Kill two birdswith one stone - keep both yur RTTY and ATTY awards going with one ride
The ride's name is derived from places and landmarks it passes through. The 'Kings' refers to Kington, which in turn is derived from the town's old name of 'Kingstown'. the priests in a similar way refers to Presteigne - or Prieststown as it was once known. You will stop right outside a castle in Ludlow, and finally there will be countless churches passed during the day. Possibly the most striking being at Hoarwithy, an amazing site. Another church being the Abbey at Tewkesbury, which is an spectacular building. It survived the ravages of King Henry the eighth's reformations - in 1539 the town's folk of Tewkesbury paid the king £453 to retain their "Parish Church". The £453 was the value of the lead on the roof and the bells in the tower. The abbey features the largest Norman tower in the land.
The route (as with most BlackSheep CC events) follows minor roads, lanes, B-roads and a few unavoidable A-road sections. And generally in that order of preference.
The ride heads west then north from Tewkesbury through Ledbury and on to Bromyard for breakfast. Then to Ludlow via Tenbury Wells. Presteigne is the next town passed through before stopping at Kington. The late afternoon stop is at the A465 Lock garageservices shop at Winnal. The final leg is a west - east bee line back to Tewkesbury crossing both the Wye Valley and then the Severn vale back to Tewkesbury.
There's enough climbing on this event to qualify for 1.75 AAA points, none of the climbs are particularly steep, but a few of them do go-on for a while.
The controls are all fairly evenly spaced, there will be places to stop in between controls should you so wish. The control at Bromyard has gained experience of AUK events over the past couple of years - they have a stamp to give proof of passage, and the Ludlow control has handled many AUK events in the past, and are aware of your needs, the cafe can be a bit busy at times. If you don't wish to stop at the cafe - the town library/museum/TIC have a stamp, they're on the left about 50 metres before the castle lodge buttery. The control at Kington "The Chocolate Box" , they're at the far end of the high Street on the left - they also have a stamp.. The final on the road control is Lock's garage services - Winnal, which is a regular supporter of cyclists on the LEJOG or JOGLE routes.
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 amounts 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.
All car parks owned by TBC have recently reduced all day charges, further details available here http://tewkesbury.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1801.
The ride departs from The Royal Hop Pole at 07.30, free breakfast for all cyclists starting the ride.
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 Inn
www.premierinn.com/en/hotel/TEWBRE/tewkesbury and Travelodge
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 hotel
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.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,
Basic ride details the event page at
www.aukweb.net/events/detail/16-395/ Route sheet and gps files will be forwarded to all entrants, if you still have last year's details - they will still be valid as the files are the same as 2014 - and have 2014 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.
