PEOPLE, EVENTS AND RIDES
Breaking bones at the Phillip Island Classic, riding in Almeria Spain…
Rhayader is half-an-hour from the border along the A44 – itself a fantastic ride. A clock tower stands in the town centre on an awkward staggered crossroads – just ask any lorry driver. There’s room to park here and we advise popping into Ty Morgans bistro for coffee and cake before setting off.
There are two ways of getting to Devil’s Bridge Falls from Rhayader. You can take the A470, which arcs north along the river Wye then becomes the A44 again, passing Sweet Lamb Adventure Bike Academy (worth booking if you’re on an adventure bike).
But the real treat is the B4574, turning right off the B4518 west out of town. The road is signposted ‘Aberystwyth mountain road’ – but that doesn’t do it justice. The first few miles are fairly ordinary but soon the hills begin to rise ahead in the distance, and the road steadily rises to meet them. A final funnel of trees and you burst into dramatic scenery – running up a hillside on a strip of Armco-lined tarmac, and ferns with a river frothing and bubbling in the valley below. The climb continues across the hilltops, where the landscape becomes open, windswept moorland. It’s a sudden shift in scenery – but it’s not the last. And mind the cows wandering about. Just after a bike-friendly byway on the right (which takes you back down to Rhayader off-road, if you fancy it) the B4574 begins to drop down again, winding past a series of crazy hairpins on the left – another classy ride, taking you on a scenic loop past the Elan valley reservoirs. But we’re heading straight on, over cattle grids and down alongside the river as it winds and snakes into the distance, past old mining ruins and remote farm houses.
With the river now on our right, we climb again, the road narrowing and becoming a rollercoaster ride of twists and turns. Its character changes yet again, there are farm cottages, camp sites and trees lining the roads. And then it switches again to an almost Alpine flavour – smooth, black tarmac lined with conifer plantations and a stone arch at a picnic site.
The final run down to Devil’s Bridge Falls – a popular viewing spot – is a quick dart along another wooded section, emerging at the Hafod hotel, a fab place to book a room for the night. The B4574: not bad for a 20-mile stretch of road.
‘We’re heading alongside the river as it winds and snakes into the distance, past old mining ruins’