140km with over 2000m of climbing

Starting from Monmouth on the Welsh border this is probably not an area you would think of as being very hilly but this was certainly a tough day out with very few flat sections.

We had decided to ride together which meant we needed to get in under 6 hours for Darrell to get his gold standard (it was an extra half hour for me). We reckoned we needed to average about 23km an hour and not stop for too long to achieve this. We teamed up with a couple of others and at around 100k we still had an average of 27kph - 6 hours, no problem!!

From 100k either the hills were getting steeper and more of them or I was just getting tired as I started to drop of the back. Darrell kindly waited for me while I watched our average dropping as Itwiddled my way up the hills. I kept suggesting that Darrell should just go for it and leave me to die in peace but after the final 1in 4 up Symonds Yat it was a swift downhill to the finish (add 3 minutes for a wrong turning in the park in Monmouth!) and we made it in 5hrs 33.

If you ever do this event it is worth studying the map in advance! It was really well marked but it does 3 loops never more than 20 miles from Monmouth and it was good to have an idea more or less off which part of the course you were on. There was a feed station at 50 and 70 miles which wasn't quite up to the array of goodies usually availabe in France (Darrell looked particularly unimpressed with his cereal bar that said "only 90 calories", and i decided i hadn't got time to actually peel an orange half way through an event!) however the marshalls were a jolly bunch and Ienjoyed getting off the bike for a couple of minutes!

NEXT TIME i would go for a later start as there were times when we were on our own, it would have been nice to see a few other people struggling on the hills instead of just watching Darrell cruising up them effortlessly! I would also do it on my new bike even if rain was forecast! There certainly weren't many steel frames and definitely no mudguards!

All in all i would thoroughly reccomend this event, it's a lovely area with some great scenery and mostly on quiet roads based around the pretty town of Monmouth, but make sure you've got the gears for it or you'll regret it by the time you get to Symonds Yat!