Gbduro21 - day4.4

For the first time in 4 days, I clicked onto one of the online bikey news website. Who knew there were other bike events on! There’s a hundred or so pussies doing a fully supported ride in Spain at the moment. #flyrideandsome 

Anyway, to my surprise there is a article on our humble pedal through the UK! They have referred to it as a ‘gravel race.’ 

[Photo Credit: Breakawaydigital]

Gravel… Riiiight….

We lost another couple of riders today unfortunately. Adam Colvin has had to pull out due to work commitments. To the collective sigh of relief from the staff members of The Spar and M&S north of CP1. They’ll have enough stock to sell to their regular customers. 

Issy hill ate something dodgy and thinks she may have food poisoning?? Though, did anyone see how many beers she had last night? Get well soon Issy and don’t feel at all guilty about leaving your buddy Lucy to ride the rest of the event solo. 

The Fallen

After getting a telling off by the commissaries, rider are now starting to post up their time stamp selfies to prove they are more than a name on a map. 

[Photo pinched fae IG: Emily Harper]

[Photo pinched fae IG: Isaac Hudson]

[Photo pinched fae IG: Jim Higgins]

[Photo pinched fae IG: Mark Beamont]

Nuff said really. Wish I was riding. 

Some of the riders who missed the official Stage 2 start look to be pushing on which is great. It’s not all about times and placings. For some it’ll be. A holiday away from real life crap like work, for others it will be an experience of a lifetime not to be missed. Regardless if they are fast or slow, all of our riders will have put in some serious preparation for the event. Whether it be meticulous route planning, daft training miles or just silly hours on the saddle they are not about to throw it all away just because they won’t be given a official result. 

Our rides are not races, they are reliability trials for solo riders riding a bicycle without any dedicated assistance.  There are no entry fees and no prizes.  There are no officiators, no marshals, no ride leaders, no rescue services.  There is no support. Well, there’s a wee bit of support this time. They get a baked tatty and a chuftie badge at the checkpoints. Some get more baked tatties than others. Eh, Angus.  

[Photo Credit: Tommycheck]

Jim Higgins seems to have his mojo back after the lows of day one which is great news. He’s currently having a Mason appreciation society ride with Philippa. Seems to be a lot of them on this ride? Coincidence? Though, as we all know orange and green bikes are the fastestest. 😎 What is the collective noun for a group of Mason bikes anyway?  ‘A Sponser  of Masons?’

Looks like Angus is about to say goodbye to Wales and enter England - BOOOOO - Ollie has leapfrogged Mark as  2nd rider on the road now. Though for those wanting to have a good finishers result it’s all about the cumulative times rather than placing on the route. Mark still has a good 5 hour buffer back to Ollie from the stage 1 results so he doesn’t need to panic yet. 

Holy crap! I was about to do a bit on the leading ladies and hit refresh on the tracking page. Lee Craigie’s tracker must’ve been playing up before but it now appears that she’s hot on Angus’s wheels. What I thought was his 25km lead over Ollie has turned into only a 8km lead over Lee! This may put the cat amongst the pigeons, as the times were tight between the lassies at the end of Stage 1. Expect some changes in overall GC if things keep on going as they are. 

Jeezo, Ollies tracker just pinged and he’s back ahead of Lee. But not by much. Their tracker updates are similar times so shout be an interesting battle between the two. 

Izzy Freshwater is back up and running again after resting up at CP1 after her super ride to get in just before the 8am cut off time. She along with the rest of the field should be able to maintain the minimum average speed to get to CP2 before the next deadline. 

Upon looking at the map, I’ve just realised the riders are being sent up Bwlch y Groes. Hhahahhahhahhahhahahhhahhhahh. Having recently raced up that bastard of a hill I can only sympathise with the riders! So their average speed may take a hit after all. 

[Photo Credit: My bad self]

One of the few photos I took during ThePanCelticRace. The photo doesn’t really do it justice. I only took the photo as I could scarcely believe we were being sent up it. It’s a wall. A horrible wall. Fully loaded too. It’s murder. I like a climb as much as the next sadistic idiot but safe to say I’m not going to loose any sleep if I never ride this one again. 

I was about to say bye for noo as I’ve run out of chat, but Dan has just done a photo dump, so better see what goodies he’s sent….

….

….

FFS Dan. These are from the morning. I’ve just blethered shite about that already. I’m no going back to sort it. Cheeky sod!

[Photo Credit: Breakawaydigital]

Rider unknown. I hope…

Word,
​DP