Day two of the five day Epic Cymru stage race continued yesterday in Wales with a day packed full of long climbs and big grins.

The Epic Cymru is a brand new five day stage race that takes in some of the best riding that Wales has to offer. The race covers 217 km of riding with 13 timed stages – Think of it like the Mavic Trans-Provence, but with an added chance of rain.

Yesterday’s stage took in 55km of riding and 1,500 metres of climbing, making it the toughest day of the whole event. It looks like the riders still had a great time though, especially on the final decent into Dare Valley Country Park that will be their base for the next two days.

The race started with a timed prologue on Saturday and is decided on timed stages every dayy. The stages take between 15 minutes and half an hour to complete so fitness and bike maintenance as well as technical skills are all needed to do well in this tough race.

The race initially had to be re-routed due to sheep herding, but it seems like the organisers have overcome that teething issue and have planned a cracking event for all the competitors.

The current leaders of the overall competition are Jason Moeschler and Nicoletta de Jager. There is also a separate competition for the downhill sections, the current leaders of this competition are Robert Williams and Sophie Hemming. There are still 95 km of riding still to cover though, so expect this to all change before the event is over.