IRON LEMMING - ARE YOU READY FOR THE UK'S TOUGHEST RIDE?

This is how Trailbreak bill their 2 day event and with 220km of riding and 5000m of ascent it was tough.

Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th June 2004

By now most people are aware of Peter and I attempting the TransAlp. This was our second organised long distance endurance event. The idea is that these events will closely simulate what we should expect for each of the 8 TransAlp days!

Both Pete and I arrived at the start fairly tired. Pete had been doing some rides to work in the previous few days (60 mile round trip) and I had ridden a couple of evenings and competed in a Friday night race (Round 7 of the FNSS at Daventry) miraculously getting a 3rd place! The Iron Lemming start was at 08:30 in Talybont on Usk in the Brecon Beacons. The first days route of 119km route and 2800m of ascent took us up and around the Talybont reservoir, through the Gap and onto the Sarn Helen for a while. Then we rode through a very remote and picturesque private estate (Fan Gyhirych) before descending towards Sennybridge. Finally heading towards the Usk reservoir and through the Halfway and Crychan forests to finish in Llanwrtyd Wells. Despite managing to get lost twice and both picking up thorns (my tyre held whilst Pete's ejected his) we arrived in 5th and 6th place out of the 56 entrants - Pete beat me by 1 second!  It was a hard day, but with brilliant weather it was hard to fault. The views were excellent and the checkpoints/refreshments always where you needed them.

After a couple of beers in the pub the night before we were awoken Sunday at 06:00 by the rain. We had breakfast at 06:30 and still it carried on raining.
By our 08:30 start time the rain had eased and we left in light showers. Todays route was a 96km loop with 2100m of ascent. It headed out over to the Elan Valley, taking in both the Claerwen and Llyn Brainne reservoirs. The highlight of the weekend was the Doethie Valley (known as the Hidden Valley) -  with its amazing singletrack that drops back down to Llyn Brainne reservoirs, fantastic. Pete and I had no mechanicals today and only briefly went wrong after I'd ploughed through a sheep carcass to the sound of cracking ribs - delightful! To our surprise we came in 5th and 6th again and within the 10% so that we got our finishers T-shirt and the complementary bottle of Trailbreak beer. Excellent. The event was well organised and everyone was friendly.

What did we learn:
Pete is fast on the uphills, and in fact, fast on the downhills, but also on the flats. Me, I am very quick at the checkpoints!
We kept our average heart rates down to 124 on day one and 127 on day two (compared with our 145 average on the Merida) and felt as good as can be expected after this sort of distance.

Day 1 (See Heart Rate Monitor details)

Distance             119km
Ascent                2800m
Time                   8:30hrs
Heart Rate Avg  127

Day 2 (See Heart Rate Monitor details)

Distance             96km
Ascent                2100m
Time                   6:30hrs
Heart Rate Avg  124

The Iron Lemming 2004 - Riders Times

Overall Times (www.trailbreak.co.uk)

No.

Name.

Time

Pos

Time

Pos

Overall

Over

Ave

 

 

Day 1

Day 1

Day 2

Day 2

Time

Pos

Speed

53

Andy Shaw

7:38:07

2

6:07:39

1

13:45:46

1

9.90 mph

4

Bruce Dinsmore

7:46:50

3

6:26:40

3

14:13:30

2

9.57 mph

10

Mike Hayes

7:55:18

4

6:27:49

4

14:23:07

3

9.47 mph

13

Craig Inge

8:29:09

8

6:08:32

2

14:37:41

4

9.31 mph

47

Peter Brown

8:24:58

6

6:37:34

5

15:02:32

5

9.05 mph

50

Gary Hill

8:24:57

5

6:37:36

6

15:02:33

6

9.05 mph

Detailed checkpoint split times for Day One and Day Two.

IL Day 1 
   Pl     Stno Name                                                     Pts             Time       Pty      Xtra     Score 
    5      500 Hill, Gary                                                60          8:24:57                            60 
               101(10)  102(10)  103(10)  104(10)  105(10)  106(10)        F 
               1:11:51  2:19:35  3:10:43  4:30:47  5:38:17  7:10:18  8:24:57                           
               1:11:51  1:07:44    51:08  1:20:04  1:07:30  1:32:01  1:14:39                               
    6      470 Brown, Peter                                              60          8:24:58                            60 
               101(10)  102(10)  103(10)  104(10)  105(10)  106(10)        F                   
               1:11:42  2:19:32  3:10:40  4:30:46  5:38:16  7:10:25  8:24:58                                  
               1:11:42  1:07:50    51:08  1:20:06  1:07:30  1:32:09  1:14:33
IL Day 2
   Pl     Stno Name                                                     Pts             Time       Pty      Xtra     Score 
    5      470 Brown, Peter                                              50          6:37:34                            50 
               107(10)  108(10)  109(10)  110(10)  111(10)        F                                                     
                 27:48  1:49:56  3:12:28  4:23:51  5:54:49  6:37:34                                                    
                 27:48  1:22:08  1:22:32  1:11:23  1:30:58    42:45                                                   
    6      500 Hill, Gary                                                50          6:37:36                            50 
               107(10)  108(10)  109(10)  110(10)  111(10)        F                                                
                 27:58  1:49:57  3:12:30  4:23:53  5:54:44  6:37:36                                     
                 27:58  1:21:59  1:22:33  1:11:23  1:30:51    42:52