giant were riding away from me – there was no way I could sustain that! I settled into an easy pace and crested the hill. They were gone for now but I’d see them all again. It was very muggy and warm all night, I only needed shorts and a t-shirt. Once over the climb from Chepstow the road descended, there were some small rolling hills and it wasn’t long before I arrived at the first control at Abergavenny, a 24 hour McDonalds where we had to get a receipt. Everyone from the fast group was there and I didn’t really want to linger for too long. There seemed to be a lot of faffing going on so I ordered a small bag of chips, refilled my bidons, then left. I was the first to leave the control. I was now on the Usk valley climb, a 40km uphill drag into a headwind. It was difficult but I was able to keep a steady pace up and I was really enjoying this late night riding. The roads were almost deserted. Finally I arrived in Trecastle where the official route tuned south up a climb over the moorland at Glasfynydd. The climb wasn’t too bad but the steep descent following it was along a narrow, windy, gravelly road and I didn’t like
the look of it in pre-ride planning so I had plotted a five kilometre detour along the main A40 road to Llandovery. The road to Llandovery was all downhill and very fast. This is when one of the most terrifying things on the ride happened to me. There wasn’t room on my bars to mount both my lights pointing at the ground. I was riding along at 40kph when my primary light, which was almost out of charge, switched off and everything went black – nothing, just the sound of my freewheel and the wind in my ears. I came to a very quick stop and got my backup light on! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to charge my light with the battery pack at the next control in Carmarthen. I really should have checked that before the event – that was Techfail number one. Techfail two came when I realised I’d forgotten to pack a charging plug and I couldn’t charge up my dead light at all. I’d have to buy a new charging plug or a new light from a bike shop later and hope that my remaining light would last the night. It was 4am so would soon be getting lighter. I had a coffee and then loads of riders from the fast group stared coming in. It seems my detour had been a lot faster.
I didn’t want to hang about, the wind was picking up. It was forecast to hit 25mph in the morning at Fishguard. If I got there in time I’d get that as a tailwind. The next stretch from Carmarthen to Fishguard was the toughest yet, very strong headwinds and very steep hills, lots of them, one after another. Every single hill seemed to be 15-20 per cent minimum. As it began to get lighter I started seeing bats, loads of them. My headlight was attracting moths which in turn attracted the bats. This was where one flew under my right arm and right up through my handlebars. Amazing! The dawn light allowed me to see what was coming up - a huge range of hills on the horizon, the tops of which were in the clouds. I felt the first spots of rain. Finally made it to Fishguard and descended into the town and control point three. I just needed a receipt from somewhere so I went to the local Co-op and restocked my supplies just as the rain began to get heavy. I thought I should just get moving so chucked on my waterproofs and set off. The bike shop I needed was in Cardigan and I wanted
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