Following on from last nights Storm Antoni warning, we were in a conundrum as to what to do. Safety is paramount.

Options included getting the train to Shrewsbury, staying there, or getting a second train to Aberystwyth from Shrewsbury.

Our friend Graeme rang us with his thoughts and he suggested a taxi to Rhayader and riding from there.

We went down to breakfast at 7.30 am still unsure. There was a lady cyclist from Germany there pouring over train time tables. We chatted and she was also unsure as to what to do.

The guy in the corner said it was going to hail today. I jokingly told him we did not need that kind of negativity, laughing. He laughed and said it was a typical Welsh summer.

The owners of the accomodation said the only taxi was a sedan.

We has a very yummy breakfast and went outside and looked around. We rechecked the rain radar, wind forecasts and thought we would just go for it. Whilst it was likely to be wet, for the majority the wind would not be an issue.

Heading out of Builth Wells past the random cow, we followed the river. Park Run was setting up for the diehards.

The first two km was pleasant following a bike path adjacent to the river. Then the climbs started.

When Graeme suggested we bypass the first part of todays ride it was partly because of this ‘cycle path’ being unsealed, and of course, the recent rain, that was continuing to fall.

When we started, it looked like this. Ok, we could cope with that. But then it went into a 2 km climb and the puddles dominated.

It is hard to tell how deep the puddles are, unless Tony is ahead of you 🤣🙈 but then he coped better than me, and pulled clear.

I really thought I would end up on my side, soaked. However, proud to say I got through this 5 km quagmire unscathed, bar my filthy legs and bike.

Tony managed to snap me going through one. There was one super deep puddle. The water went up to my ankles as I peddled through.

There were pleasant views, and this looked like a pretty fancy home.

We popped out at this village, and I did not write down the name. From the signpost, it appears to have many walks in the area.

Tony managed to be considerably cleaner than me on his legs. He grabbed his drink bottle and squirted water over our disc brakes to clean them.

On the next sets of climbs, we were on sealed single track, with the occasional house or farm. I really liked the ferns on the stone wall.

We stopped here, as we thought this was a very pleasant sight by the river, with sheep grazing. Sheep seem to freely roam these parts.

Another flash home.

We turned right to ride through the Elan valley. We arrived at the Elan Village looking for a toilet and food, as we thought the visitor centre looked closed as we rode past.

I went up to the Elan Valley Lodge to see if we could purchase a drink. I was told “No, this is a private lodge”.

The village and reservoirs were designed by the architect Herbert Tudor Buckland as part of the scheme, and the village is the only purpose built model village in Wales.

Call me ignorant, but the village seemed to me to be a string of building all in a row. Maybe I missed something.

Heading back out across the river, there are these old bridges.

As we rode past the visitor centre, the buildings we presumed to be closed, were in fact, not in use. We needed to ride a farther 300 metres or so past the entrance. We found our food and coffee!

The Elan Valley contains four dams along the Elan River.

It is also famous for its picturesque scenery. Over 80% of the valley is designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, and a popular cycle trail, the Elan Valley Trail, makes a loop from Rhayader around the reservoirs.

In between dams we were passed by these two cyclists. We did laugh at how keen one was for this photo, standing in the water with his bike.

We noted many trees had been cut down. Carvings had been done on numerous.

Back to the dams….

As it turned out the mountain must have been more hill like, but the views were outstanding here. The area reminded us very much of Scotland.

This area was interesting, with many km of mining residue on both sides of the road. Lead mining used to be very prevalent in the region. Piles of waste are dumped everywhere. Old buildings are all destroyed, looking like there had been fires within?

Oh here I am again, climbing, with Tony waiting. Today there were six climbs that had pinches over 20%. Tony rode each of them. I walked those pinches! No way can I do 20% even without gear on my bike.

At the top of this climb was “the arch” a former gateway to a local estate. But marking the start/finish of the Elan Valley

Next stop was Devils Bridge – unique in that there are three separate bridges, each one built upon the previous bridge. The most recent was an iron bridge erected above the older arches in 1901. The original bridge is medieval and the second was built in 1753.

The name Devils Bridge was named reportedly after an old woman lost her cow and saw it grazing on the other side of the river. The Devil appeared and agreed to build a bridge in return for the soul of the first living thing to cross it. When the bridge was finished, the old woman threw a crust of bread over the river, which her dog crossed to retrieve, thus becoming the first living thing to cross it. The devil was left with only the soul of the dog.

During the summer a narrow guage railway (The Vale of Rheidol) runs 19 km from Aberystwyth to Devils Bridge. The railway opened in 1902. Since 1989 it is operated and maintained by a charity group.

After all our climbing, we needed to get back to sea level. We did this on a cycle trail down this narrow road. The skies are lifting, and the rain has stopped.

It was super steep. My hands ached from squeezing the brakes so hard. There were pitches in excess of 25%.

On a steep descent section, we needed to give way to the train heading back to Aberystwyth.

There was about another 10 km before arriving in Aberystwyth, and it was blowing a gale on the waterfront. It was a super strong headwind with gusts.

Aberystwyth, a university town, is situated on Cardigan Bay on the west coast of Wales. A long seafront with a pier stretches from Constitution Hill at the north end of the Promenade to the harbour at the south.

The beach is divided by the ruined Aberystwyth castle (1277) that was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell in 1649.

Our final stint was to head down the far end of the waterfront to the coloured buildings. Our accomodation is in one of those. The tide is low, with substantial exposed rock.

When we arrived at our accomodation, the sun came out. Of course!

Today was tough (95 km and 1385m ascent). Yesterday was tough too. It rained today for about 90% of the ride. Just consistent mizzle and drizzle interspersed with some heavier showers.

We did get a bit cold there for a while thinking about warmer clothes in our bags. We could have stopped but did not fancy stripping off in the rain.

The challenges today were definitely the 5 km of dirt and mud. I found that super challenging.

We had six climbs with over 20% but got through them each in our own way.

The views scored highly!

Thanks to Graeme for this route. He did this with his daughter Matilda only a few weeks ago, also staying in this hotel. Great recommendation.

Tomorrow is another day. It is another biggie with 115 km planned and about 1500m climbing. I’m not even checking the weather tonight. I tend to wake by 5 am so I will do it then.

Thanks for reading, I’m going to get some shut eye now. 😊❣️