Big Welsh Weekend 50km 30/06/10

   Once at the top of this piece of singletrack we were into the 1^st of 2 long fireroad climbs. I could see Paul and Dave about 30yds or so back so eased off a tad and waited for them to catch me up. Once out of the trees near the top of the climb we rode together for a few seconds, then split again. Over the top it was a long fireroad that was slippery on the 1^st lap especially over 30mph which lead into a piec of singletrack, across another stream and a short climb upto a nice downhill. This had a thin smooth section at the side which everyone was riding slowly down. On the other side it was rough and rocky, oh well  the Epic can handle this, straight down the rocky side, much quicker.

   This lead us into the 2^nd long fireroad climb. On the first switch back I could see Dave and Paul about 80yds down below, I shouted something encouraging and continued on the climb. Eventually you ended up at the top of the mountain overlooking Port Talbot and over to Swansea. The route took a turn down the mountain here along a rocky path and a short climb into some woods. From here we diverted into a new section of woods and joined a section that I remember from the old course.  This was a long muddy, rutty downhill that seemed to slow a lot of people up. It turned into a rocky descent and was ace, made that long climb worth it.

   From here it turned into a section that used to be a climb. It was just not wide enough to overtake down here which held me up a bit. Across another stream and up a short sharp climb. Katie and Emma were waiting here to cheer us on after they’d trekked up and over the mountain. About a 1/3 of a way up the hill the route turned left and back down the hill to the Start/Finish arena. This was a loose, gravely but flowy section. Oh well that’s half of it over now lets do it all again.

   By the 2^nd lap the course had dried out loads and was getting dusty. I plodded on and kept a reasonable pace. Katie and Emma were this time at the bottom of the 1^st downhill. A pretty uneventful lap for me, although kept being overtaken by people on the hills then would take them again on the downs. Towards the end of the lap I felt my legs starting to cramp up a little bit, so eased it off a little. On the last downhill (whilst trying to catch the guy in front of me) my bike slipped at about 30mph and I had to put a leg down, this cramped up straight away. Ouch, then my other leg cramped and locked in the extended position. I had to use the cramped up leg to free the other one by pedalling, eventually both legs were free but I couldn’t move them. Ahhhhh, I was about 500m from the line and still rolling. My legs finally came back to life and I just managed to pedal over the line. Ouch that really hurt.