More Hobbit's tale

Hairy Matt's photos...

Dave on the news...

Dave in the paper...


A cooks perspective...

The Hobbit's Tale - a supporters video diary (low res) from Rob Khoo on Vimeo.

Hobbit's Tale

It's done... on the weekend, Dave Buchanan rode from Cardiff to Caernarfon and back to Cardiff again non-stop and offroad. 430 miles or so, and 22000m of climbing... the scale of it is just too much to take in. I was priviliged to be on the support crew of this awesome achievment, along with a fantastic group of individuals who were a joy to be with for the whole weekend - despite the sleep deprivation and the less than brilliant weather, I didn't hear one person moan from start to finish. More stories, pics and vids when I get them sorted; until then here's some mugshots of the people involved. Such a huge achievment, I'm not sure I'll ever be involved in anything to top it; Dave, you're a proper hero!

Endurance

Mucho awesomeness from UK and European 12 and 24 hour champs: Huw was second in the 12 hour race, Voley won the 24 hr for the second time, Si was third in the same race, and Dr Evil won the vets 24 hr. I'll post some links to pics and reports when they turn up.

Next weekend I'm going to be part of the support team for Dave Buchanan's totally epic Hobbit's Tale ride - Cardiff to Caernarfon and back again, off road, without stopping. As befits a member of Team Tapas, I will be cooking food for all the other support crew members in the car park at Coed Y Brenin. If you haven't already, please send Dave some money on his Virgin Giving page here. Report and pics when I get back.

More Snowdon stuff

An awesome video of the Ranger Path descent from Hippy...

Snowdon Ranger Path - Easter 2011 from Matthew Cope on Vimeo.

Roadtrip

Due to one thing and another, I had been really looking forward to this trip, but a cold in the week leading up to it had left me feeling pretty groggy and unsure of my fitness levels. We were staying in the flat above the legendary Pete's Eats cafe in Llanberis, and fueled up on Thursday night with some excellent curry from the restaurant down the road.





Friday morning dawned and we managed to get on the road by 9am (which is no mean feat given the faffing levels that occur when we meet for group rides).



I really had no idea what to expect: obviously it is the highest peak in Wales, but how difficult could it be to push a bike up a bridleway? The answer is, very bloody hard; a 36 lb bouncy Nicolai up a steep path for two hours is never going to be fun.







The wind was blowing pretty hard at the summit, so we headed off down the Ranger path after a quick coffee (and some whisky for Paul's birthday).



I didn't take any pictures of the next bit as I was hanging on to my bike so hard my hands weren't working when I stopped. It was uber-rocky, steep and loose - the big bike that I had been cursing on the climb was awesome on the way back down again, steamrollering rocks the size of beachballs and three foot steps. There were a mechanical mishaps - Paul snapped a bolt in his seatpost and then ripped off his mech hanger in a collision with another rider, and Scooby put a nice 2 inch rip into his brand new rear tyre. Eventually the path levelled out a bit and we regrouped and repaired bikes.







We then headed for Telegraph Pass, which takes you back to Llanberis. A fast flowy track which is punctuated by a series of water bars, which turned out to be our undoing... we had around ten punctures on just this short stretch of trail. After that we rolled back into town for a slap up meal in Pete's Eats.





The next day we headed down to Machynlleth, with some people stopping off for a ride at Coed Y Brenin on the way down. The Dyfi campsite was as scenic as ever... I tried my best to resist the lure of Cafe Seren, but failed miserably to be honest; at least I made it back to my tent without help this year. The next morning I felt pretty tired, and my back was aching badly before I even started; it was nice to meet up with Team Cheese on the start line though.





I found a lot of the first half of the ride pretty grim, my back was so painful I couldn't put any power into my pedalling so I had to spin up every climb in the granny ring. The tapas at the feed station (along with some red wine, ibuprofen and Torq gels) transformed me though, and the second half of the course flew by.





A bonus was the disco and free beer on offer at the end of the last descent.



Then we rolled back into town for more beers and tapas, a pub dinner and a few more pints back in the hippy tent.





One of the most awesome weekends that I've had on a bike - great weather, fantastic trails, and, most of all, the company of some of my best friends. Cheers all.