Cwm Rhaedr Redux

I've been threatening to do this for a while now, and here it actually is: a selection of offcuts and alternative edits from MBR magazine's Cwm Rhaedr Local Knowledge article.

This was a bit of an epic. It was a late night at the Rouleur Photo Annual launch party (leaving at around 12:30am, when I had to pick up MBR's senior staff writerAndy Waterman at 7am to make the long drive to Wales. This took around 5 hours, with the time behind the wheel ably aided by listening to Richard Herring's As It Occurs To Me podcasts.

I've mentioned the riding at Cwm Rhaedr in a previous post, but just in case you didn't: go there. This place is awesome. It's really short at just under 7km, but the descent is something you can keep coming back to. Admittedly it's not particularly challenging, but it is unbelievably fun. The drive back took a mere four hours, and we got home at around 9pm. Still, Wales and back in a day for 3 hours shooting is enough for any man. Anyway, on to the photos.

This is something I'd love to go back to with plenty of time and plenty of lighting. It was like something out of Lord of The Rings up there. This was run in black and white in the mag.

This perfectly crafted berm was on the descent and could be hit with some serious speed.

This wasn't exactly part of the trail, but we stopped off for the photo op. Strangely, I think this photo suits black and white as much as it suits colour.

This was at the beginning of the fun part of the climb when the dull fireroad ends and the fun slate singletrack hairpins begin. It'd be great to shoot this on a clear day with a tilt/shift lens, as there's a great waterfall behind those clouds.


I shot this specifically for the red ferns, but it was run in black and white.

So there you have it. In other news, it seems like my ankle is still a little on the shagged side, so it's off to A&E bright and early to make sure I haven't done any real lasting damage. Also, the Tour of Qatar's off, and it's looking like the Etoile De Besseges is in, that's in a couple of weeks time, but the cyclocross is this weekend, so look out for a post from that.