Cardiff Lockdown Tour
Bloody pissin’ down and I couldn’t be arsed to get out of bed.
Text from Nic aka Veloadventures. ’Ride is still on!’
Better get up and make an effort.
Dress code: thermal bibs, 3 underlayers, gloves, water proof and cap. I was taking no chances
After smashing some porridge and coffee down my neck I then left to meet Nic and the others for 8am in Tongwynlais.
Fully layered up I raced through Cardiff to try and catch them. Got to the village and caught a glimpse of 4 sets of red flashing lights in the distance. I’d actually caught them.
It was a right medley of bikes: 2 hardtails, 2 gravel and a tourer.
Local lockdown meant we couldn’t leave Cardiff. Nic’s route traversed the perimeter, it was like we were guarding the boarder, making sure no butties tried hopping the fence.
The ride started with the Caerphilly road climb to warm us up, then darted along the gravel ridgeway stopping every 100m to politely hold gates open for each other. Tom was riding a beautiful 650b tourer with front rack, however he was running slick 650b and decked it on the wet rocks.
After crossing the Ridgeway we dropped onto road for a fast descent to Newport flats where we were hit with the bastard wind, cold wet and starving everyone put their head down and got on with it.
Arriving at the Marshlands the wind was way worse. Riding on the coast path it was a very slow slog to the steel works, I bagged my only photo on the ride.
‘No bad weather just poor clothing’ - Nic’s inspirational quote of the day.
This is where the route got a bit ‘hairy’. The coastal path takes you along the steel works where 3 burnt out cars, smashed up computers and tetanus positive puddles lead you around to a giant dirt track, braap.
After having a quick play on the track we passed fishermen fishing for fish behind a sewer plant then a quick blast to the bay for a nice hot brew.
Covid meant we couldn’t go inside so we drunk our coffees in the rain, stood by the bins, nice.
Fueled by caffeine we raced across barrage and took the Ely trail to Fairwater and then to St Fagans. This was all new to me and was nice, easy riding on the bike paths.
From St Fagans we climbed up to Pentyrch. This was the last climb of the day. It was pretty long but wasn’t too bad, I have only descended the road before and was chuffed to climb it in one piece.
Think everyone had had enough by then, sodden to the bone we dropped behind Garth Pub then back to Tongwynlais where we all departed our separate ways to smash it back home for beans on toast and a cuppa tea of course and left to thaw out.
