400k audax: London-Wales-London

Location: Chalfont Saint Peter, UK

The event couldn't have gone any better, to be honest! There were around 110 starters, with three from Iceni Velo, and we set off individually between 5:30 and 6:00. Despite a chilly start (below -3℃ according to my Garmin), the weather was perfect: overcast with the odd bit of sun, and not any sight of rain. In fact, the roads were all dry, which is the only good thing that could be said about them! Really rough, potholes all over the place, even on the odd bits of main road that we rode on. A couple of really nice bits of road though were the descents into Chepstow (in Wales) and Lambourn.

I caught up with my clubmates (Mike and James) shortly before the first control. I rode on ahead, and we were reunited briefly at the control just as I was leaving. They were opting for an early hours finish, unlike my plan to squeeze it into one day, so that was the last time I saw them. In fact, I saw hardly any other Audaxers after the first control!

After a brief foray into Wales I enjoyed a sunny, windless crossing on the Severn Bridge back into England.

Here's my ride on Strava. I plotted the route on Strava, and augmented it with useful information on my routes.fun site. The Iceni Velo crew also used the routes.fun dotwatcher so that friends & family could keep track of our progress.

View the event info page

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