Double Century, another tick off the list.
Friday our team of riders, Me, Rich, Seb, Jon(shergy), & Dom, along with Minibus driver Paul with part time riders/helpers Paul2 and Tim made the long slow drive from cardiff to Bangor (boy that took ages)
Then after monster carbo loading and a few relaxing guiness's we tried to get nowhere near enough Travelodge sleep for a 5am wake up.
Saturday and luckily the rain had gone, leaving a cool start and a drive to our start point, the North Coast of Anglessey at Cemaes beach.It was fnally 6.30 before the inevitable mountainbiker style faffing was over and we finally hit the road, straight into a considerable SW headwind. At times 12mph on the flat was hard to maintain, this was looking like an even more epic day than we had imagined and pretty soon we had to establish a routine of sharing the wind effort chaingang style.
The guys in the minibus drove off ahead of us to set up food and drink stops every 2 hrs, and we were very glad to see them in Bangor for the hot breakfast we didn't have time for at the start. Big steaming bowls of porridge and Honey, brightened up our very cool start to the ride.
Off down the Coast to Caernarfon and the wind really hit us for six, our average speed dropped to below 14 mph, there wasn't much talking in the group, well it would have been shouting, moral was low and legs were struggling already.
Turning inland to Portmadog and passing Coed-y-Brenin the wind eased a bit and the mood rose, we were cruising now, but all saving energy for the big climb out of Dolgellau. You know the one that your van screams up in very low gear when you go there.
At the top and its not looking good for Seb, a pounding head points to some dehydration, and he's dropping way off the back.It nearly looked all over for me too, the fun bit of wizzing down the other side lead to possibly the scariest moment I've ever had on a bike.
Hitting 45mph with a buffeting side wind, my bike suddenly went into a slow wobble, a tankslapper if your a biker. It would not stop and then got really violent, for over a minute I hung on,the bars trying to wrestle from my hands. I tried both brakes,the front was a no no, moved my weight around, it would not stop, the guys behind passed looking as worried as I was.
For over a minute I was crapping myself, as the road levelled and the speed dropped it calmed down, it took me a long longer to do the same, very scary to a guy who loves speed.
Passing through the 100 mile barrier made us all realise just what we still had in front of us, we were all feeling it, help was at hand at we stopped for dinner after 7 hours on the road. A local friend met us at Carno with hot soup, great sandwiches, hot drinks and chocolate cakes.
30 mins rest was like recharging our batteries, spirits were up, the wind was behind us as we flew inland to Newtown. The direction seemed all wrong, but this part of Wales is tricky to cross, cruising along a solo biker sprints past us. We must be feeling good as the urge to sprint back past him rises, it makes no sense though. A few miles up the road and he's stopped in a layby, I shout at him that we'd done 130 miles, had he! At a pee stop starting another big climb climb, turning South for Builth Wells, he came and asked if he heard right. So Mark from Climb on bikes, thanks for the company, wheres your donation;-)
The guys started writing on the road too, TDF stylee, made us laugh.
Hitting Builth Wells spirits are high, no wonder as we complete almost 20 mles of generally downhill from Newtown, Also another Welsh friend buzzes us on his Motorbike, its a sign we're nearer our target as he joins the support. Rich even gets our only puncture as we roll into a feed stop, how lucky was that; Give bike to pit crew and carry on eating. But there's still 65 miles to go and our toughest climb in the Brecons an 8 mile drag upto 450m. 
Over the Top and its virtually a 35 mile descent to Merthr and cardiff, final stop and lights fitted we speed of as its gets more urban. To the public who we shot buy at silly speeds, carving up roundabouts and having loads of fun, they would never guess we had 200 miles in our legs, neither could we, this was fun.
11pm on a saturday night through drunk laden cardiff central was mental, the final approach into the bay suprisingly quiet. Onto the wooden promenade made famous by Torchwood the place errupts with friends coming out of one of the bars, cheering as we finish our marathon in style.
As we gather round by the waters edge at the Celtic ring monument, there's a bizzare barage of fireworks over the bay, how good was that for a welcome.
Even a cool night and sweaty clothes were not going to stop us having a celebratory Guiness on the front though, job done.
The final figures;
We cycled 210 miles in 12hrs58 mins at an average ride time of 16.2 mph climbing 3220 metres and this took us 14.5 hours from start to finish with relaxed stops.
The running total of donations is nearing £3000 all told. Thanks to all the people we met along the way that donated without much prompting from us, the pub lads, the 5am builders, all the passers by and Fiona who we passed on the road from Brecon to Storey Arms. One last link to the donation site then, http://www.justgiving.com/walesairambulanceroadride (still 60 days left)
And more photos here if you havent seen them, shame the finishing ones were crap.
Thanks to Allsports Summer Training fuel and Torq bars for making my body feel super human.
