Just got home after the "mini" route.

Talk about an eventful 70 miles!

Fell over on the first climb when attempting to overtake someone - caigt the edge, lost momentum, one foot unclipped but other wouldn't play along and down I went! Took a full 3 minutes to re-mount as it was so bloody steep! Lost my riding partner at this point and later found that she has also fallen off at the same point! Muppetry in motion.

Made slow but steady progress down to Llangollen, and up to World's End, but then the rains came. Received a text from the missus checking I was ok, and stupidly attempted to respond on the move. Looked up, saw a zig zag bend that I was far too late to make. Some super human bike handling skills (pure luck) saw me fly down 20 ft of boulders, rubble and other assorted junk emerging with open mouthed confusion and relief on the right road at the bottom!!

In the process of bumping over terrain that a MTB would struggle with, I accidentally sent my text and held on to the phone throughout! Genius or idiocy - I think I know the answer to that one

Started to really come down as I climbed over Rhosesmor and all the way over Moel Arthur. The descent down to the second feed station was horrendous - couldn't see a thing through the rain, brakes were completely ineffective, and a ridiculously fast descent through narrow winding roads. It was not fun. And my computer stopped working in the deluge.

Didn't take on any food at the 2nd station thinking I was only 5 miles from home, but a revised route took the mini participants off to Denbigh and then back to Ruthin - 9 hard miles despite the relatively easy roads.

I saw a few people bound for the mega route considering cutting it short and then split off - I don't blame them, hats off to anyone ding the full 140 miles!

I found local knowledge prevented me making any directional mistakes, but I heard a lot of people saying they'd found the small arrows difficult to spot at times. Apart from that, the mini route organisation was really good with excellent start and end point arrangements and friendly helpful marshalling.

Impressed with myself for completing the course after 10 months of cyling, and impressed with my first Sportive.