Looking Back but Looking Forward

Just over a year ago I took a trip down to London to see the greatest show on Earth, the Olympics. The motto of London 2012 was "Inspire a Generation" and as we lined up in Llandudno to start the Crudcatcher Coast 2 Coast Challenge in aid of Cancer Research UK it was apparent that we had surpassed that and inspired a generational gap of 30 years between the youngest and oldest riders. This age range gave us a fantastic blend of exuberance, experience, enthusiasm, entertainment and many other words beginning with the letter E (but not eggs in Toms case, I'll explain later).

 

Everything we accomplished over the last week has been out of sheer team work  and doing it together and just a willingness from the team to help each other out.  From team members helping each other lift bikes over styles, everyone waiting for me whilst I gave a lost Serbian girl directions to Corris, to moments like Mark riding back down the steep slog of a climb we had just done and then back up it to get Nick a new tyre after his exploded, the camaraderie was top notch.  I think the moment that exemplified this the most was on the way to Lynn Brianne when Stuart snapped the rear dropout of his frame putting down a massive stomp of power to get up a steep hill.  It had just started to drizzle again and it was the coldest and wettest day of the ride, we were all soaked and chilly from riding through the rivers at Strata Florida and at that point it would have been all too easy to bundle Stuart and his stricken bike into the support van and carry on, especially as we had the promise of the Doethie Valley to look forward to.  But there was no decision about it, we were getting around as a team, so with a quick bend of the bike to get the wheel free of the frame, we nursed Stuart's bike back the longer but safer way on the road. It was a tough old slog and added a good number of miles to the day's riding which wasn't helped by the fact that one of the forest roads we had planned to use had been closed off to public access, subsequently adding several more. Despite this, nobody grumbled about why we had to do it, yes we may have whinged about the cold and the hills and the rain, but everyone slogged away, bounced ideas around to get Stuart through the last two days and we got to our destination before darkness fell. That evening we were delighted when a replacement frame arrived courtesy of Stuarts son, and he was able to build it up to finish the ride.

 

A big key factor in the decision we made that day was the wonderful service we had from our support vehicles. When I first started planning the ride in January and the services of Kev and Gill were offered, I thought they would be great at transporting the luggage and lunch and that we would get to meet up with them  a few times a day for drinks and to stock up supplies, I was wrong. They got everywhere they physically could, turn a corner up a mountain and one of them would be waiting, or up a forest track and they would be coming back up it the other way, they even followed us through the river crossings of Strata Florida. Not only that, using our Viewranger software they were able to track us at most times so knew if we had taken a detour and where to meet us if we had.  Gill and Kev were absolute Godsends and nothing kept the morale higher than the sight of a pit stop for water and energy gels in the most ludicrous of locations.

Talking of morale, the wit and humour in the group was outstanding, I have not laughed so much in ages. Things that could have really stressed us became jokes, such as one of the riders not turning up in Llandudno without any notification or Steve's missing chips, which made him make a girl cry or Richie's missing kebab (although if anyone was going to have to make do with a tea of leftovers, the group's human dustbin was probably the best man for the job).  Everyone got the mickey ripped out of them, Tom became the group's  private Pike after his attempts to boil eggs for his lunch left him with a bag full of half cooked broken eggs, stupid boy.  My midlands accent was pulled apart after suggesting we would be seeing some Welsh Mayans (mines) and  Sarah took a barrage of "abuse" for her wagon wheeled, pocket sized bike. Then there was Tom's attempt at getting  some cougar action after ending up on a table for two with Sarah for a lovely farmhouse breakfast left them looking like they were on an uncomfortable first date (If Tom's girlfriend is reading this, don't worry they weren't, but boy does your boyfriend get red and embarrassed very easily). There were cries of "I do like a puddin' pet" in hammed up Sarah Millican accents and shouts of "Briefcase W*nker" at Alex because of his uncanny resemblance to Will Mackenzie from the Inbetweeners. Everything we have ground our way through has been with a bedrock of good old fashioned, route one forum humour. Some of the evenings reflecting back on the day's events, or even rehashing old stories as we got to know each other have had us crying with laughter, which has only helped make this week even more special.

 

Our corporate sponsors have also been a fantastic help this week. The water from Mitchells and Butlers and Energy Gels and tablets from UES Energy have kept us going through the toughest of slogs and the inner tubes from Trek/Bontrager and rapid C02 inflators from MTB North Wales have really helped keep us rolling and quickly too, especially on day 5 when we suffered a plethora of punctures.  Finally the mapping and tracking software from Viewranger really helped us to not only find our way, but also plot new routes when we needed to and let the support team know that we had done so using the buddy beacon facility. Without the support of these guys we would probably still be on the side of a mountain, hungry and thirsty with flat tyres and lost. Thanks guys

 

And then there's the fantastic support we have had from behind the scenes. The sponsorship we have received to help Cancer Research UK has been amazing from the largest donations, to the £1 that a little girl who had lost her father to cancer gave to the supporters waiting at the finish line to donate, it's been touching to know that you have all been behind us and that you feel like the cause has been a worthy one.  We have also had great support from social media and it's been noticeable that our Twitter presence has seen us make huge inroads into the number of people aware of what we have been doing, a special thanks on that front, I feel would be appropriate for Lara at @charitybooster  who has tirelessly tweeted to gain support for us. Talking of support, we were overwhelmed that there were so many of you waiting to greet us at the finish line in Port Talbot with medals and drinks and food, it was certainly emotional but great way to end such a wonderful  week.

 

So something that started out as a crazy idea between a couple of riding buddies has turned into something that meant so much to all of us, collectively. It was clear by how crestfallen we all were when Ben had to sit out a 20 mile section through a bad injury that each other's fight had become our own fight too and behind all the fooling around we had become bonded together by an amazing experience. The magnitude of the whole thing  made even clearer when we hit the southern edge of the Black Mountains and saw the first glimpse of the sea, bringing tears (or grown men trying to choke back tears) and gasps of awe as we looked out towards the bay in the distance.  Sarah's mums story, Tom's and Ben's dad's story in a small part became our story as it was clear just what this colossal team effort meant. There was however still a day to go so with this amazing moment to guide us, we were resolved to get Ben back on the bike and across that finish line and complete the ride as the team we were.  It was with no small amount of guts, determination and ibuprofen that the next day we were delighted Ben was sufficiently recovered to ride, and with a bit of gentle route tweaking, at just after  5pm we rounded the bend onto Port Talbot seafront and crossed the line as a team.

In six days of riding, a group of internet weirdo's who kind of knew each other were now the original "Crudcatcher Coast 2 Coast Challenge Team" and I for one was very proud to be a part of it.

 

Here's looking forward to the 2014 Crudcatcher Challenge

Day 6 - We bloody well did it!

After another morning fettle and packing the suppirt vans for the last time, we set off on the final leg of our epic journey.

We were back up to a full team, moral was high and we couldn't wait to get across the finish line.

The 1st stint was across a section of road before we got onto a fast rocky bridleway. Unfortunately Sarah managed to catch her bike on a rock and was ejected over the bars and landed quite nastily on some rocks. Fortunately there was no damage done to rider or bike so we set off again, avoiding a few horse riders on the way.

We then had another linking road section which took us from the bridleway to the start of a long fireroad climb to take us up to the start of a Sarn Helen section.
The Sarn Helen road was a wet boulder field, the climbs were tough and getting enough grip to keep the wheels moving was difficult.
Eventually the "road" started to point downwards and the guys with the longer travel bikes were able to let off the brakes and cruise along. For those of us with short travel bikes (and especially for Stu who was on his replacement hardtail after bending his other frame the day before) it was a case of slowly picking lines and avoiding the bigger rocks.

We made it to our next downwards section of bridleway which had been cut up by water and filled with boulders.

Not too long after starting, the majority of us were tripoding on the bikes or pushing as there was little grip.
When we reached an adjoining fire road we decided that the best option would be to skirt around the difficult bridleway as an injury now would have been a disaster considering how far we had come.
The next stop was at Resolven Lock where we had a rest and refuel while checking the maps.

Our next section was more road followed by a 12-13mph stint along the canal which took us all the way to Neath.

From Neath we climbed up the road and back towards Afan where we had been picked up by the coach 6 long long days ago.
We climbed up to Bryn Bettws Cottages before continuing onto the last descent of The Wall trail, Zig Zags, which would be our last proper bit of mountain biking.
From the bottom of the trail, it was a 5 mile cycle route down to Port Talbot.

The cycle route eventually turned onto the seafront and the finish line was in sight.
We were greeted with cheers, party poppers and more importantly for us riders, sandwiches and cake!

Its been an absolutely epic week, something I don't think any of us will forget. We had ups and downs, crashes, mechanicals, we got lost, we got re-routed and ended up riding at least another 5 miles every day.
However we stuck together as team and had some great fun and banter.

More importantly,  for such a small group we've had loads of support and donations and have raised a brilliant amount of money for Cancer Research.

I just can't wait to do it again!

Day 5 - "The Chipgate Scandal"

We actually started on a hight on day 5 Stu's frame was up into the early hours putting his replacement bike together, food and company had been good and clothes were suitably dry enough from the water fest the day before.

As we got in quite late last night due to a closed bridleway, we decided to change the route slightly and head down the road in the morning.
In no time we had coveted around 12 miles and were back on track and started to climb out of Llandovery towards the Black Mountain.
Unfortunately, about 30km in my knee became painful enough that I had to jump in the van to let the others carry on.

It wasn't much further to the start of the bridleway up the Black Mountain where the group left the support vehicles.
However about 10 minutes later Bails was back for a replacement tyre as Clanks tyre had decided it didn't want to be round any more and exploded.
So Bails grabbed the replacement and shuttled it up to the incident.

I've been reliably that the climb up the Black Mountain was very very tough and because of the number of sheep tracks up there,  it was proving difficulf to navigate.
While they were traversing up and over, the support vans took an hour drive round to the other side to wait for the crudders to appear.
From the top of the mountain, they finally caught sight of the South Wales coastline, boosting spirits over what had been an ardous climb.
The descent was fast and grassy with sudden rock fields to keep people on their toes. A few punctures were the only incidents fortunately.
Around 3 hours after setting off up the mountain, the riders appeared and headed the shory distance down to our accomodation for the night at Craig Y Nos Castle.

After a good food, (apart from Steves missing chips, which did eventually turn up 5 minutes after he'd finished his food), drink and relax we turned in for the night.

So now were up and its the last crudder breakfast... its been an epic adventure and although we're tired we don't want it to end!

1st Casualty of the CCC2CC

Unfortunately, a long road climb has forced me to bail out of the CCC2CC for the time being as an old injury has resurfaced and I've pulled/twisted something in my knee. Standing is ok, but I just can't put any pressure on it to turn the cranks and have been in considerable pain.

Thankfully our support guys are here to give me a lift so that I can try to recover with a combination of ibuprofen gels and tablets, however it is still hurting a fair bit.

I'm properly gutted, I had a twinge appear half way through yesterday but managed to keep the legs spinning.
Everything felt good this morning after I had a carpark warm up and good stretch while people were prepping bikes, but I think the anadin could have been masking the pain.
I was quite looking forward to the rest of today too. This morning was all on the road and the xc route over The Black Mountain was just around the corner.

The map shows our current location and how far we've come. To get so far and potentially have a game over is hard to swallow.

For now, the ccc2cc riders are a man down.

- Ben

Day 4 - "Tom sounds like a steamboat"

After a superb refuel last night in Devils Bridge and comfy beds, we decided that we could have a bit of a lie in and bike fettle in the morning.
While we had planned to set off at 10, a few bike issues and a good 15 minutes laughing when Richie turned up dressed as a smurf meant we didn't leave until 10:30 putting us well behind schedule.

The start of the day involved a gradual road climb which was ok apart from the driving crosswind.
We eventually made it to the 1st bridleway, which was when the rain really started to come down. On came the jackets and it was heads down to keep the momentum up. We crossed a few undulating fields and through farmyards before making it to the 2nd road section.

We made our way towards Strata Florida, a mad 4x4 greenlaning route (the support vans loved it!).
We had a hard technical climb to start, which wad made worse by driving rain and very cold wind.
We stopped for a puncture repair before heading down to the fun stuff, and happily the rain and wind eased off.
Strata Florida was a combination of rutted 4x4 tracks, river crossings and loose river beds.
As it had beed raining, the rutted tracks were knee deep with water and the rivers were swollen and fast flowing. This lead to possibly the most fun on a bike ever... pedal mashing through rock filled, almost wheel deep water lead to a few close calls and Tom imitating a steam boat pretty accurately *chomp chomp chomp*.

We were planning on doing the lower section of the same road, however we passed another cyclist who advised the way ahead was impassable.
This actually worked out in our favour as unfortunately the rocks of Strata Florida has bent the rear triangle of his frame.

A quick trail fix got his wheels rolling again, but it was now damage limitation mode and we had to get to the next rest stop asap by road.

We covered 73.5km and climbed 1,484m before getting into Llanwrtyd Wells.
Stu is now awaiting his spare frame and we are looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Day 3

Day 3 was hard. I think that pretty much sums it up.

67.3km ridden/pushed/hike-a-biked up 1,940m of Welsh valleys.

Unfortunately it wasnt the best of starts as we has a late night dash to the local take aways at the last minute when we realised the restaurants were pretty much all closed. This meant energy levels were quite low.

We started as we meant to go on though, with a long arduous climb through a farm and onto a bit of road to take us towards Machynlleth.
Thats when we hit the 1st of our difficult climbs/hike-a-bikes as there was a lot of forestry work going on and they had destroyed the bridleway.
We eventually got to the top, took a few fire roads and did the final descent at mach.

After a quick bike shop and co-op refuel, we headed out again up and along road to get into the wilderness.
A few miles in, we realised we were behind schedule so had to take a "short cut".
This short cut can be recognised easily on the attached profle picture! It was a huuuge climb/push taking us from 20m to around 460m!
However the views were spectacular.

After some long undulating xc across mountsin, we then eventually joined the trails over at Nant Y Arian to do the final few sections before the final slog over to Devils Bridge which again took in some long pushes along steep inclines to get us on the right side of the hillside.

But, we made it.
Dinner has been devoured and its time for sleep.

On to day 4!

Day 1 + 2 done!

2 days down 4 to go!

Unfortunately I had no signal yesterday so was unable to give an update...

Day 1.
It was a hard slog, unfortunately most of the 1st few km were long and flat which meant that the climbs came in big chunks nearer the end of the day.
The 1st rocky climb out of Conwy was a bit of an eye opener and set the tone for the rest of the day.
It didnt however prepare us for one of the longest, steepest road climbs we've  ever seen.
Luckily the support vehicles were to hanf all day which meant we could refuel at the top of all the climbs.
We eventually got to the Marin at Gwydir forest for a run through part of the trail centre and into the bunkhouse at Bettws y Coed having covered 34miles.

Day 2.
We started off well with a climb from the bunkhouse up to Penmachno.
We had some long fire road climbs and eventually made it onto some superb singletrack.
After riding some of Penmachno, we had a few more road miles followed by what can only be described as a mental climb up through a quarry and eventually to the top of a huge mountain with a superb view.
The desent on the other side was possibly even more stunning, something we'll possibly never see again.
It was then another linking road ride and onto some fire road before eventually linking onto the Coed Y Brennin trail and again some brilliant singletrack.
We then had another long fire road then road slog before eventually getting to our next bunkhouse.
Currently trying to sort food as we're all STARVING!

First 2 photos are day 1, the rest are day 2.