A North Wales Bike Bank Holiday Weekender

400km bikepacking across North Wales with a summit ascent of Yr Wydffa, well that was the plan anyway. How best laid plans are sometimes simply best laid.

My inspiration for getting out over the weekend was found in North Wales. It was here that, without much persuasion, my trusty Sonder Broken Road and I lined up for the start of the North Wales Bikepacking Event.

With three route options, I choose the 400km mountain bike route. For this event you needed to plan your own start time ,as the route went over Snowdon, which had access times outside the hours of 10am – 5pm.

I set off from Llandeglla Forest at 5pm Friday aiming to reach Snowdon at 165km by 10am Saturday, giving me approx. 17 hours.

A nice fast start leaving the forest and suburbs behind me, riding towards the Clwydian Range and a first notable climb up Moel Famau. No reward without effort - we were treated with a fantastic singletrack descent and a big grin!

Reaching 115km, Betws-y-coed at 3am after 10 hours riding I looked for a spot for a powernap. I opted of the Alpkit store doorstep to grab a couple of hours!

Alarm set for 2 hours and I set off once again, a bit bleary eyed, hoping to grab some early breakfast at one of the passing villages. Little did I realise how the pace would drop, with a couple of tough climbs and some techy descending, the average km’s had slowed down with the clock ticking to reach Snowdon before the cut off.

No! - Just before 12 I rolled into Llanberis, two hours outside the cut-off, damn, if only I hadn’t taken that nap. This threw me, I hadn’t really thought I wouldn’t make it! I was now left with two choices - either wait five hours or take the lite option rote which involved a traverse around Snowdon.

After some food and a bit of bike faffing, I set off on the lite, still a beautiful climb up to join the Rangers path. The sun was enhancing all of Eryri’s surroundings. On reaching the coastal area of Criccieth and Portmadog the beaches were chocker, like a proper bank holiday weekend. My bottom bracket had been grinding and crunching for a while now and was visibly turning into a grey paste, along with a very sore foot and missing the Snowdon summit, I found my race motivation was gone, but I was more than happy to enjoy the journey back.

A luxury bivi night under the stars at a campsite with facilities was enjoyed before ‘Stu’s’ North Wales 300 lite, mish mash, freestyle’ route came to an end back at Llandegla forest. It was a day earlier planned but with the bonus of having a surprise bank holiday Monday day out with my family. The right decision was made!