Cycling Brecon Beacons: the essentials

What’s special about cycling in the Brecon Beacons?

Whether you want steep climbs, long and scenic routes or a family cycling holiday, the Brecon Beacons has it all.

One of the main attractions for serious road cyclists in the Brecon Beacons is The Tumble. It’s one of the most notorious cycling climbs in South Wales. At 6km in length and with a gradient of over 10%, you’ll need to take it slow and steady to complete this epic climb up the Blorenge mountain.

Other great climbs to challenge yourself with include the Devil’s Elbow, Black Mountain and Gospel Pass. It’s also worth knowing that two long-distance National Cycle Routes run through the Brecon Beacons – the Taff Trail and Lôn Las Cymru.

This area is also home to lots of sportives and cycling events. There’s more info below.

But above and beyond all of this, one of the joys of cycling in Wales is that there’s such a vast netowrk of tiny roads to explore. To give you an idea, the country has 21,000 miles of roads and 60% are unclassified roads – i.e. the narrow, rural kind that we cyclists love.

Where is the Brecon Beacons National Park?

The Brecon Beacons is one of three national parks in Wales. It’s located in South Wales, just west of Herefordshire and covers an area of 1,344 square kilometres.

At the centre of the national park is the Brecon Beacons mountain range which includes Pan Y Fen – the highest mountain in South Wales.  To the west of the national park is the Black Mountain and to the east are the very similarly named, but quite distinct, Black Mountains. You’ll understand why the two are often confused!

Brecon Beacons cycle routes

The Brecon Beacons is undoubtedly popular with mountain bikers. However, it does offer plenty of paved climbs for us roadies to get our teeth into as well.

Here are three ideas for Brecon Beacons cycle routes that take in some of the main climbs.

You might also want to consider a challenge ride across the Brecon Beacons from Landeilo to Abergavenney.

Note: As this is an “essentials” guide, we don’t go into much detail on the routes. In future we hope to have the opportunity to build on this and provide the kind of detail you see in our other destination guides. More info above!

 

 

Note March 2022: A reader has kindly got in touch to say “We did the Brecons 3 Peaks Loop at the weekend which was great.” However “the bridge at Gilwern is closed and doesn’t look like it’s re-opening any time soon, in case you weren’t aware. I’m not certain, but looks like the only way round it is doing a dog-leg out to Crickhowell and crossing the river there. It adds quite a bit to the route and the A40 isn’t a very nice road to ride on.” If you’re considering this route, it’s worth looking into this before you set out!

 

 

Family friendly cycling routes in the Brecon Beacons

If you’re travelling with children, you’ll find a number of family-friendly cycling routes in the Brecon Beacons.

The Brecon and Monmouth Canal towpath is a great seven-mile traffic-free route that kids of all ages will love. There is also a circular five-mile cycling and walking trail around the Usk Reservoir.

For something slightly hillier, the Garwnant Forest Trails offer a lovely five-mile woodland ride with a play area and cycle skills course.

Another great ride for kids is from Talybont Reservoir to Torpantau and back. This ride is five-and-a-half miles each way, with a long steady climb on the way there are fun free-wheeling all the way back.

Brecon Beacons road cycling events

The Brecon Beacons are at the heart of many South Wales cycling events and sportives.

Dragon Ride

Wales’ Dragon Ride is one of the oldest, and toughest, sportives in the UK. Entrants have a choice of four routes ranging from 98km to 298km. The toughest route is the infamous Devil, which is certainly not for the faint-hearted with almost 5,000 metres of elevation gain! (It also made it to our list of the best UK sportives!). Find out more about the Dragon Ride, here.

Everesting Challenge

For those who haven’t heard of it, ‘Everesting’ involves riding the cumulative height of Mount Everest – 8,828 metres. This particular everesting challenge is done over two days in an epic event which involves no fewer than fifteen peaks in the Brecon Beacons and South Wales region.

Abergavenny Festival of Cycling

This annual cycling event is made up of three races – the Iron Mountain Sportif, the Wales Open Criterium and the Monmouthshire Junior Grand Prix.

Brecon Beacons Devil Sportive

This hilly challenge has a choice of 83km, 114km or 213km routes packed with twisting mountains roads through the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Velothon Wales

Sadly, 2018 was the last year this popular, 140km closed-road event was held. Based from Cardiff city centre it went into the Brecon Beacons and ran for just four years.

 

Where to stay in the Brecon Beacons

We’ve listed some great bases in the Breacons for you to stay. You could even consider hiring a camper van (with bike storage of course) and doing a mini tour!

Hay on Wye

The small market town of Hay-on-Wye is located on the Welsh border, at the north-east corner of the Brecon Beacons National Park, close to the Black Mountains and on National Cycle Route 42.  The town is famed for its many book shops as well as the Hay Festival, an annual ten-day literature festival. If you want cycle hire in Wales, there’s a great little bike shop for that (more info below).

Abergavenny

Known as the cycling capital of Wales, Abergavenny is located at the south-east corner of the Brecon Beacons National Park. This small town is positioned close to The Tumble, on the intersection of National Cycle Routes 42 and 46. Each year, the town hosts the Abergavenny Festival of Cycling which draws big crowds.

Brecon

The picturesque rural town of Brecon is a great place for families to stay as it’s close to the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal.  It’s also just five miles from Pen Y Fan and the rest of the Brecon Beacons mountains.

Brecon Beacons bike hire

Whilst the Brecon Beacons has many bike shops, these tend to focus on mountain bikes and so options for road bike hire are limited.
If you’re looking for road bike hire in the Brecon Beacons your best bet is Drover Cycles in Hay on Wye. If you’re in need of parts or repairs, then we’d head to Gateway Cycles bike shop in Abergavenny.

Here’s a full list of bike hire shops in the Brecon Beacons:

Tips for riding in the Brecon Beacons

We wrote these tips for cycling in the Yorkshire Dales – but they’re also worth a read before cycling the Brecon Beacons!

The weather in the UK (and especially the Brecon Beacons) is notoriously changeable so it always pays to pack lots of layers. There are hills aplenty so you’ll need to be able to cool off for the climbs as well as having a waterproof jacket handy.

Many of the climbs in South Wales are long and steady so you’ll need to pace yourself to make sure the legs don’t pack up part-way up.

The Brecon Beacons is a very rural area so if you plan on stopping at a café for lunch, be sure to plan this into your route rather than relying on passing one, as they may be few and far between.

Bear in mind that Wales is bilingual; around 30% of the population speak Welsh as a first language (though everyone in Wales speaks English). Expect to see all of the place names and road signs in both Welsh and English.

There are more sheep than people in Wales, so take care when on the roads!

Be ready to see dogs around too – especially if you’re approaching farm buildings. Often speaking gently to a dog first can help and may do the trick in calming it. However, if it seems to be aggressive, we’ve found shouting a strict order like “stay” in a deep, confident voice will tell it who’s boss. Sound like you’re in charge and it should avoid any situations where you find yourself being chased down the road by an angry animal…

How to get to the Brecon Beacons

Given how rural the Brecon Beacons are, the easiest option will be almost certainly to travel by car.

If you prefer to use public transport, you can get to Abergavenny on the train quite easily from much of the UK. There’s lots of cyclist-friendly holiday accommodation here and it’s an excellent base from which to explore.

Nearest train stations (to Abergavenny):

Hourly trains on the Cardiff to Manchester route (change at Newport from the south of England or the Midlands)

Nearest airports (to Abergavenny):

Useful books and maps

What’s next?!

North Wales is another wonderful region for cycling – check out this article with tips for cycling Snowdonia and North Wales.

Want info about other UK cycling destinations? Head to our UK cycling page here which has links to loads of articles on other UK destinations.

You might also be interested in our pick of the best regions of the UK for a cycling holiday and the best UK sportives.