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.

Local weather for Day 2 of #mc1k

Some links to the local weather forecast for points around the leg 2 route.

Builth Wells (near the start and the finish)
Carmarthen (on the route)
Tenby (on the route)
Pembroke (on the route)
Milford Haven (very close)
Fishguard (on the route)
Aberporth (north of the route, Cardigan is the closest point)

And the overall forecast for Wales is here.

Local weather for Day 1 #mc1k

Just thought it might be useful to give you some links to the local weather forecast for points around tomorrow's route.

Welshpool (close but not on the route)
Betws-y-Coed (on the route)
Porthmadog (close)
Macynlleth (close)
Builth Wells - Llanfair-ym-Muallt (close to your destination)

And the overall forecast for Wales is here.

The metoffice has a beta site for mobiles which I find rather good

Welcome @SimonProven #mc1k

Just a quick note to say that tech-savvy Simon Proven has various Mille-Cymru related web things. You can track him, in an only slightly sinister way, here. If the ring-wraith's had had access to GPS and cell-phones the whole saga would have ended very differently (yes we are trying to see how many Lord of the Rings references we can work in, apologies in advance).

You can find him on twitter @simonproven.

He's raising money for the Motor Neurone Association.

He seems to be based in Cambridge which is, from memory, quite flat. So he'll have no trouble with Wales...

Don't forget use #mc1k in tweets on twitter and we'll find you.

Route Errata

Following last weekend's dry run of the event, there's a few updates to the route sheet. Most are just clarifications, only a couple of actual errors...

Day 1, Leg 3 (Llanberis to Dolgellau)

241.0 Clarification - CONTROL is 40m on L after Barclays Bank

Day 2, Leg 1 (Llanwrtyd - Pendine)

61.5 Imm L @ TL onto one-way alongside river (don't follow the main road which also bears L @ the TL)

68.1 After the section of cyclepath alongside the A40, alternative route provided which misses out the section on the A40 which is very busy:

0.4 1st R (sp Meidrim) B4298 68.5

3.3 L (sp Bancyfelin) & follow lane for 4km to 71.8

4.0 L @ T (sp ST CLEARS) B4299 75.8

2.5 R @ T in ST CLEARS 78.3

0.4 L @ TL (sp PENDINE, LAUGHARNE) A4066 78.5

0.2 R @ T (sp PENDINE, LAUGHARNE) A4066 78.7

Continue thro' LAUGHARNE to PENDINE

Day 2, Leg 4 (Cilgerran - Llanwrtyd)

286.5 L @ T (sp LLANDOVERY) not R!

Day 3, Leg 2 (Llandovery - Aberystwyth)

A new mini-RAB has appeared in LLANILAR

130.9 1st exit @ mini-RAB (sp ABERYSTWYTH) A485

Day 4, Leg 2 (Llanbadarn - Upton Magna)

127.1 L in village (sp Village Hall) not R!

Updated route sheets are available for download from the event website

Fellowship of the (Granny) Ring

Congratulations to Peter Turner, the first member of the Fellowship of the (Granny) Ring.

Thanks to Ed for giving up his weekend to help us out. And of course the glorious dead - MikeK, Pat and myself who fell in challenging the dragon.

The dragon is woken. Roll on July 23rd..

Waking the Dragon Pt 3

Day 3

07:30 - Peter sets off again, with Ed for company. Weather has brightened up now but still windy.

10:50 - We rendezvous at Llandovery (730k). Pete's still going well and is making good time. Pat turns up having ridden over from Cilgerran. I head back to Llanwrtyd with Pat.

17:00 - Ed & Pete make it to Aberystwyth (805k). Headwind has made this leg slow going. True to form, the wind drops now for the return leg.

20:45 - They're still going. 30k away from the control now and making good time.

22:15 - Back at Llanwrtyd for the last time (900k). Peter's managed to drop Ed on the run in to the control!

23:45 - Peter sets off on the final leg with Pat for company through the night.

Day 4

05:50 - 1000km done!

06:45 - Peter makes it back! Hopefully the 25% success rate will be better on the real event.

Waking the Dragon Pt2

Day 2

Down to 2 now and only a third of the way through the event!

07:00 - Pete & Pat hit the road again. Weather hasn't improved. Still grey, damp and windy.

18:00 - I arrive back in Llanwrtyd to help Ed with the rest of the ride.

21:45 - Pat calls from Cilgerran (575k), asks for the weather forecast and decides to find a B&B when I tell him more rain is on its way. And then there was one...

01:30am - Peter arrives back at Llanwrtyd, looking surprisingly human. Time for some sleep before heading out again. Me and Ed start hatching relay plans to keep him company for the rest of the ride.

Waking the Dragon

Two weeks to go! Time to go and see just what I've created.

Audax UK regulations allow organisers and helpers (who of course can't ride the actual event) to ride up to two weeks beforehand. Four of us signed up - myself, Mike Kelly, Pat Hurt and Peter Turner. Ed Hargraves saw sense and volunteered to spend the weekend in Llanwrtyd looking after us.

Early morning on Fri 9th July saw us set off from Upton Magna. The day looked promising, light winds and sunshine. Turned out to be the calm before the storm as the dragons saw us coming and laughed at us...

Day 1

06:10 depart Upton Magna. Spirits high as the early flat miles slip by.

Llanymynech - cross the border into Wales. The sun promptly disappears behind the cloud.

09:00 - Lake Vyrnwy. Steady drizzle has now set in. As we're too early for the cafe (who will be opening up early specially for the event) we push on up the Bwlch y Groes to Bala. Cloud base is about 400m. Visibility at the summit down to a few metres so the descent is taken cautiously.

10:45 - Second breakfast in Bala. Stopped raining but wind is picking up now. The next section is going to be interesting!

Rain starts again climbing past Llyn Celyn. Gets steadily heavier as we head across Snowdonia. Headwind and climbs split the group up again up Dyffryn Mymbwr. We're all glad to get to Pete's Eats.

15:30 - Pete's Eats. I decide I've had enough - not enough miles recently and struggling to eat at Pete's. The wind is going to get worse as we turn southwards into it. I head to Bangor to get a train home, leaving the others to continue.

Sat 01:45am - Mike arrives at Llanwrtyd (355k) and decides to pack, as his knee has been playing up for the last 80km. Peter and Pat roll in shortly afterwards.

50% down and we're only 1/3 of the way through...(to be continued)

My Preciousss...

Medals have arrived today - your reward for finishing the ride.

Is this thing on?

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3...

Now if all has gone to plan we should see this post appear on the blog and a tweet appear @millecymru pointing people back to this post.

Here goes nothing...

Here's the blog

While the Mille-Cymru madness is taking place across the green hills of Wales, we will be recording the highlights as we see them here, in glorious HTML.

This is the 21st century after all.

Use #mc1k to talk about the event and we'll see you.