. I was intent on trying to avoid the very steepest parts on the inside of the turns. At this point, Ben had pulled out a good few seconds lead on me as he powered on up the relentless 20-35% road.
The final third of the climb reduced to 20% or less, dropping to maybe 10% or so for very short periods of respite. Near the top I was very thankful to see Dave and Mick standing at the side of the road cheering me on!
As the end of the climb approached, a couple of others in the group shouted to turn left at the top to complete the segment. It was over! Or was it…
My Wahoo Bolt was still saying that I had a short way to go to complete the segment. How could that be? I’d reached the top. Carrying on a little further down the road it left the segment screen without registering a time. I was quite concerned that my effort hadn’t registered as complete, but there was no way I was doing it again! There was nothing to be done but hope that Strava’s interpretation of the GPS recording would count.
Check out the full climb in this video!
As it turns out, all was well, Strava showed the segment as complete. It took me 2 minutes and 32 seconds to cover the toughest 0.2 miles ever, with an average cadence of 58 rpm. What an insane climb!
A lot more climbing to go…
After a well deserved rest and topping up my water supply it was time to carry on. Looking across the junction from the top of the Ffordd Penllech climb the road continued steeply upwards! This carried on for nearly 2.5 miles, gaining around another 700 feet of elevation. As is often the case in beautiful Wales, there were plenty of views to distract from the climbing.
Reaching the top of this section of the climb meant we now had a mile and a half descent to lose 800 feet of elevation. It didn’t quite go to plan though. No sooner as we had started to descend, we came across a farmer herding sheep down the same way we were heading. It was fascinating to watch the flock being steered by the farmer on his quad bike and several sheep dogs darting this way and that, maintaining control.
Fascinating sheep herding! 
Fascinating sheep herding! 
Fascinating sheep herding!
A short way down at a wider point, the farmer briefly herded the sheep to one side off the road to let us pass and enjoy a little more speed for the rest of the descent 🙂
Lunchtime
Another 11 miles of mostly flat road saw us arrive in Beddgelert where we found a nice cafe for lunch. A steady couple of miles climbing out of Beddgelert then led to some more flat roads and easy climbs and descents, all with lovely views.
Official 100 Climbs No 189, Llanberis Pass
55 miles into the route we got to the start of the sixth and final 100 climb of our two days in Wales, Official 100 Climbs No 189, Llanberis Pass. This was also the last climb of any sort on the route. The climb was one that I felt suited my riding ability well. Its 3.08 mile length with an average gradient of 5.1% is ideal to keep a decent cadence going while staying seated. The maximum gradient of 12% was also welcome after the steep climbs we’d tackled earlier in the day! With what was left in my legs I made it to the top in 19 minutes and 14 seconds at a very comfortable average cadence of 85 rpm. That was it! The weekend’s climbing was complete!
The top of Llanberis Pass 
The top of Llanberis Pass 
The top of Llanberis Pass 
Looking back down Llanberis Pass 
The top of Llanberis Pass
With the climbing all done we had the awesome treat of nearly 4 miles of descent down the other side. It was amazing!!! The road surface was well maintained and the road a good width, perfect for gliding down at high speed! The remaining few miles back to Porthmadog were pretty much flat or slightly downhill, a great end to the ride.
That was the end of our weekend and adventure in Wales. It’s a weekend I’ll never forget, with the fantastic scenery, challenging climbs, thrilling descents, and most of all, a group of fantastic mates!
Great blog Paul !!