Effengyl

Ride Details

• Date Ridden - Saturday 22 February 2025
• Event Type - Calendar Event
• Points Distance - 200

Ride Stats

• Distance - 202.59 km
• Time - 9h21m24s
• Elapsed time - 10h35m52s
• Avg Speed - 21.7 km/h
• Elevation - 2300 metres
• Bike - Sabbath September AR-1

Ride Notes

Effengyl - apparantly means Gospel in Welsh!

The weather at the depart from Almondsbury was a bit grey, but mild, which set the scene for the first 30km across the Severn Bridge into Wales and along the A48. As usual with a calendar event there was a nice bunch to ride with as we hit the first climb followed by a descent to cross the Usk just south of Caerleon and onto Usk itself for the first Control/cafe stop. Sat and had a nice cuppa with Stuart and Gideon. From there it was proper rolling Wales on quiet roads to the second info control at Llangyndir before the climb up to Bwlch and more rolling in better weather with a tail wind into Hay.

Sitting with Stuart we chatted about the #bigclimb to come - the 8km up to Gospel Pass. He’d been there, done that, so I was happy to take some advice which consisted of …. it’s hard, ClimbPro is lying about the gradient, don’t go mad and hope it isn’t snowing at the top! I actually really liked the climb - it is hard for sure (with 110km on board), but the reward of spectacular views on what was turning into a lovely day was worth it.

I descended alone into Abergavenny, decided not to stop there, and pressed on beyond 150km. At Raglan the Tesco was open so I took the opportunity to fill the bidons and take a short break. I was slow up the final 3km climb towards Cheptsow but enjoyed the descent into the town. From there it was a flat roll back accross the bridge into the arrivee to finish.