Yodonia

The week before we left was spent in a predictably 2019 manner, the six of us that would be riding spending our time chatting on WhatsApp, discussing tyre choice, comparing carrying methods for kit on our bikes and mostly talking about the weather. It had been a pretty poor start to summer and in the days running up to the start there had been some biblical downpours across the country. Had the rains passed or were we going to be facing more of the same out on the road?

When I’d come up with the idea for this trip in late 2018 I imagined it would be a scorching summer ride with more concern about sunscreen that waterproofs. I’d spoken to Grass up the Middle regular Steve to pick his brain and he directed me to North Wales local Jonathan who was happy to help with my ideas as I honed in on a route. The plan was simple, to get as much bang for our buck from 3 nights away and the format came together pretty easily.

Thursday afternoon, leave work and get the train from London Euston to Bangor, Wales.

Friday, ride from Bangor to Dolgellau via some big hills.

Saturday, ride from Dolgellau to Bala via some even bigger hills.

Sunday, ride from Bala back to Bangor via some big hills and then get the train back to London.

Craig, Steve, Sam and Dean were travelling from different parts of the country but the basic format was the same, and we’d all agreed that as much as we love a bivvy we wanted to be rested each day and to be able to ride as unencumbered as possible. This meant no to carrying tents and yes to B&Bs. No to lots of spare riding kit, but yes to washing your bibs and baselayer each night. Semi-dirtbag!

So with saddle/frame and bar bags packed light, but prepared for any weather, my brother Andrew and I travelled across the country, to where our group then met at an uninspiring Premier Inn in Bangor. Where even the shoddy service and pretty poor beer at the bar couldn’t stop the excitement.

Waking up for day one of riding you could see it had rained through the night but it now looked to be clearing, finally it was time to ride the route I’d spent so long poring over.

The ride began with everyone settling back into the routine of all riding together again. Spread across various counties its rare that we all get to ride in a group at the same time so it takes a little while for things to settle into their past easy rhythm. But this was helped by the fact that we were riding along a wide purpose built bike path, chatting side by side we could catch up on important and banal conversation. Good company always makes for enjoyable riding, and it was dry.