I feel wrecked after that ride, what was essentially my "easy" back up 600. I don't know about everyone else but it was far from easy.
It did not help that I had to add extra distance/time/hills to go and collect my power bank from home on the way.
The route from Chesham - great missenden - ford - Islip - Charlbury was well known to me and entirely expected, the cotswolds were also expected to be tough, in fact there was a next section before northleach that was easier than expected with a route along the ridge with views to the north and south at different times.
Chepstow to Abergavenny, slightly different than the usual route via Usk, but IMO no worse, Gospel Pass also entirely as predicted. I didn't quite see the sunset (due to my earlier diversion), but it was still beautiful up there with the full moon rising behind me. And on To Hereford arriving at the travelodge at 12:30 "you're the last, your friends are already here" the man at the desk told me. So Day 1 340km (or 355km for me) about as hard as expected and feeling better about the easier day tomorrow.
100km from Hereford to Wellesbourne in 5 hours including a costa stop for breakfast, and I was feeling quite good about the rest of the ride, Wellesbourne to St Neots should be roughly similar to the final leg of the Acme Grand, which I rode at night, and so it proved rolling hills, nothing extreme, pleasant roads, all good. The difficulty here was the heat and tiredness I think.
Turning and riding south to Sandy was quick and flat, but then the turn west into the eastern edge of the Chilterns was really tough, probably the accumulation of previous hills, but it just felt like we kept going up without ever a corresponding descent, there would be views left and right suggesting we were on the highest ground in the area, only to turn a corner and find the road going up more.
Overall my moving average was 22.5kmh, compared to 20.5 on BCM and 19 on Brimstone, so even though it felt comparably hard to the Chapman I can probably put that down to the insanity of doing three 600s in consecutive weekends. seems like I need to work on reducing my stopped time 27.4 hours moving, 38 hours total means 10.5 stopped, only 4.5 was in the travelodge, so delaying elsewhere is costing me sleep.