We welcomed the support of the club President who joined us at 7am to start out from Gloucester and gave us words of encouragement on the first section of our journey. He turned back at Huntley to make a family commitment and wished us well. From there, just three ambitious riders continued. We came upon some easy climbing, through a nice cool forest. Emerging into glorious sunshine, we did however start to feel the effects of the extremely high humidity and were sweating profusely while gathering quite a large collection of small flies on any exposed skin.
Starting so early meant that we had the main roads practically to ourselves, and a great feeling of freedom as we continued to fly over rolling hills. This rider was careful to pace herself as much as possible, knowing the mountain pass was still to come. At around 29 miles out from Gloucester city centre, a short stop was taken to refill water bottles and consume some nourishment at a well-stocked garage with much appreciated services.
Just before passing a sign up to the right for “Arthur’s Stone”, we could see the black mountains on the horizon, looming behind lush green hillside. On reaching Hay on Wye, just over the Welsh border, we spotted a dragon statue on the left. It was just past eleven, with around 50 miles completed, and we put in orders for breakfast at the Granary.
With full stomachs we started the climb up to Gospel pass, taking it very steadily. Our ride leader had pre-warned us about the hardest, steepest section of the long climb. This was a cattle grid followed by a twisting steep section, After already having climbed a long way it did indeed prove to be quite challenging. The sun was hot and there was hardly any breeze. As we reached the first real plateau, we saw the top was overcast and provided some cooler conditions to finish the rolling climb that finished by curving around to the left between two peaks. The views of the Welsh countryside were breathtaking even so.
From that highest point of the road, a long and winding descent began, on a narrow road with a lot of gravel in places. Great care was taken to go at a safe speed. Making headway towards Abergavenny we decided to try and find a pub there for some much-needed cold bubbly beverages. The best we could find at short notice in the town centre was a Wetherspoons, but we were truly thankful for a sit down to discuss which route we would take home to Gloucester. After some lengthy deliberation it was decided we would cross the Severn bridge and take the lowlands route North.
As we took in some beautiful views of farmland through Usk, we began a gentle climb up to Chepstow. This felt tough as by this point we had almost cycled 100 miles since the early morning. The heavens decided to open with some welcome light showers, only for a short time. We were finally drying off as we came to the start of the Severn bridge and enjoyed a lovely gentle crossing.
Stopping at a nice pub just before Thornbury for another beer, we then decided to quickly grab some pizza before making our way home as fast as possible on a deserted A38 before sunset. Approaching Gloucester we saw very dark clouds and noticed the road was very wet, we had undoubtedly just missed some heavy showers.
After almost 11 hours of riding and over 130 miles covered, it was a true adventure!