George’s Delightful Roads 160

My first 100 mile Audax, in fact my first ever Audax. Will is a great organiser, the route he has developed was great but also challenging for me. George’s Delightful climb is a beast, unfortunately for me my old injury came to haunt me over the last 40km but we soldiered on. I came in last but a good hour before cutoff so I was happy.

A great route, great organisation next year I will have trained harder and got rid of my old injury as I aim for the 200.

I rode this in December 2018. It’s a well organised ride with a higher number of stops than you might usually expect (four, with two of them ‘free’ controls). This makes it much more of a day out than a race round, but I felt was a real help given the colder conditions. Basically riding a couple of hours between each stop. Some challenging climbs, and be prepared for messy winter lanes. Great fun!

Was lucky enough to ride this as a route check/change with the organiser. The route heads anti-clockwise from Bristol into Wiltshire and the stunning Lacock Abbey before climbing Northwards over the Cotswolds, with a new diversion at Stroud giving a lovely view behind you as you crest the not insubstantial climb.

After crossing the Severn at Gloucester, you pass over the Northern tip of the Forest of Dean before hitting the Wye Valley, with a stunning view of Goodrich Castle to your right.

Hitting the infamous George’s Delight climb at dusk around 170km into a relatively hilly ride is definitely interesting. It’s narrow, so you can’t weave, and the steepest parts are tree-covered, meaning it stays damp and debris-strewn at that time of year. Add in a nicely rutted surface and you have a pretty serious test. In the end the fact it was dark might help slightly as you don’t know when it’s going to end!

The next section back to Chepstow is an old favourite and with the tunnel vision of night riding and barely another car on the road it felt fast and amazing – almost like flying.

Crossing the Severn Bridge in the dark is always fun, less so the final punchy climb back up to Bristol. A great and varied/interesting winter loop!

Plenty of parking available at the start. An excellent and interesting winter ride, the bakery at Leycock has an excellent choice of savories and cakes with an “outhouse” seating area complete with fire.

The views from Bowden hill are worth taking a moment to enjoy. Malmesbury has a good choice of cafes or try Hobbs house bakery and a picnic in the market cross. Easy run back to the finish at the White Lion which serves an excellent pint of IPA.