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Monday, 4 July 2011

The Merlin ride July 3rd 2011

July 3rd was a beautiful day for a 70 mile bike ride. The sun was beating down and the Black mountains provided the most spectacular views as we crested the summit. For me however the day didn't go quite as planned. It turned out to be a very high tempo sportive, I was comfortable with the speed and managed to stick close to some groups of very good riders.
Once we got to Black Mountain things started to fracture and groups were split up all over the place. A fantastic climb of around 9 miles lead to a similar decent with switch backs and everything. By now most riders were riding alone, myself included. As we approached Llandovery I was trying to catch a rider about 100 yards in front, he eventually disappeared into the distance. I continued on my own for around 10 miles not seeing another soul, either in front or behind.I eventually caught site of the rider I was chasing, he was coming back towards me.
It turns out that he was thinking the same as I was begining to think. Had we taken a wrong turn?
We continued together for another 5 miles convinced that we couldn't possibly both missed the same sign, but missed it we did. We rang race HQ and after they had stopped laughing they told us that we had indeed gone about 20 miles off course and they would send a land rover to pick us up and drop us at the feed station with 18 miles to go.
So in the end a 70 mile ride turned into a 90 mile ride, I must thank Gareth for his company during those lost miles and also the race officials in the Landy who could have just said, "Tough". Cheers guys.
The 70 miles I completed in exactly  4 hours, which is good time, unfortunately I wasn't at the finish.
Total hours in the saddle,  5.5. Tough day, good fun though.       www.merlincycletours.co.uk

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