Up bright an early @ 7am ready for the off @ 9am. Power breakfast of Rice and Eggs (just like Lance) for me then sort out all the Gels and Bars needed for the stage. Anouther rider briefing @ 8:30am, then I was lining up on the start. Only trouble was Paul and Dave were missing. I could see them over by the van looking at Dave’s bike. Eventually Paul come and found me on the start line, however with a min to go Dave was still back at the van. The starters gun goes and Dave is no where to be seen. Oh well, sure he’ll catch us up.

Paul and I left the start near the front and pretty much rode together for about an hour. The 1^st bit of the day was mainly road with a some off road thrown in. We got split on a singletrack climb but we met up again at the first water stop. Quick banana and refill the High-5 and we were off again. Some offroad up and over a more, the we went round 3 staggered reservoirs on a cycle path, finally stopping @ the lunch stop near the top of the mountain at the end. Top up of the hydration pack, quick sandwich wait for Paul then we were back off.

I left Paul at the top of the climb straight after lunch after a difference of opinions on fuelling tactics. The downhill after that was well worth the riding we’d just covered. A rider went down in front of me on one of the rocky sections, I stopped and he was ok. This then spat us out onto National Cycle Route 8 which we had been following for much of the day. A 12 mile spin along the road to the last Water stop @ Llangurig.

Another banana and a High-5 refuel I checked the Cycle Computer and according to my calculations only had a couple of miles to go. Excellent, still had 2.5 hours to spare before the cut off. 8 miles later and a long climb I’m starting to think that either my computer is out or the published distances are way out (we found out the later was true because of a duff trip meter on the quad?????). Anyway after the climb it was a nice long downhill all the way into LLanidloes. The finish was at the rugby club and I came in with well over 1 hour 45min to spare. I cycled straight into the field however there was no sign of the girls, van or tent. Quick scout around and it looked like I’d beaten them there. Humph! So I sat in the middle of the field and waited. They turned up just over 10 mins later with excuses of travelling mile to get us Chicken Satay Sticks J. Paul arrived about 30mins later, then Dave another 30 after that. So we all arrived well in the cut off time, although all a little sore and tired.

Dave was 1^st to cook and done us a nice Spaghetti Bolognaise. We we’re all pretty tired so after a beer or 2 it was early to bed @ 9:30pm. Dave tried out his new bedroom configuration within the main tent.