Tanya and Sarah Start To Fly - 9th July

Tanya had been having bad dreams about getting over the big hill (Pen Rhiw Wen). This is the climb towards the end of The Bike Ride and  its also part of the 'Trecastle Road loop'. So she decided to attempt this loop just to see how 'bad' the climb was going to be and I decided to join her. Its great to have company on a training ride and we pelted along chatting about this and that and generally having a good laugh (must be getting fitter  to be able to cycle and chat).

Chance for a brief rest while Tanya changes into her shorts

It was also great to see Tanya relishing the scenery as I had done on my first excursions especially since she's been giving me a lot of stick about how I find everything  so' wonderful'! We made Usk Reservoir about 5 minutes ahead of schedule and decided to  press on and it felt like we were flying  we're both getting fitter and this was feeling good. I'm also getting much braver on the descents and we were just flying down these .. yahooo. Eventually we joined the road that leads to the big climb and things got a bit more serious and my little friend fell quiet, the focus now was on getting up the hill we just took it slowly and steadily climbed, there was no enjoying the scenery now we were just pushing on up the hill and eventually with legs burning we both made it to the top!!!! the descent down the other side of Pen-Rhiw-Wen is fantastic and the new fearless Sarah was hammering along  just about hanging onto my bike when suddenly I was aware of Tanya alongside me singing 'she'll be coming round the mountain when she comes' - what a nutter. We nearly got taken out by a couple of sheep which would of been a bit of a shame after surviving the climb.
Anyway thanks Tanya  for a great training ride I'm so glad you'll be doing this with me.
 Here's our route