Cheltenham The Vale 100k Permanent Audax (April 2013)

Managed to squeeze one further ride in during the Easter holidays. This ride was a permanent audax entitled 'Cheltenham The Vale 100' and was just over a 100k. I was not the only April Fool to ride this event, my cousin Aid joined me on this adventure. Our route is presented below:

We chose to start this audax from the Alcester control, which meant we had to cycle about an extra 16k or so because we started from my parents house in Studley. Aid chose to ride his Specialized Roubaix, whereas my weapon of choice was my single speed bike 'Florence'.

Reaching the first major control in Broadway was no real bother. We cycled some tasty descents during this section and only 1 menace short sharp climb. I spooked a runner as I shot past him just before Bidford.

From Broadway we cycled to Winchcombe. The rides through Stanton and Stanway were very lanesy and this was such a pretty area. We even witnessed a steam train (billowing steam) steam along. Nice.

From Winchcombe we had Cleeve Hill to climb. Cleeve Hill was not the biggest of climbs but enough of a climb to get us out of puff before the summit. The 'Hunters Breakfast' we had in Broadway was weighing heavy in our stomachs. After the climb came a fast descent which took us to Cheltenham. So fast was this descent that if I had not had braked I would have hit the caravan in front of me. Zoomy!

The route from Cheltenham to Pershore was familiar - I had cycled much of this last week when I rode that RRPCC route I stole. There were numerous errors on the route sheet we were following but I had cycled this before so no mistakes were made. Some might say I should have informed the organiser, paralysis of will will most probably have prevented this.

The route from Pershore to Alcester was a bit of a push. I think Aid had started to feel tired, hungry and a bit sick. This is not unusual when one has not cycled for a number of weeks then goes out on a relatively long run. Thankfully, Aid wasn't sick and we stopped briefly at the Alcester control for a bite of chocolate. This chocolate provided us with the necessary energy to get back to Studley. Woo hoo, job done! We cycled a total of 123k. Sweet.