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Brecon Beacons: ‘Gap Road’

A good day’s ride with plenty of off-road in splendid scenery. We did this in August 2009.

We started at a layby on the A470 north of Cefn-coed-y-cymmer. We rode north for a mile (with unpleasant traffic volumes) until a minor road to the left took us across to the A4069: a feeling of remoteness comes on as soon as you leave the A-roads. Another mile north on the A4069, and again turn left onto a minor road through hamlets such as Garreg Fawr and Aber-llia, where you encounter a pronounced climb, and then right on a lovely open road between grand hills.

At 925184 an obvious stony track forks off to the right. You follow it as it traverses high above the valley, sometimes climbing, sometimes not. The stoniness makes hard riding, and forces you to push for a few hundred metres after 937212. That’s the only real difficulty, and there’s a downward trend and easier terrain until you meet tarmac at 958238.
 
Follow the road to the junction with the A4215 at 967250 and carry straight on across on a grassy track taking you past a Mountain Centre 976262 and to another minor road at 987272. This track is the opposite of its predecessor, giving a delightfully soft ride but no real views.

The minor road drops merrily down to Brecon, a good place for lunch.

There’s an amusing exit from Brecon if you can find it. You go through a gate and ride between college playing fields at 042286, following the drive to 042280, then a bridge across the bypass at 043278, until you reach a viciously steep climb where you fork left a little south of the bridge and continue climbing relentlessly, now on a consolidated track. Tarmac at 050269 is an opportunity to regain your breath.

We turned right and then left (though there’s an alternative which crosses a few more contours) and followed the dead-end road to 036235. Here it becomes the ‘Gap Road’: a green lane closed to motorised users for much of the year. The notch which gives it its name inspires fear from a distance. As soon as you’re through the gate you start climbing steeply, initially on grass but for most of the route on a stony track. After a while the gradient becomes less severe. On your right is Cribyn.

At the pass (598m) the view opens out to the south, and the gradient becomes much gentler. The route passes the Neuadd reservoirs and crosses a steep-sided ravine. When it touches tarmac at 035174 you can take the Taff Trail which forks to the left (offering several gates). Just before meeting tarmac again (049167) we took an inexplicable hard right turn, descending a forest track and finally joining the road at 042163. We followed it south and then west, meeting another part of the Taff Trail at 043097 opposite a derelict pub. This is a nice smooth cycle path. It deposits you on the old A470 at Cefn-coed-y-cymmer: you turn right, drop down onto the new road, and before long arrive back at the layby.

Notes: 70km, 1300m ascent, 5 ¾ hours in the saddle; LR160. The route may well be better in the opposite direction. We started at the south so as to arrive at Brecon for lunch, otherwise food would have been hard to find. Our map is 25 years old.

There is a useful official site about mountain biking in the Beacons, and a form to report illegal off-roading.

Brecon Beacons: eastern end

A day ride almost wholly off-road, including single-track and a long grassy descent but also route-finding difficulties. September 2009. Irritatingly it straddles two maps: LR 160 and 161.

Start at Talybont, climbing the signposted Taff trail (LR 161). This is an old industrial tramline popular with walkers, well consolidated but bumpy. You meet a track at 102177, and this comes to a fork on the join of the maps at 090162. There is a RUPP to the right, but we erroneusly took the bridlepath to the left and recommend the error. The route has the air of a garden path on the side of a hill, presenting obstacles which no bridlepath should offer, presumably to deter motor-bike scramblers, and after a while reaching a quarry. We followed the quarry track round a bend and left it to the right at 084144. We now hurtled down a glorious grassy bridlepath with little humps and dropoffs which contrived to throw Colin over his handlebars. At 071130 and later at 068123 there should be options to drop down to the Pontsticill reservoir, and we saw some mountain bikers looking puzzled at the latter, but we found no plausible exit from the main route until we arrived at Allied Carpets on the shopping estate at Pengarnddu (078086). We bought Asda sandwiches lunch.

For the return we rode through suburbs of Merthyr Tydfil, turning right at the roundabout at 067077 and climbing along the valley to 058145 at the northern end of Pontsticill Reservoir, where another right turn under the railway line took us back up onto the Beacons, climbing quite steeply at first.

We rejoined our outward route at the fork and had an easy time on a well-made track until we bore left onto the Taff trail at 102177. This was a bit of a mistake because the bumpiness of the old tramline spoils it for descent and there were lots of walkers: the shiny tarmac alternative would have been better.

Notes: 45km, 800m ascent, 4 ½ hours in the saddle. We really felt quite tired after it. We must be getting old.

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