Part of the Abergavenny Festival of Cycling, the Iron Mountain Sportif commemorates iron ore mining rather than Iron Man events. But nevertheless this was a challenging ride.
The 160 km course included 2700 metres of climbs and was in two loops: the first 80 km through Usk and Raglan took 3 hours. The harder, slower part included the Iron Mountain ascent to Blaenavon and Brynmawr and smaller climbs into Bwlch and from Talgarth so that our overall time was 7 hours 4 minutes.
It was clear for several days beforehand that we should expect persistent rain throughout the day and at times the rain was very heavy indeed with poor visibility and slippery cattle grids in the Brecon Beacons National Park. But there were some great moments too when the
police closed the A40 to let us pass, breath-taking scenery, a magnificant descent towards Talgarth and well-supplied feeding stations.

Jennifer Hill and Adam Spector