Fans got to ride stage 6 of the Tour of Britain the day before Geraint Thomas and the Pro Peloton. Taking on the challenging Caerphilly Mountain KOM in a 142km route.
The sportive started in Newport, South Wales, at the Geraint Thomas national velodrome. We amateur cyclists got a taste of the pro road cyclist life as we rode the challenging final stage of the Tour of Britain. With hill climbs such as the steep Caerphilly Mountain at the114km mark, after you’ve already tackled the long climbs of Mynydd Bedwellte and Rhymney Valley, this long route was a proper challenge of endurance.
But with the event fuelled with sports nutrition from Science in Sport (SIS), we had the best support we could as for.
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The sportive was organised by Struggle events, who always put on great events. I’ve ridden 2 of their event up in Yorkshire. Struggle Dales and Struggle Borderlands. Links to the vlogs are below
Dales – https://youtu.be/BEtYXdZDGiM?si=UC3qYRaz3IV7IWiQ
Borderlands – https://youtu.be/ONd6PHR49pM?si=MuZZI4fI5L8_nmLD
#cycling #roadcycling
Time Codes
0:00 – intro
0:32 – At the Geraint Thomas Veldrome
0:52 – Start line
3:37 – Feed 1
6:27 – Mynydd Bedwellte (climb 1)
7:22 – Cows stop Peloton
9:37 – Epic descent
10:10 – Rhymney Valley (climb 2)
12:05 – watching the race from your door step
13:21 – Feed 2
15:20 – Stats of Caerphilly Mountain
16:08 – Caerphilly Mountain (climb 3)
18:17 – Finish line
18:34 – Outro
Fans don’t normally get to do what the pros do, but for the first time ever with the Tour of Britain, the fans get to cycle the final stage before the pros do. So, we’re riding on the Saturday. The pros will be on the Sunday doing stage six, the final stage of the tour. And with it being Garant Thomas’ last stage in pro racing, the stage is from the National Velrome in Wales, named after him. And then we’ll be going to his hometown of Cardiff for the finish line. So, I’ve just got to get to the village room, sign on, then go away at the start line. Who’s going to be the sign in? Who is he? You have a squiggle next to your name. Okay. Are we ready for this? Yeah. Okay, let’s go. 3 2 1 off we go. Up. Right. So, this route it’s 142 km with 6,700 ft worth of climbing. All the climbs are after feed stop one which is after 42 kilometers. It’s got a little call tomorrow the uh propell going over this bridge man the drone stop to be fast. Loving the jersey. Oh thank you made it especially this morning. Looks like the first climb out of Newport. At an ice glance that looks 10 15%. Legs feel awake after that one. Yeah, definitely. 20k in so far. Nothing too major. Mainly fast rolling roads. Been able to get into a group, keep the speed up. My long Mike here from Devon. It’s his first ever Sportive. How’s it been? It’s gorgeous, mate. Amazing. Ready for the big hills ahead. Yes, it’s the big hills in the second half. They’re going to sting. Especially Caffili Mountain, which maxes out just under 20%. Let’s get after it. Yeah, man. That was the first big descent of the ride. And after my recent descending lesson from Scott from Cycle the Nation up north, I actually really enjoyed that descent for a change. Rather up down up down up down at the minute. Back in contact with the group though now. Happy with that. Down we go again. Just gently climbing through the woods at the minute. Couple of kilometers away from the feed stop which is very much welcomed. And we are at the first feed stop. this next lift and all the nutrition that you can see by the sign there supplied by science and sport. So, it’s going to be the good stuff. Let’s have a look what’s on offer. Here he is. Oh, these look good. A few of them. Straight through that double door there, mate. If you go straight across the hall, there’s an open door. You’ll see. Let’s try this strawberry flavor. gram of carbs. Just realized I need less to fill my bottles up. That would have been a big mistake. There we are. Feed stop one done. The pros may be able to do this on closed roads. They don’t get fed like champions at a feed stop like we just did. So, swings and roundabouts. And plus, today we’ve got the sun and tomorrow they’re supposed to have the rain. Right. So we are 46 km in the first climb is in 18 km. Let me try and say this. Miff Belif Miff bedif like I’ve said before I can’t speak English let alone Welsh. But that’s going to be the first climb which is about 4 miles long. Is that what 7 km something like that? averages between 3 and 4%. And the summit will be over 1,400 ft and supposed to be supposed to be rather exposed. So, we should get some great views at the top of there. All right, it’s probably just under an hour getting there. Let’s get going. Sheep in the middle there. I have a feeling they’re not meant to be there. Speaking to the helpers at the last feed stop, they were saying the main feedback from riders were that the route so far has been a rather fast one, which I’d agree with. It’s not compared to normal struggle events, it’s been fast, but I feel the next third is going to be the slowest third. It has the highest proportion of climbing, but it doesn’t have the hardest climb. The hardest climb is actually in the final third Capelli Mountain which is just under a mile long. Max is somewhere between 15 and 20% with an average of 9 to 10. That one stings. First proper climb of the day. So, Mundiff bed well heath which is 4 miles long averages 3 to 4% max is around 9 and 1 half%. Got a tailwind now as well which is very much welcomed. Been battling into a headwind for the last 10 miles or so. What is that building? Never seen anything like that. Looks like it belongs on Star Wars. If anyone knows what it is, let me know in the comments. Now, these are the views I were looking forward to, and we’re only going to get higher. I’d imagine tomorrow the cows will be in another field. I don’t think they’d want to risk a cow run out running out in front of the uh the pelatin. That would uh not be good. So that anybody who wants to move up has to Oh, that’s not ideal, is it? Heard of cows. Crossing criy. So, unfortunately, uh so anybody who was out of position knows now what knows what’s up against them. They know that a crosswind section is just around the corner because they can feel it. They can feel the tension. They can feel how Post NL was riding. I love climbs like this. You’re so far off the beaten track, but it’s so quiet and peaceful and you just feel like you got the place to yourself. Tell me you’re in Wales without telling me you’re in Wales. [Music] Now it’s time to enjoy the descent with a nice tailwind. Actually, before the descent, if you look, we got tabletop. Tabletop and bend the descent to enjoy with more sheep in the distance. I say this is a cracking road. This is look at that for a look at that. Yes, they are the views we are talking about. That is proper Wales. That is valleys with villages at the bottom of the valleys. Sheep in the distance over here. Yeah, nice. Behave. I know you like to all follow, but let me go through. Good girl. Thank you very much. And here is the start of the actual descent which was just heavenly. It was just over 4 miles worth of descending. Clear sight of view. Tarmac was silky smooth and it wasn’t too steep so you could be very calm and just let it flow. I really This was my favorite section of the whole route. It was just incredible. And we are now at the bottom and the start of the next climb which is I think called Rumni Valley. Again 4 miles long averages 3 to 4% so very very similar to the last one. Hopefully the views at the top are very similar, if not better. Going to be a bit harder this time. Looks like we’re going into a bit of a headwind. Not a full block one, but nevertheless trying to push us back. After turning left and going under the motorway, we now are into a blocked headwind. Oay, this effort is starting to pinch now. You get around this left bend, you get to a full summit by the castle grid and the road becomes more exposed. Whereas riding solo into the blocked headwind on this exposed road made it so much tougher. I wish I was like the pros where they had 30 people in front of them blocking the wind, but here we are. Let’s pull over and have a a proper summit view. Oh, we got a 10 km descent to feed stop number two. It’s a good chance to recharge the batteries, refuel, and take on Cabelli Mountain. This feels very Wales. This does in the valleys. these when I go around the country. I don’t know how to describe it, but there’s certain houses you can just tell what area you’re in and you very much feel like you’re in Wales here. Tomorrow when the pros are flying past, what a great view to have. I had something similar back when the Commonwealth Games were in Birmingham. I had the marathon literally run outside my house. It was great. the people here getting to see some professional racing going past. It’s going to be awesome. Obviously, it’s a different sport, but when I saw the runners and the wheelchair uh marathon people go by the speed they go at compared to like the average Joe running, it’s like whoa. And it’ll be the same tomorrow when the pros go past. like they’ll I’m sure they see cyclists around here all the time. But when they see the pros go by like double the speed, it’ll be like, whoa, that is serious speed. It gives you a good idea of just how fit these people are. Anyway, we’re going to the feed stop. Need feeding. Need a little rest. This feed is needed. Let’s get some grub. You all right? All right. Yeah. How you doing? Not too bad. Yourselves? Okay. Good. Hope. Yeah. Yeah. How’s uh everyone been so far? Good. I’ll be happy enough. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No problems at all. That feed stop was very much needed, but one of the last ones there, but stopping taking pictures and what like you do for the gram, losing the group, so that obviously slows you down, but it’s not a race. It’s this about enjoying yourself and I say I am enjoying this at the minute. But we got Celli Mountain to come up in the next 15 km or so. And that is going to sting. That is after 114 m 114 miles. 114 kilometers. I’m so used to speaking in miles. Bizarre speaking in uh kilometers. We’re 4,472 ft of climbing in. Let’s have a look what’s left. We got 1,942 ft of climbing left to go with 46.5 km left. So, I’d like to think within the next 2 hours I’ll be done. Get back to Newport at the finish and get these awesome medals. If you haven’t seen them yet, they are absolutely wicked. 6 km after feet stop two. The rest refueling. My legs are feeling my own again. They’re still being a bit heavy, but compared to just before the feed stop where they were complaining a lot, yeah, it’s not too bad now, which is a good sign with Celli Mountain on the way and my legs returned back to me. Speaking of Celli, there is the first sign for it. It’s 7 milesi away. Just before going up Celli Mountain, I was uh just checking the stats. My previous time I did it in 8 minutes and 27 seconds which is 6 and a half miles per hour averaging 355 watts. Looking at Straa the K occurred in the 2011 Tour Britain. Dan Fleman did it in 4 minutes and 8 seconds which is 13.3 miles per hour. You’ll know from GCN Stan Lloyd he’s got the second fastest time up there. He was 4 seconds slower during the same race and he averaged 454 watts. That’s mental. Going to start heading up there myself with how my legs are feeling at the moment with 71 miles in the legs, which is 114 km. Uh, I do not think I’m going to be beating my personal best time climb of this year’s Tour of Britain and it’s Caffili Mountain Cat 1.4 km in length averaging 9.7% maxing out at 14%. And we’re already at 14% here into this headwind. still about 13% here. [Music] My legs are going at 100. It’s still well over 10%. keeps flowing between 12 and 15%. It’s finally below 10%. But it’s not going to be for long. I’ve still got more than half of the climb left to go. But the pros have already set a new K of 3 minutes and 50 seconds. Back over 10% again. Now bit higher now. You can feel that headwind again. The trees had been blocking it. We’re just about to go over the summit here. I was a lot slower than last time. I did it today in 10 minutes and 48 seconds. That’s 2 minutes and 21 seconds slower than the last time. And I also averaged 76 watts less than before. Like I said, my legs were tired. It’s also 6 minutes and 58 seconds slower than the pros. The pros could have almost done that climb three times in the time it took me to do it once. After that mammoth effort up Celli Mountain, we’ve now got 17 miles back to the finish, which is mainly downhill, where we get to collect our medals. There we are. Right. All right, so we’re away from the music and we are at the Gar Thomas villa drrome, the start and the finish point at today’s sportive. Just look at this medal. That medal is so cool. Well, happy with that. Bottle’s not bad either. Very nice. If you enjoyed today’s vlog, why not watch another? Today’s event was ran by the struggle events and I’ve done two of their events before and I’ve got vlogs for the struggle dales and the struggle boards. Also, there’s a vlog of Fred Whitten. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time. CL and two wheels.
2 Comments
The strange building, is a water tower..
that is super cool to be able to do that the day before.