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I did Wales 3 times. Finished twice. I biked 5:53 and 5:43 the years I finished. Backed up the 5:53 with a just about acceptable 3:33 run and backed up the 5:43 with a miserable marathon, close to 4 hours. I rode both with a 34-28 and could have done with lower gears, a 30 or even 32 on the back. I certainly wouldn’t have said “dammit I didn’t need these lower gears” if I’d had them, and I was certainly saying “jeez I could do with lower gears” with the 34-28.
You’ll certainly get round with a 34-28 but especially on the second lap, the hills start to bite. The steep hill through the woods near the end of the lap was tough. I couldn’t have gone any slower up there without wobbling…
The biggest mistake I made was probably pushing a bit too hard on the first (flatter) section which leads into the two laps, and then not capping my power and heart rate enough in the early climbs. And I say that, I was still fairly disciplined, but a fraction too hard is still too hard, it’s a long day and you need to conserve.
It’s a magnificent day out, the support is incredible, like nothing else I’ve ever done.
Enjoy!
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Nice riding!
That steep hill is Wisemans? The tricky bit with Wales is the focus on Wisemans and Saundersfoot but there is a shit load of nameless hills that do your legs in along the way.
Very easy to go too hard on the Angle loop, especially on the slight draggy bit out of town.
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^^^This^^^
The course has approx 2500mtrs climb, Saundersfoot is about 90mtrs & Wisemans 50mtrs.
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I think this is probably where I’m ending up. I’m on 36 at the front, you’re a stronger rider than me, so for the sake of a bit of money on a long day, I think I’d rather have the “get out”. If I switch to a 32 at the back, that’s a whole extra 8rpm at 10kph - 62 v 70 is a big difference between a slow spin and a proper grind. And even on other climbs, a smaller gear is going to help keep the power in check.
The relative ratios are…
11-28T: 11-12-13-14-15-17-19-21-23-25-28T
11-32T: 11-12-13-14-16-18-20-22-25-28-32T
…and that really doesnt feel like I’m losing a huge amount in the middle of the range. It’s effectively a 10sp set of gears, with the added bonus of a “comfort blanket” 32T at the top end.
This is also interesting. Best bike split has me at 5:40 off my optimal power, and even 5:55 at a fairly conservative power, which seemed rather optimistic. Now comparing that to what you rode, it definitely feels it, but BBS is normally rather accurate 
Some key prior examples:
IM Copenhagen - predicted 5:14 off 172w (175NP); actual 5:18 off 163w (167NP)
70.3 Nice - predicted 3:09 off 188w (200NP); actual 3:04 off 183w (205NP)
Outlaw Half - predicted 2:30 off 201w (206NP); actual 2:29 off 197w (205NP)
This is where I found LCW invaluable. You can work all that stuff out 8wks ahead of time (although i think they’ve banned TT bikes now?)
BBS has me at sub-6hrs for IMUK.
It’s not accurate for poor road surfaces and technical stuff.
Fair - I hadn’t put the road surfaces as poor, and changing that takes it to 5:49, so an extra 9 mins, although having said that, the videos I’ve seen of the Wales course don’t look like the roads are too bad at all on the whole.
Technical bits wise, again, I may be wrong, but the bike course doesn’t look too tricky in that regard on the route map. I know things can be different in real life, but it seems like a lot of sweeping bends rather than anything scrubbing all your speed. Nice is a fairly technical descent, and I think that’s largely where I outdid the prediction.
We’ll see I guess. I’m definitely planning for the day to be a bit longer than it’s suggesting.
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I think my times in real life are “slow” for the power I produce. I wonder is this because of power meter discrepancy? I’ve a stages left crank power meter and I’ve read in various places that different power meters can be a significant number of watts different to other power meters. It’s quite difficult to keep momentum at Wales, very start-stop. The crowds and support don’t help with trying to cap your effort…! The final ~10-15 miles of the bike along the coast are very tough and you’ll be glad of the low gears. There is indeed a big difference between 60 and 70rpm. And the marathon is a tough beast as well, you can’t leave it all out there on the bike.
“Bike for show, run for dough” instead I’d say
Bike “slow” then run (the second half) for dough (and show!)
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There’s that drag in Wales - just saps your strength away partic on second lap - it’s a series of slow steady rises just before the descent in to Wisemans. It kills me. The feature climbs themselves are very enjoyable.
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5:43 my IM Wales bike split on 205 av power. (Also Stages LHS only).
Interesting times.
I would have predicted around 6 hours for myself which would be a significant improvement over my 2017 effort.
I’ll snap your hand off for a 5:4* for 185 watts
5:47 off 220W AP / 257W NP
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Nice - think that would be a nice aim for me
Looking at the 2019 results that would be a top 10 M35 bike split time. Cracking weather that year though from memory
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Mine was 2015, so 41 years old.
10th AG split
Reckon I’d have been similar!
Sorry to drop this here lads, but the Cardiff Half - planned for 02/10 - has been pushed forward to March.
That is proper massive though isn’t it. Like 25k runners. I’ve still got a rolled over entry for that for next Autumn.
Fingers crossed for Tenby.
Newport mara surely to follow?
I think it was @joex that mentioned this on another thread, but surely that’s “pushed back”?! Moving something forwards, means bringing it closer to today, at least to me
Also, as GB says, a 25k run race is a very different thing to 2k people, initially swimming which is low risk, and then on a spaced out bike course