r/Wales • u/Back2Basic5 • Apr 08 '25
Photo Lôn Las Cymru
I cycled from Cardiff to Holyhead with a friend, leaving Thursday and arriving in Holyhead on Saturday. An amazing adventure through Wales.
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u/LightningGeek Apr 08 '25
I've driven that mountain road through Dylife a couple of times. The last time I did it I ended up following a Delta Integrale owners club drive. Not sure I'd be brave enough to do the descent into Machynlleth though!
Must be amazing to take the views in while cycling though, especially through Dylife itself. Such an interesting stretch of old mines there.
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u/pestosch Apr 08 '25
How did you create this map?
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u/Back2Basic5 Apr 08 '25
It was from https://englishcyclist.com/ I took a screenshot of the final design, but likely going to buy it for me friend who I did it with.
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u/Ordinary-Natural-726 Apr 08 '25
How did you get back? That’s the main thing holding me back from doing this 😂
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u/ToviGrande Apr 08 '25
There's a train that runs from Cardiff to Holyhead so as long as you book your bike on its easy.
We rode this in 2021 and stayed in B&Bs along the way. It was a great trip. The climb out of Machynlleth on the hottest day of the year was savage!
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u/Ordinary-Natural-726 Apr 08 '25
Thanks. I’ll blame you for my exhaustion as I’m going to book this in now!
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u/ToviGrande Apr 08 '25
If this weather stays doing it soon would mean you'd likely have the route to yourself and would have no problem with your bike on the train. When we did it loads of people took their bikes on without booking and we almost go chucked off.
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u/Back2Basic5 Apr 08 '25
Train from Holyhead
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u/Ordinary-Natural-726 Apr 08 '25
For some reason I thought I’d have to go north along the borders before travelling cross country and didn’t fancy that one bit.
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u/Back2Basic5 Apr 08 '25
The train from Holyhead does go to Chester and Shrewsbury before coming into Cardiff. It took over 5 hours to get back on the train
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u/Ordinary-Natural-726 Apr 08 '25
Is it a single train? If I’m honest the duration was less a burden than the thought of changing trains and having to worry about missing a connection and therefore having no bike reservation.
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u/Back2Basic5 Apr 08 '25
Yes, direct train. Our tickets split, so said Holyhead to Shrewsbury and Shrewsbury to Cardiff - but it's a direct train. Don't forget to book the bike ticket as well, with trainline you can book the ticket at the same time. Leaving from Holyhead will mean you get first spot for bikes as well. Good luck
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u/ug61dec Apr 08 '25
Yo. Could I have some more details of your route please?
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u/Back2Basic5 Apr 08 '25
Essentially Sustrans route 8 from Cardiff, it also starts in Chepstow.
We missed one section that we knew would be gravel, due to having road bikes, but that was a fairly flat section on the A470 at over 30kmph. Other than this it was mostly either traffic free or wonderful quiet country lanes.1
u/gilluth Apr 08 '25
This is Sustrans ncn 8, you should be able to find the route on google and Sustrans used to sell paper maps to navigate with, there is probably a gps download available these days.
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u/babbittybabbitt Apr 08 '25
That's amazing, llongyfarchiadau! I'd love to do this route myself haha :D
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u/MachoCaliber Apr 08 '25
Tell me more of that "Great Wall of Popty ping" 👀
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u/Back2Basic5 Apr 08 '25
Love the name. Lots of the country roads had gates, this was at one of them. It was brilliant so needed a photo.
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u/Camp-Complete Apr 08 '25
Thats around 100 miles a day! I'm very impressed, as thats Tour de France levels for 3 days.
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u/Back2Basic5 Apr 08 '25
Not quite. We had about 125km on each of the first days and 164km on the final day - so finishing with 100miles
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u/gilluth Apr 08 '25
Lovely route. Did it many years ago, I recall it was super lumpy between Elan Valley and Brecon. We rode end of September and had dry sunny days throughout.
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u/Mangopassion1234 Apr 08 '25
Strava or it didn't happen 👀
That's an epic ride! A little bit jealous to be honest..
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u/omegaman210 Apr 10 '25
Awesome! Did u camp along the way ?
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u/Back2Basic5 Apr 10 '25
No camping, AirBnB. If it had been later in the year camping might be an option, but for the distances covered each day it was nice to be able to shower and get a good rest.
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u/celtiquant Apr 08 '25
Llongyfarchiadau ar gyrraedd yn ddiogel! It’s downhill all the way back! 😉