PGT Days 21 & 22 - Escape From Aberystwyth

There's no other way of putting it really - the weather for the final work day stage of the second People's Grand Tour of 2012 was absolutely vile! With strong winds, continual heavy rain and noticeable wind chill this was always destined to be a functional, "do what I need to do then stop" ride, indeed if it hadn't been for my participation in the PGT I would not have ridden. The honour of route today fell to my hour commute which I now call the "Hammer Hedge Loop", named after the delightful piece of rudimentary topiary pictured right. It's actually not a hedge at all, although it is strikingly shaped like a giant lump hammer, but two trees that form a natural gateway into the garden of the cottage. Trouble is Hammer Tree doesn't have the ring to it that "Hammer Hedge" does, and it certainly doesn't invoke an Izzy Stradlin (former/ original Guns and Roses member) song with a similar sounding name - Hammerhead . What is for sure is that when I arrived at the Hammer Hedge yesterday I had spent most of the ride grinding slowly up shallow gradients into a block or slightly off kilter headwind. In such conditions I always spend a lot of time spinning smaller gears as this at leaves gives the feeling of something in my man and machine combination moving freely. Pushing a big gear into a stiff wind is psychologically soul destroying!

After a brief check in at work I headed home and within an hour of arriving there was in the car with Paula, Romie and Finn heading to Aberystwyth. We had originally planned to camp with some relatives and friends from Thursday to Sunday at the wonderful Fforest Fields camp site near to Builth Wells, but a dreadful weather forecast caused discretion to become the better part of valour and we cancelled. Instead we booked a single night at the Plas Dolau Hostel 2 or 3 miles outside of Aberystwyth. A fabulous, sprawling house with great facilities, everybody took to the place instantly in spite of the incessant rain. A huge tea was enjoyed by all before 6 children (aged between 12 and 15) pulled an "up all nighter" and managed to drag 3 of the 6 adults "down" with them. Whilst I was one of the three grown ups who did sleep, it was a light and broken sleep and the journey home this afternoon was punctuated by frequent application of methods to keep me wide awake. Between sleep and the sleepy drive home however came the drama of genuine flooding. At 6.30 am I walked down the drive with the children to find that the river, at least 250 metres away from the estate entrance usually, was now several metres inside the front gate. Furthermore the quiet morning was frequently punctuated by the wail of sirens as the emergency services rushed to the rescue of stranded campers, caravanners and home owners. At around 11am we drove out of Plas Dolau with water cill deep in places, but managed to get out safely, then sent a few minutes watching a local farmer tow less fortunate vehicles and their drivers out of the flood on the A44. That said, in spite of the sirens and traffic problems and being in the midst of this melee, I think we got a bigger sense of the scale of the day's events from the TV and radio news at, and on the way, home.

We negotiated many new fords and witnessed many waterfalls on our way home, but we made it safely and in time for me to get my PGT day 22 ride in. Initially I didn't think that I'd be able to ride all 23 days of this edition due to our camping plans, and even after they were altered there was the possibility that I would be unable to ride today, but with so much tiredness in the camp, exacerbated by the come down from adrenalin inducing flood adventures, an early departure was requested. So lunch on Aberystwyth Promenade (in front of the magnificent University building), we headed home. After unpacking, tidying etc I still had plenty of time to do the reverse ride of yesterday's Hammer Hedge Loop (on dry roads to boot), get home, pack the family to bed en masses, write this blog, watch the end of Germany vs Portugal and finally check out the recording of this afternoon's stage of the Dauphine. Phew. Virtual Champs tomorrow, probably a morning ride before the rain returns, but I won't be setting an alarm clock so if I sleep in and ride late then I'll probably be glad.

Day 21
Day 22