Ride

Yesterdays drive up to Rhayader was in glorious sunshine. Today was very different! A chilly and foggy start...still only 6°C at 10am...but it looked on the up. The ride to Llangurig on the NCR 8/81 was nice. Then a little bit on the A44 before taking a left turn. I knew there was gonna be a hard hill...and it was. I cycled up til my heart was about to explode, then walked a steep stretch. Got back on and off I went again....still hard work but kept going. The weather got worse the more I climbed until it was foggy and pretty wet. The tarmac eventually turned to track and stones and there was no way I was cycling once it got rough on the next hill. Once further up I hopped back on and started to decend...slowly as it was so rough and having to dodge some motorbikes coming the other way. With hands starting to ache from being on the brakes all the way down the rough mountain track, I was glad to reach the road in Cwmystwyth. Nice ride back along the valley and turned to head towards the visitor centre. It got dryer as I headed towards the reservoirs and the ride along the cycle paths from the first dam I crossed back to Rhayader were really nice...gravel path and then tarmac surface.