The Bleanau 600 adventure race.

 The roller-coaster of emotions from racing for four days solid, on 3 hours sleep a night....:

Why, oh why am I doing this race?

 I could be in a pub having a beer right now.

 This is why I ride.

 This race is awesome, but one a year is quite enough, I’ll cancel my next race as soon as I get home.

 Shit that was great. Immediately starts to prepare for next race.

 

========================

 

The Bleanau 600 

 https://blaenau600.co.uk/

"At 600km long with over 14,000m of climbing, taking in multiple Welsh hill and mountain ranges, the brutality of the landscape is equalled only by its beauty. Blaenau translates roughly as ‘remote uplands’, so you get the idea! The Blaenau 600 follows a fixed route and is self-supported"

 

My first official race of any form for several years.  OK, I do many things that are basically a race – you race your mate for the village sign when out for a social ride, I race at the velodrome most weeks – those unofficial races are generally most enjoyable for me, and absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I usually win….

Ludlow Saturday 8:30am and its very clear that I decided to follow the race organisers advice a little too closely – my bike and kit is at least 3000kg heavier than everyone elses.  I start in the last wave, and immediately am dead fucking last in the race, and stay in that position for hour, after hour after fucking hour of contemplating why, oh why, oh why am I doing this race…..?

I don’t really have a plan for the race, and don’t really feel the need for one, other than a general plan to ride mainly in daylight hours (4am to 10pm), and then find a ditch / church  to camp in for the night, repeat, repeat etc. I know that in order to ride well and strongly I need reasonable sleep, maybe 3 or 4 hours a night – my speed, capability and enjoyment falls off a cliff when I get less than that.

 Day one grinds on and I give up checking the race tracker to see that yup, I’m still in DFL…..I did briefly catch a couple of other riders but all it seemed to do was to wake them up, and off they shot, never to be seen again… As the day goes on there start to become the inevitable riders dropping out – mechanicals, illness, being general weaklings etc.  I’m gaining places in the race via the DNF’s…..

 The route started off through the Shropshire hills - Church Stretton  and then headed into Wales – Welshpool, Corwen – for hour after hour it just gets prettier and prettier, quieter and quieter, more and more remote – the stuff I love. I call it a night around 10pm and camp up in abandoned church just outside Llangollen. 160km done, 460km to go.

 

 

Sunday – up with the birds at 3:30am – I love riding at that time of day, just you, the birds, the animals and utter peace all around.   I also discovered that many other riders are perhaps not quite such morning people – I overtook 8 people whilst they were still sleeping….. And now suddenly I’m nowhere near last….   I love overtaking people whilst they sleep – feels both sneaky and virtuous.

 Through the Clywydian ranges and heading into the first section of “nothing” – just literally nothing – no villages, traffic, people  - just stunning scenery, seven zillion sheep, birds, nature and thousands of kilometres of forest trail. Some parts of Wales really are very remote.  There was chatter on the whatsapp group about some inclement weather heading our way – I normally quite enjoy riding in crappy weather but how bad could it be, it was June after all…. Yes, June, zero visibility, 3 degrees (yes, 3 actual degrees), torrential rain for 12 solid hours. Its really utterly totally miserable.

 I could be in a pub having a beer right now.

 Almost the entire field gives up for the day early in the evening, finding themselves sheltering and sleeping in toilets, polytunnels, bunkhouses or, in my case, the really rather lovey Royal Old Ship in Dolgellau (worth every penny darlings….).  I almost had a beer…

 300km gone, 320km to go.

 Whilst I was having a lovely sleep in my luxury bed the race leader crossed the finish line… WTAF. 37 hours. Non stop. Total stationary time on the App was 37 minutes. I’m not even half way around yet.  Utterly insane and incredibly humbling.  I used to get the same feeling when racing IronMan – the winner would cross the finish line hours ahead of me, it’s just incredibly impressive and very humbling, in a lovely respectful way.

 

Monday  - a luxury lie in today - up at 4:30am…. And I’m now solidifying my position as “no longer dead fucking last” – there’s three riders behind me, now some 3 ish hours behind – and I assure you I ain’t letting them close that gap…. and the rider ahead of me is about 3 hours ahead – and I can also assure you she will never let me close that gap to her either….

 Today is quite literally a new day – the rain has stopped, the sun is out with a gorgeous daybreak and sunrise. I’m on the road in utter peace at 5am climbing a hill – its bliss – this is why I ride. This is what I train for. It’s me.

 And now into proper nothingness – Machynlleth the last town of any note for the next 160km. Just imagine that for a moment – traveling for 100 miles with simply “nothing” there. To just head into nothingness scares a lot of people  - all the “what if’s” – but if you are fit, prepared, experienced and confident – the “what if’s” become “hell yes” –riding through a river, with RAF fast jets overhead, the sun in the sky, and the last person you saw was 4 hours ago – hell yes. 

 Spent some time this morning with the very lovey Rob Gardiner who organises other races and was taking photos of this race – he was last years winner  (I won’t mention the mild vertical detour you took me on Rob..).  In my head at my current pace I was probably going to finish sometime on day 5, but he provides confidence to me that day 4 is realistic – so that becomes my new goal – thankyou Rob for your time by my side, you are a truly lovely chap.

Tonight is going to be cold, just 2 degrees, and when I pass through a farmyard at 10pm I go knock on the door and ask to sleep in their woodshed – the kindness of strangers.

 440km done, 180km to go

 

Tuesday – up at 3:30am. I am going to get this done “today” (lets just loosely define “today..”). There are however two obstacles in my way – “The Gap” which for me is basically totally unrideable for me – last time I rode it I smashed my bike  - and that was on my mind. And Twmpa which I hadn’t realised I’ve done on a trail run before – it’s incredibly pretty but also totally unrideable for me.  Had a lovely interaction with a helicopter atop Twmpa – I gave them a wave and they nodded their nose back – very lovely.

 I’m loving every minute of this race – but I also love so many other things in life – my partner, my kids, parents, the velodrome and my buddies there, my charities I support and the incredible people who work there, some close friends dotted around the country -  so privileged to have such a varied and special life.

 This race is awesome, but one a year is quite enough, I’ll cancel my next race (August) as soon as I get home.

 The Gap done, Twmpa done, we are going to get this done, no matter what time I finish tonight. I reckon on around1am to 2am.  A lot of people would question the sanity of someone who rides a bike for 22 hours straight, after already riding for three long long days – but hey, its fun, right?   We roll into Ludlow to an absolute heroes welcome – most of the town had come out to cheer me home – there was a band playing, there was champagne flowing and we partied all night. What a welcome.  Well, that’s the thought that was keeping me going the last few hours…. My actual greeting was the Greggs delivery truck driver looking at me strangely – he was the only sole awake in the whole town when I arrived.

 

And so, it was done. 24 Started. 13 finished. I finished 9^th. I’ll take 9^th out of 24. The winner took 37 hours. For actual fucks sake that’s insane. I took 88 hours.

 The lass ahead of me finished 8 hours before me. The trio I was determined to keep behind me finished 15 hours behind me. Everyone was safe, everyone had fun.

 Shit that was great. Immediately starts to prepare for next race.