Mid Wales is our usual escape destination from the intense pressured life we lead in the Cotswolds, though in all our quarter-century of visits, the area between Aberystwyth and Machynlleth isn’t one we’ve much explored, and even the mountain bike guidebooks don’t have much to say about it. Perhaps this is because of its relative inaccessibility, and visiting cyclists are inclined to be distracted by Radnor Forest, Rhayader and so forth on the way. But it provides a real feast of bridleways and tracks and a thrill of undiscovered remoteness.