The Jon Banks Memorial

I completed this event as my first over night Audax. The route is very well planned to keep you on good but not busy roads through the night. Controls are well situated to allow you to feed up at nice intervals.

The breakfast stop is great and for me was at just the right timing to have a break to see me into the morning daylight.

The return uses smaller quieter roads and the old railway path that keep you away from the traffic for an enjoyable return.

I thoroughly enjoyed this fabulous ride.

Point to note: ALL the GWR rides I’ve taken part in have been brilliant.

Beautiful route, with huge variety in scenery and type of road …..and an entertaining amount of sharp climbs.

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!

Great weather conditions contributed to making this another classic GWR route, spinning out mostly solo over the Cotswolds before jumping on the ACB train up through the first control at Brockworth. I stopped for a decent lunch in Tenbury Wells, knowing that the ascent of Clee Hill was coming up. In fact it looked a lot worse from a distance than in reality, with nothing crazy steep, and the view from the top more than makes it worthwhile. At Leominster I caught back up with the ACB group from the morning, and shared some great miles through some lovely lanes to the final checkpoint, before the brutal Symonds Yat climb. Tough at the best of times, but especially so after a punchy 250km. All in all a great ride, and really good for a first 300 IMO.

This was my first 300km Audax and my first overnight ride. I planned to go easy but got carried away through Devizes with a fast group and ended up doing my fastest 200 as a result! Really great stretch of fast road that can be a bit too busy for my liking in daylight hours, so it was amazing to blast through there with only the occasional owl for company. The beach hut at Poole was a great chance to avoid a squally shower, feed up, change layers and push on to sunrise, which happened in a lovely section of country lanes. Daal at the arrivée was the icing on a rather lovely cake. Missed the second edition but I will be back!