The Jon Banks Memorial

The route takes some quiet roads south through some beautiful hills. The only issue is that the road surfaces are sometimes bad, or even very bad, and there was still lots of water on some of them despite it not having rained for 2 weeks. The organisation was spot on.

Another cracking route and event organised by Will. Weather was also well managed although I was over dressed. Lots of challenging Wills Hills and new roads to me.

Well done Will. What an epic event chap. A hard ride but ultimately rewarding.

Many Thanks Si

With only 2x300Km under my belt and only been riding for 3 years I was a bit nervous of tackling this 510Km in middle of winter but I like the cold so though hell sign up give it a go, my motto is always push yourself you’ll be surprised. I chose to start the ride 10Km from where I live near Henlow on route which was just under half way from the start. It was a still cold grey day. It was also my first ride on the new saddle! Madness you should say but the brooks cambium C15 cutout was fab no complaints. Nice easy flat ride to Cambridge and St Ives just as it got dark. Getting very cold it was hovering about 3 deg C glad I had prepared with lots of layers. I took it real easy with no idea if I could ride this distance in one go let alone make the time. Colder and darker it got through familiar roads to Northampton and then the fog hit. With visibility only about 10 meters it was a slow ride through to Tewksbury and a welcome 1hr sleep was taken somewhere in the Cotswolds at a very clean bus stop. At this point I was way behind schedule and headed for Bristol via fast roads for breakfast at Will’s I hoped for 8:30am but arrived somewhere around 10:45am with very tired legs. Leaving Bristol I was thinking no way I can do another 170Km before the time limit so said hell to the pacing and went as hard as I could. Swindon and Oxford passed, Oxford was very pretty with the Christmas lights. A few busy roads here and there but pushed on as fast as I could, legs starting to tire. Finally I arrived where i started and stopped the Garmin wondering did I do it. In summary the Christmas lights were great it, be prepared for a lot of darkness 4pm through to 7am. Doing it at a different start time meant a lot of the scenic parts were pitch black and I hit a lot of busy traffic when I should not have. Lots of garages and stops to refuel on route. But amazing route taking in many counties and scenic townsvillages highly recommended. Took a few days to sink in I’d done 528Km in one go, but now very chuffed and looking back on it thoroughly enjoyed it. And yes I did make it my Brevet card arrived back today, I have 1min 30 seconds to spare! thank god I sprinted the last 3km. LEL next I just got a place = gulp. Oh watch out for the cows they don’t move out the way! thx again Will for organising.

Cracking ride, great route, fantastic organisation, first introduction to Audax, great experience, nice to meet Will. Thanks for the coffee and cake at the end, was pretty spent by then, got me through the ride home to Clevedon. Thanks