It was the first outing for the new PC Pal cycle shirt at the Marin Rough Ride on June 13; nearly 1000 riders took part in the annual mountain bike event held at the small market town of Kington in Herefordshire. This part of the country has really beautiful scenery and is great for walking, riding or cycling and is often overlooked in favour of either Snowdonia to the North or the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains to the South.
It’s a tough event with two well marked routes of either 48 or 75 Kilometres, over 85% of the ride is on moorland and rough tracks, the longer route includes over 7000 feet of climbing and is a good test for bike and rider.
On the day I chose the longer distance and we set off in bright sunshine on tracks slightly softened by the rain earlier in the week, at the point where the routes split I was feeling good and enjoying the open moorland with some great fast descents.
As the ride progresses the people become more spread out and you find yourself alone which you would think would be impossible with so many riders, but it’s a great feeling alone on the moors.
After about 4 hours the forecast rain started, but ”know it all” me had not taken a waterproof jacket, to save weight, as I didn’t think the forecast rain would start until later in the day, so the fairly good tracks soon deteriorated into sticky mud and I got wet and cold, and had to keep pedalling hard to keep warm.
This is an endurance event with large sections of open moorland with no support and usually no phone coverage so you have to be self sufficient, just relying on yourself and possibly the help of other riders.
The last climb back onto Hergest Ridge is a real killer so I was pleased to ride it all the way passing some riders on the shorter route and with a final fast descent I crossed the finishing line in 6 hours 14 minutes in heavy rain, a great day out!!
This can’t be classed a race as it’s held on some bridle paths and roads and also the event insurers won’t allow which riders did which route to be disclosed so It’s impossible to work out how you did compared to other riders, a product of our ridiculous health and safety and compensation culture.
