The weather forecast was 90% likelihood of torrential rain but the reality was 5 minutes wet and two hours of sunshine. Took the longer route of Abergavenny, Brecon, Builth Wells, Rhayader, Llanidloes to miss the Hereford traffic. Nice.
Debs had already arrived at our usual spot near the showers at Llanidloes Rugby Club, so it was time to check out the bands. Ty Gwyn were co-sponsoring the event, so a couple of Festival Ferrets were downed and out came the tequila chasers. The Suffragettes did some good covers and Aziz Ibrahim (Stone Roses, Simply Red & Hot Chocolate) did his usual blistering solo set...
Our usual place
Our session cider
Aziz Ibrahim
Next morning (Friday) was threatening rain, but 120 riders set out for Nick Sanders' first ride-out, south west to Abergwesyn Pass - a lovely route. The first hour-ish was dry but is started spitting at the pit-stop high in the mountains. The Continental van had driven ahead and doled out as much free coffee, tea, croissants and cake as we could consume.
The next three hours were a lot rainier, so at least some of the country lane muck was washed off...
Pit-stop
Not so pristine now...
Abergwesyn Pass
That night it was Tom Hill's 70s JazzFunk Machine headlining: superb live even if jazz isn't your thing. There was a severe storm at 2.30am but luckily we were still up (home-made damson vodka now in the mix) so retracted the awning and let the rain carry on cleaning the Bonnie.
After the deluge
Room with a view
The next day an MCN journalist joined the ride-out, so expect his article in this Wednesday's MCN. However Debs and I waited until the afternoon and did a solo trip into Machynlleth via the gorgeous narrow mountain pass: short but very sweet
Tacla and The Kows were the bands that impressed on Saturday night; we were starting to flag a bit through lack of sleep but saw some of the fire circus entertainment after the final band.
The route home was enlivened by meeting Radar in Ludlow and yet again only finding 5 minutes of rain and the rest was sunshine. Really getting used to the Bonnie now - it has officially knocked the old 3TA off the perch and is now my favourite bike ever.
Good workhorse
Ready to ride round the world....
This was our fourth Mach Festival (Machs 2.5, 3, 3.5 & now 4) - we now have new friends met there and a regular fixture in the diary. Kudos to Nick Sanders, his wife Caroline and the whole team - it's a great bash!
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