Some from me, as per Strava:
Tough - possibly tougher than last year. The day started reasonably, despite needing to fill the newly fitted tubeless rear tyre with sealant in the car park at the start as I hadn't had the time to ride the recommended 25km post-filling the manufactures recommend. Luckily, leaving the track pump at home wasn't a problem too.
A fear of ice meant I took gritted main roads to Newent, rather than the recommended route, adding a few extra K, but missing out one big climb, which I was pretty happy about. After Newent the headwind made its presence felt, which was quite unwelcome given the hills and a snapped spoke in the back wheel didn't help, although I thought I could nurse it round.
Much like last year, the wind meant I was too busy chewing the stem and cursing gravity to appreciate the scenery but I eventually made it to Chepstow and the Severn Bridge. The north side path was closed, but the south was fine, and offered a back way into the Severn View services where I controlled, going large on a Burger King whopper meal. Unfortunately, the moisture in the air crossing the estuary wasn't sea spray, and by the time I left it was raining, which continued for the rest of the ride - another 10+ hours.
Getting to Malmesbury the back wheel gave up the ghost, with (we determined in hindsight), the snapped bit of spoke getting stuck in the rear cassette, impeding freewheeling. Cold, wet and knackered, I dithered around trying to decide what and where to eat, and how I might get back to Oxford by myself. Luckily, one of the staff in the Co-Op suggested trying the Wheelers' Retreat, a bike shop in town which I'd seen, but appeared closed. He said the owner would sometimes help out of hours, so seeing the shop lights were still on, I rang the doorbell and to my utter delight shop owner and wheel builder Gary opened up, and was kind enough to fit a new spoke, true the wheel, straighten the bent rear mech hanger and generally sort me out, charging only a very reasonable amount. The guy's a legend, and I can't thank or recommend him highly enough, especially if you're in the market for handbuilt wheels...
Leaving the Malmesbury out of time, I pushed on into the headwind which was utter purgatory: unlike last year the ESE wind blew right down the climbs, with Hackpen Hill being endless misery, and some of the hills feeling like we were in the rain clouds up there. The info control at Marlborough had different descriptions on the brevet card and the route sheet, and was off-route anyway, something I've noticed from this organiser before. Seriously, how difficult can it be?
From Marlborough we got a bit of a tailwind, although I was pretty close to the time cut at Membury, where some free 'BBE date today' crisps from the nice lady at the services helped, and the flatter terrain dragged up the average speed and down the estimated arrival time. Falling in with Owen and 2 other ACME riders, we eventually TT'd down the A4 and back with about an hour to spare. Finished, in every sense of the word. RRtY 5/12