Fellowship of the (Granny) Ring #mc1k

53 finishers, congratulations to all; and welcome to the Fellowship of the (Granny) Ring

HOPPER Toby

BERRY Martin

HUMMERSTONE Mark

THOMPSON Mike

CHADWICK Phil

HELLAWELL Ian

PLUMSTEAD Mike

PROVEN Simon

BARRY Eoghan

FAULKS Peter

MASTENKO Peter

WILLIAMS Scott

SHARPE Ian

LUCAS Martin

WOOD Joseph

SIMON Peter

VEITCH Neil

YANNIG Robert

STAINTON-ELLIS Jonathan

ANDREWS Jamie

MENNICKE Peter

GILLIES James

DYTHAM Paul

HAIGH Matthew

MARVELL Matthew

SPOONER Simon

TOMES Robin

BARKMAN John

WHITEHEAD Paul

CHAMBERS Matt

HEDLEY Aidan

TURNBULL Peter

O'SULLIVAN Kevin

HASTE Jonathan

EVANS Richard

GUMBRELL James

JACKSON Lee

MORGAN Sam

ELLIS Richard

DYSON Julian

LAGAN Adrian

SCHROEDER Howell

WILBY Chris

LE BRETON Mark

ROBINSON Ray

YEO Marcus

KIRKLAND Mel

BROWN Julian

KINSEY Adam

WELLS Nicholas

JACKSON Nick

CROFT Brian

McCREADY Robert

That was the #mc1k that was

This is what U.N. Dulates (John, the creator Mille Cymru and lord of the ride) wrote over on the yacf)

Back in the land of the living now, so a few quick words before I get back to finishing off the tidying everything away.

Congratulations to everyone who finished, and those who didn't for whatever reason. 53 in total out of the 73 starters. And everyone within BRM time. The crunch point seemed to be Saturday morning - there were a fair few who either never set off for leg 2 or did and returned in fairly short order. I was expecting a similar cull on Sunday morning but everyone who made it to the end of day 2 finished. We were fortunate with the weather, only on Saturday evening was there a taste of proper Welsh weather and if there had to be one day of overcast and drizzly then Saturday was undoubtedly the best day when the route was mainly low-level.

Thanks to all the helpers. It's been said but they were all absolutely fantastic. I was privileged to have such a dedicated and talented crew. It made my life so much easier and whilst it may have been my name on the top of the event; it would not have been possible without them. The whole event for once went as smoothly behind the scenes as it appeared to on the surface.

I was amazed by the lack of general tetchiness that usually comes with the territory. Everyone behaved in an exemplary manner. The hall was left in a much cleaner state than we expected, and talking to the lady who lives in the houses next to the hall whilst buying sausages in the butchers on Saturday afternoon she'd been blissfully unaware of all the cyclists trailing in and out during the night.

It's too soon to say for definite [if the event will be run again], I'll wait for the dust to settle. It's far too much work to do every year though. I have some ideas in mind for the next time, and it's likely there will be a permanent version available (I have a lot of left over medals to shift). Watch this space...

There are some photos on the yacf and this slideshow shows you flickr photos tagged with mc1k

Llandovery, the long way round #mc1k

Cloudy start this morning but the sunny intervals are becoming ever more frequent.

Despite some more attrition we have over 50 riders out there. It's a fairly short leg today, except of course there's the run home to Shrewsbury as well.

We've been packing up ready for the journey home and it's gratifying to see that there is an awful lot less food than there was yesterday. We are testing to destruction the Audax Controllers' maxim that "you can never have too many baked beans".

We've uploaded more photos from Leg 1.

Plenty of riders have found a moment to tweet and you can see what they've been saying here. Ben our resident social media nerd has been tweeting the occasional photo from his travels which you can view below should the urge take you.

Early indications

OK we're over halfway and we have the following early indications

• a few people have dropped out so far, it's possible that a few more may yet but overall it looks like the majority will get the best of Mille Cymru
• the majority may share their unhappiness of the hills with John on their return or they may be so happy to see the beds, food and shelter that they may forget. The jury is still out.
• Wales is extremely beautiful, even when it rains (which is lucky)
• Ben has run out of Lord of the Rings references
• the Trout at Beaulah provides excellent coffee and great Wifi
• sleep is for other people

Not such a good day for photography but we have done our best...

Links to local weather forecasts Leg3 #mc1k

Some links to the local weather forecast for points around the leg 3 route.

Builth Wells (near the start and finish)
Brecon (on the route)
Trawscoed (close)
Aberystwyth (on the route)

And the overall forecast for Wales is here.

Links to local weather forecasts for journey home #mc1k

Some links to the local weather forecast for points around the leg 4 route.

Builth Wells (near the start)
Newtown (on the route)
Shrewsbury (near the finish)

And the overall forecast for Wales is here.

One leg down, three to go

Leg one over and done with under surprisingly nice skies. Well it was a bit mardy in Shropshire and Vyrnwy could have been cheerful but Snowdon smiled and Barmouth beamed.

Macaroni Cheese seemed to go down well and it felt like only a couple of hours had passed before everyone was up and out again (what was that? it was only a couple of hours? it's all starting to blur into one).

There have been the usual mechanical challenges but, so far, the drgaon has defeated very few of the starters. Still there's plenty of time for that.

The dragon had a good go this morning actually, travelling south the weather became foul but picked-up on the far side of Carmarthen. Riders weren't exactly sunbathing in Pendine but they did, at least, get to pack away the wet weather gear.

We have a plucky volunteer out taking some photographs (actually he's writing this post as well). Sometimes he remembers to point the camera at the cyclists and, less frequently, to focus. Don't worry there's been a proper photographer out and about too.