The Jon Banks Memorial

I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed an audax so much (and there’s been some stiff competition). Every detail of the Giant’s Tooth 500 was perfectly thought out. The vegan curry at the start was delicious (thank you!), and I appreciated that we went through the busiest parts of South Wales in the dead of night, so had the roads (even the dual carriageways) to ourselves. By the time the sun came up we were riding through beautiful scenery, which we enjoyed for the rest of the ride. I was delighted by the number of 20% (and even 25%) hills Will had managed to squeeze into the route – it seemed absurd at times, that someone could expect us to mange yet another near-vertical gradient, after so many others, and so many hundreds of kilometres, but somehow we made it over all of them, and were glad we had. I loved revisiting some of my favourite roads (especially the one between Tregaron and Abergwesyn), and discovering new ones. And very much enjoyed the camaraderie in the 24-hour Macdonald’s controls. (Worryingly, the food there tasted better and better as the ride wore on.)

A local legend and epic scenery make for a fantastic ride.

It is a tough one make no mistake but well worth having a go. The ride starts in Bristol at night and you head out over the Severn Bridge in dark, once you get beyond Chepstow you start passing through small deserted villages shut up for the night, riding through the night is amazing.

As dawn breaks you’ll be nearing the coast at Fishguard, for me what followed was 4 hours of torrential rain and gail force winds, “character building”, when the sun eventually came out the scenery was amazing.

The view out over Llangrannog (Giants tooth bay) is stunning. You turn inland and ride up over the Devils Staircase, this is where the real hills begin. If you thought it had been hilly before you’re in for a shock. They get bigger and steep from then on in.

Sun sets somewhere around the devils Elbow, after Sennybridge (make sure you have good lights!), the hills keep coming but eventually they relent, you head back over the Severn and into Bristol as a finisher, bowed but not broken by the Giants Tooth!

Well done that’s a great achievement.

Brutal and lovely at the same time!

The ride into Wells is very enjoyable and then across to Bruton to snake up the climb to Alfred’s Tower (its a straight road, but snaking might be advisory!)

The old railway line into Radstock is a delightful relief before the last push back to the start.

All the controls are well appointed with plenty of re-fuelling options.

Very enjoyable all in.

Like others have said, this is a great way to tick off the festive 500 if that’s what you’re interested in but it’s much more than that.

I really enjoyed this one, rode mainly solo and had a couple of sleeps, one in McDonalds Northampton for 15min and then an ‘Audax hotel’ just short of Tewkesbury for 20min.

It took me a few hours longer than I though it would and the headwind back to Bristol was tough after 16 hour period of darkness!

Looking back, I really enjoyed the longer event at this time of year, a new challenge and one which will certainly help with the ultra distance events I’m looking at for this year.

Finally, but most importantly the hospitality, sausage bap and hot drink at the start is a great way to start with all the other mad cyclists there at 5-6am, WhatsApp group to share info and make sure everyone’s safe and then Will looking after everyone so well at the Arrive despite being up to his neck in restoring his home!

See you next year and lets pray for the weather again because this would be a whole different prospect with that to deal with!

A well organised audax with a large group of riders with mixed abilities. Excellent food put on at the controls and breakfast was gratefully received but as mentioned the ride along Bournemouth seafront can be sketchy and will certainly wake you up.

If your looking for a gentle way to break into 300k territory then this is the ride for you.

Lighting for the ride was achieved through two Cateye volt 1300 set at 500 lum and I used two Moon Nebula’s on the rear.