Licks Cycles: Mine over Matter: we sort out Wye MTB’s Rhondda Raid

Massive mountain descents with out the gruelling climbs. We head out round Rhondda, a former coalmining space in South Wales, for a totally guided and uplifted journey.

“The correct line is demise,” Will Warren calmly tells us. “The left line is simply… horrible,” he provides. “Take your decide.” Not the phrases you’d normally anticipate from a information midway up a mountain, however he’s not incorrect. Because the riders in entrance of me creep right into a chute forward I’m not precisely crammed with confidence, and there’s an alarming quantity of squeal echoing backwards too, brakes and riders.

Up till now the path’s been on the nervous aspect of technical, boulders the dimensions of softballs roll and boil beneath our wheels, greased with a liberal sprint of mud. The gradient’s been steep however not ridiculous and it’s given us 500m of path to settle in and get a really feel for the grip. Of which there’s nowt.

Massive skies, abandoned mountain tops and deep ruts. This trip takes you out into the wilds

“In the summertime it’s beautiful on this path,” Gareth Sheppard tells me with a giggle and shake of the pinnacle. He’s one other of our guides for the day. “There’s tons of grip and you’ll rise up onto the excessive strains.” It’s mid-August in the present day so I’m not precisely certain when summer time will begin on this excessive and hidden fold of Wales, however everybody expects it to reach any day now, simply as quickly because the drizzle lets up. We’ve come on Wye MTB’s newest journey trip, a big-mountain epic known as the Rhondda Raid, taking in a number of hills in a few of the greatest driving nation within the UK.

It appeared like a fantastic concept on the time, swapping the groomed, excessive pace tracks of the path centre and the man-made and objective constructed trails in my native woods for one thing extra pure and wild. I’ve gotten fairly comfortable lately, by no means summiting a correct mountain and barely poking my head above 500m in altitude, and naturally normally with an e-bike beneath me. The Raid can be a jolt to the system, reminding me of the nice previous days when buddies would trudge spherical hills soaked to the bone, however grinning from ear to ear.

Wye MTB proceed to unlock top-flight driving for the lots

I’m not grinning now, and my soggy knees are wobbling a bit, I’m not ashamed to confess. I creep in, launch the entrance brake and hope. It’s wonderful, I load the bike over the cascade of rocky drops and miraculously discover grip, keep bike aspect of the bars, and sweep spherical the fitting hander on the finish with a landslide of rocks chasing me down. And Jesus it feels good! Now all of it is sensible, I’m so glad to be right here. “That could be a correct mountain,” I say to Dan once we break for a stream crossing and a celebratory fist bump. “You simply wait,” he replies.

Wye MTB has been thrilling us for the previous 5 years with its journey days, shuttling a gaggle of buddies through Land Rover to the highest of one of the best descents round. First got here the Wye Valley off-piste across the Forest of Dean, earlier than including extra journeys across the Black Mountains, Brecon, and now one skirting the Rhondda Valley. Gareth has promised us a minimum of eight totally different descents off the tops of the mountains, 45km largely downhill and a ridiculous 1,550m vertical. If we get a wriggle on.

Tough, free and rocky descents are plentiful on this full day of driving

The primary drop is off Bwlch Mountain and we roll by way of the previous few tree-covered corners into Pentre for our second uplift of the day, load the bikes and rummage round for bananas and Tussocks. It’s the subsequent mountain the place issues get actually spicy although, Gareth says, with a thin path and an enormous drop to the left that you simply completely mustn’t crash on. I need to know extra about this publicity after all, significantly as I’m fearful of heights, however like a historical past instructor with logorrhoea he’s filling us in on the commercial heritage of the valleys, mentioning the huge washing machine-like hoppers used to scrub coal and the slag heaps turned campsites. It’s actually fascinating, significantly as a result of Gareth’s grandfather labored within the final mine to shut right here, in 1985. Miraculously, snapper Andy Lloyd has an image from the showers from the final day of mining, and Gareth’s actually eager to see it, he’s routed to this space and the coal seams run by way of him too.

Historical past lesson completed, or a minimum of gone for lunch, we’re onto the second descent, and true to type there’s a first rate quantity of publicity. We’re skirting around the aspect of a cirque, hollowed out within the final ice age by the gradual drag of thousands and thousands of tons of ice and rock creeping down the mountain. It’s a panoramic view for certain, lovely and otherworldly but additionally horrifying and dramatic. Sights like this could in all proper demand fee in days of journey or maybe hours of hike-a-bike, however we’re barely an hour from Cardiff and I really feel fairly honoured to see this. I additionally really feel fairly daft to not have identified years in the past that cwm is the Welsh phrase for cirque, placing well-known mountain bike honeypots like Cwmcarn and Cwm Rhaeadr of their place.

Tight and rocky ribbons carve a furrow by way of the hinterlands

The way in which off the mountain finishes in a large, rutted and grassy chute that’s to not be taken calmly. Within the days of coal, vans had been winched up this escarpment to return laden with the black gold, and there are nonetheless the stays of the buildings and equipment on the high that after did the heavy lifting. As we speak we’re letting gravity pull us down, and it’s simply the sketchiest a part of the trip to date. The ruts and free rock are eager to grab the entrance wheel, and it’s the form of descent the place slowing down just isn’t an possibility, you possibly can solely go quicker.

The trip’s not all about large pure stuff although, on the listing of potential descents to hit on the Rhondda Raid is Mountain Ash, host to a spherical of the Dragon Downhill collection again within the day. It’s firmly within the enduro class in the present day, and Gareth and Dan will take you there should you like, one thing I twig half approach spherical. In case you’re having fun with the pure bridleways you possibly can keep on with that. If you’d like one thing extra groomed they’ll gladly present you the way in which.

Don’t overlook to pack your waterproof socks…

Our final run finishes within the Dare Valley Gravity Bike Park, a youngsters and new rider-friendly spot we visited again when it opened in 2021. Council owned and operated, it’s not fairly the peerlessly groomed pump monitor of two years again, nevertheless it’s nonetheless ridiculously good enjoyable and a straightforward quick end to the day.

Days like this are good for the soul. They allow you to catch a glimpse of one thing larger than your self, and the traditional rocks and previous business firmly put you in your home in historical past as a pebble on a mountain. The driving is spectacular too, uncooked, unpredictable and enjoyable. Sure uplifting to the tops of those mountains is certainly dishonest, however there’s no approach you can faucet into this a lot driving with out it. And in addition to, the satan performs one of the best tunes.

wyemtb.co.uk