Can I ride a 200km Audax 12 months in a row? Ride #1

I need to get less fat.

There are many learnings from Saturday’s Ultimate Gospel Pass Audax, but that’s the main one, really. Back when I was staying in third cat races a few years back I was down to about 91kg, but now I’m well into three figures again, after telling myself I’d never let that happen. I’m not angry, just disappointed. I’m never going to fly up the hills but heck, that was hard work.

After finally completing a Super Randonneur series last year (200km, 300km, 400km and 600km audaxes in one year) I thought I’d give Randonneur Round the Year a go, because that’s another way to work very hard for a cloth-based reward: a 200km Audax ride, every month, for 12 consecutive months. You don’t have to start in January, so I didn’t, which feels like the right move now but definitely won’t should I make it to February next year with my run intact. We can worry about that later though.

> What is Audax? A simple guide to the world of long distance riding

Dave Audax RRTY 1-1 (credit: Dave Atkinson)

All the rides have to be ratified with Audax UK, which for the uninitiated means provably doing a certain distance in less than a certain maximum time. There’s a minimum time too, but that’s more of a conceptual thing for the likes of me. You can go and ride one on your own and submit your GPX, but for the first one I thought I’d do a calendar ride, with other riders, and checkpoints, and a sausage sandwich at the start. The Ultimate Gospel Pass is a new ride, organised by the excellent Kevin Daffey of Chepstow Cycling Club, and takes in not only the Gospel Pass, at 548m the highest paved road in Wales, but also the Tumble, up the Blorenge on the other side of Abergavenny. And the Wentwood Climb out of Usk. And Grosmont. And Painscastle. And… well, you get the picture. It’s lumpy.

Dave Audax RRTY 1-2 (credit: Dave Atkinson)

A big group towed us on the flattish run to Monmouth, and the first two hours were on familiar roads from the Bryan Chapman 600k last year albeit ridden in the other direction. The climb up and over to Hay-on-Wye was a ramps-and-flats affair, and the reward a sinuous descent punctuated only by an excavator in the middle of the road on the fastest stretch. As soon as we were over the bridge it was back to the climbing before dropping down to Erwood and a lunch stop just before half distance. Panini and crisps (not the Korean chicken burger Jez was craving) and then it was on the Gospel. 

Dave Audax RRTY 1-13 (credit: Jez Ash)

I’m on record as saying I like the Gospel Pass climb. I didn’t like it on Saturday. The first reason for that I touched on right at the start. Also, the wind which was benign for the most part turned up enthusiastically on the exposed climb, and also for the descent, which rendered it a lot less fun than it normally is. But mostly, the route up to the pass: there are a few options, but surely none more steep and punishing than the one we were treated to. It managed to be both longer and steeper than the normal route from the center of Hay-on-Wye, which shouldn’t be possible, but somehow was. There was one particularly savage bit that I had to walk, which was a low moment. But even though I felt like I was getting a kicking, there’s no denying that the views are worth the climb. And also a reason to stop.

Dave Audax RRTY 1-15 (credit: Jez Ash)

After restorative scones round a friend’s house in Abergavenny, and a lap of the town while I went back to get my helmet that I’d forgotten, it was on to the Tumble, in fading daylight. The Hammerhead helpfully let me know that although it’s not as high as the Gospel Pass at 512m, the actual height gain of 468m from the Abergavenny Bridge is exactly the same. Aside from that the two climbs couldn’t be more different. The Gospel is all ramps and flats and quiet lanes, the Tumble a merciless 10% slog up a fast B-road. It’s unpleasant in ways that are both different and the same, all at the same time. The views aren’t as good, but I stopped anyway, for a look at them.

We made good time into Usk, which can only be explained by a tailwind, and even caught some other riders – the first we’d seen since the top of the Gospel – before watching them blink away into the night once again on the climb over to Caerwent, at which point I was fully over the whole experience and just wanted to be finished. Before that, though, a lovely final drag along the A48 up a couple of completely unwelcome final climbs before dropping back into Chepstow, fully broken, nearly 13 hours after we left, an hour later than even my reasonably conservative spreadsheet timings had suggested was likely and an hour and a half before the organisers started packing up the Arrivée at the pub. Ray’s diner was still open though, so Jez did get his Korean chicken burger, in the end. It might have been the circumstances, but I can’t remember anything tasting better.

Next up: April, and Barry’s Bristol Butt Buster which I’ve done many times, and shouldn’t really hold any surprises. I’ll back myself to get round that in less of a mess than Saturday, and I’ll try and lose a few kilos before the start too, not least so I can try and put them back on at the Hill Women’s Institute cake stop.

211km / 3,646m / 12h53m

https://www.strava.com/activities/13827547130

Thanks to Jez for towing me round. Here's a shot of him doing a wheelie on the Gospel Pass which is more impressive as a still than it would have been as a video.

Dave Audax RRTY 1-7 (credit: Dave Atkinson)