Spend a day at the sales, whilst out on your bike. Route specifically chosen for potential winter conditions. Hot & cold food/drink available at all controls, just in case the day's a bit on the chilly side.
The first stage heads north from Tewkesbury along Worcestershire lanes for a breakfast stop at Rowberry's Nursery. Then quiet rural roads through 'Shakespear's County' and lunch at M40 services (Warwick South). The rest of the ride is spent in the Cotswolds with an afternoon stop at The Old Mill Cafe in Chipping Norton. after a few more undulations the final part of enjoying The Cotswolds is descending Soudley hill to Winchcombe - The ancient capital of Mercia. The final dozen kilometers are a gentle traverse across The Severn Vale back to Tha Royal Hop Pole in Tewkesbury, where Mr. Pickwick drank too much ale.
For consistancey routesheet/track files supplied on this event page.
Paypal entry available.
I don't know how so much cycling entertainment can be crammed-into one ride for only a pound.
if you use GPS - route/track files supplied. Routesheet also supplied electronicly (MS Xls) - so no need for route-return SAE.
The controls are aware of - and are looking forward to your visit, so please support them by buying something, because without their support - events would not happen.
At this time of year, the temperature a likely to be quite low - so please do not compromise yourself by not eating. The controls are fairly evenly spaced - and on some stages you're unlikely to find establishments to buy snacks between controls. This ride probably requires cyclists to snack at the controls, rather than eat huge ammounts at the first - and then bounce every control aftrwards. Cyclists have tried this, and afterwards commented that they made a mistake in adopting this option. You have been made aware.
The ride is due to start promptly at 7:00 a.m. from the Gloucester Road carpark,
We're now in GMT, you will probably need lights for the first half hour (or so) of the ride, and again for the latter part of the day.
As for B&Bs in the area, it is probably best that you use Google to search for your requirements, Or try Tewkesbury Tourist information centrehttp://www.outofthehat.org.uk/,
There's both Premier Innhttp://www.premierinn.com/en/hotel/TEWBRE/tewkesburyand Travelodgehttp://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/401/Tewkesbury-hotel both about a mile from the start, (both on M5J9),
The JD Wetherspoon (also the arrivee) in the centre of Tewkesbury is also a hotelhttp://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/hotels/the-royal-hop-pole
For the campers, there's a camp site 10 - 15 minutes from the start, quite a few cyclists have used it in the past - and have rated quite highly.
http://www.croftfarmleisure.co.uk/ Please be aware that we're well into the winter season, so although they will be open, the site may look a little derelict.
Good weather has once again been ordered for the day, hopefully this will enable us all to take-in the marvelous views throughout the day,
For the technophiles amongst us the event page athttp://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/14-395/ has zipped "gpx routes" of the ride. 20111210a, b,c,d & e (.GPX) are the individual stages of the ride. And 20111210.gpx is the entire route. These files are the same as last year's - and have last year's date reference, but please don't panic - the route is the same as last year's.
Please note these has been generated with maximum definition for profiling purposes. And as such probably has too many track points for most GPS units, it is a relatively simple task to reduce this to a number suitable for your unit. First of all, save the file attached to your hard drive. You then need to go to the Bikehike website (other sites may also offer this service). And once on the create route page, upload the file. Once uploaded, click on the options box, and enter the number of points you wish to reduce to. Then click reduce, you can then down load this file to your hard drive and then to your GPS, I don't think it's possible to download direct to your GPS from the web site with some of the older GPS units - as for the modern units, I can't comment.
The bikehike site also has features which enables :- Simultaneous course creation on Google and Ordnance Survey maps. Upload and download of routes to and from GPS units (GPX, TCX, KML and TRL formats). Upload & download directly to a Garmin GPS unit using the Garmin Communicator Plugin. Interactive elevation profile - hover or click on the elevation graph to see corresponding route point. Toggle between elevation and gradient view on elevation graph. UK postcode and place name search. Auto routing on the Google map. Add coursepoints to aid navigation. Add points of interest to add information to routes. Distance and elevation data continuously calculated for your route. Course editing facilities - including Google style route dragging. Printable courses on both Google and OS maps.
The event pagealso hosts a copy of the route sheet, this is also zipped and is a MS Excel file, please be sure to print-off all sheets.
If you're going to utilise them, please use the files that best suit your machine, and I leave you to make that decision.
Please note - the A438 between Tewkesbury and Ledbury (bridge under the M50) is closed to motorised traffic, but it is passable to pedestrians. So you will need to dismount and push your bicycle. Thank you to all that have brought this to my attention, I've been using a divert through Longdon Marsh - as it makes very little difference to my journey times.
