The Bryan Chapman Memorial 600 - Ride Report

looking back at our route into Barmouth and the coastal stretch

now that my body has stopped hurting and the rose tinted glasses are firmly in place I'll add my thoughts to a ride that has already been well documented over the last few days on YACF.  I love this ride ...it's the third year in a row that I've ridden it and it had definitely gotten under my skin ....probably driven there by the rain!  I took lots of photographs on the way round this year as I thought it might be the last time I rode it ....I captured the windmill, the iron bridge, the elvis rock, cadir Idris, the Llancloudy sign and many other memory triggers for the years ahead ....but now , a week after the ride I can't imagine not ever riding the event again.  I really ought to try another 600, and will for my Wessex SR campaign,  but that will be a mere flirtation and dalliance  before coming back to Wales.  

The organisation of this ride is impeccable and  hopefully in a few years time I can be one of those hard working volunteers handing out plates of food to cold hungry randonneurs and moping up coffee spilt from tired shakling hands with quiet words of encouragement and gentle banter.   I probably won't have the Saint like qualities to sit behind the desk at Kings and take food orders from riders who can barely remember their names let alone if they need beans with their beans on toast at 5am after a long return from Menai.   Menai ...from the back of the field (I will try and get to it in daylight one year) is like an strange mix of an oasis and refugee camp, hot soup, murmered voices, a few old blankets and a banging door!  I thought it was my last time so I thanked Doreen profusely which was returned with a hug and kiss .....only in audax!

It's still a hard ride for me ...I'm definitely fitter and lighter than I was three years ago and I did have a some legs left when we finished this year..but it does make me hurt!  I/We were gobsmacked to meet the fast boys returning from Snowdonia before we'd got into the thick of it on saturday evening. Chapeau!  It's a ride where everyone has the opportunity to be audacious; whether that be to get round in 27 hours or to get in with 10 minutes to spare after welding ones bike, nursing someone home or simply riding to the end with the last drop of energy in you and all for the price of a round of drinks in the pub! It certainly does offer full Value For Money with weather guaranteed.


For me this ride is like an MP3 audax ......there is so much experience compressed into 40 hours that it needs a decoder like Time to appreciate the detail.....I've only ridden 3 and I feel I already have a lifetimes worth of experience and stories to reminisce over pints with fellow randonneurs and bore my kids rigid! For the record here are a few of my memories to add to the collection:

Barmouth - an hour wrestling with a tyre, new rim, and tubes that really didn't want to be together with Olympic swearing for free

Pen-y-Pas - Stair-rods of rain and the El Supremo'esk burger van that was really just the public toilets

Llanberris descent:  hands in mits going numb and into spasms not ideal when trying to brake

a dry, moonlit night on the way back from Menai for once

not walking the lanes after the Forge for the first time

my knees not exploding on the last Llancloudy climb

The descent after Cross Foxes ....re-surfaced just for me

The tail wind home

being with the Faccombe3 but missing the 4th


Audaxing has transformed my life.  I'm 48 this June and the last 3 years has taken me from an 18 stone man kidding himself that his 6 mile commute was keeping him fit to a 14.5 stone man who now feeling the buzz for being fitter than he has for 20 years with more weight loss and fitness to come. I have always loved riding my bike and audax gives me the chance to ride it loads.

Completing this ride reaches a major milestone that has been a focus for my riding and a lot of my life for the last 3 years i.e qualification for PBP.  Some people seem to love PBP some people seem to think it's just a boring long ride. At the very least I am off to France in the company of some great friends, old and new, to find out for myself.

and finally none of this would have been possible without the imeasurabled support from Jules this year and the years before.  For this PBP year, audaxing has become an obsession like so many others on the same journey and Jules' support is even more appreciated with every aching fibre in my randonneuring legs!

STOP PRESS - I've qualified for Paris Brest Paris!

it's done....I've completed my 600k qualifier ride and so my BRM Super Randonneur series  (Audax Club Parisien approved) is complete ..a major milestone achieved ..I'm off to Paris in August for more pain and sleep deprivation!!!! Now the real hard work starts to get even fitter and thinner!!   The ride report for the Bryan Chapman is coming soon ...in the meantime enjoy some piccies and the slide show on the right.

Tal-y-Llyn lake near Cadir Idris

Kieran with Cadir Idris ahead

Randonneurs come over the bridge into Barmouth

plenty of rain waiting for us in Snowdonia

approaching the mountains

The Bryan Chapman Memorial 600.

The 600k, and final PBP qualifier is upon us....there is nowhere to hide.  This weekend it's back to Wales for more fun filled hilly miles!  This is a true classic ride and never fails to amaze ..whether it's the scenery or the weather!! It starts in Chepstow and essentially heads north west to Menai via the coast (Barmouth and Harlec) and Snowdonia and then you turnaround and head back. It's 620kms in 40 hours ....alot of climbing ...alot of beans on toast and probably not alot of sleep.  I've checked the weather forecaste ..we will get wet!  Oh joy!

here's the route:

The Brevet Cymru 400k - update

Welsh hills - plenty of them!

sorry for the delay folks but I've been in Audax recovery mode, busy work and family mode and then getting ready for the Bryan Chapman mode so it will have to be a short summary!  


The most important information is that I made it round in good time so that's my 400 qualifier done!   The weather Gods were kind to us for the majority of the ride with only a short rain shower 30 minutes from the end...i couldn't expect a trip to Wales without getting a bit wet at some point!  Even in audaxing terms 400k is a long bikeride ...it's the watershed distance ....200 & 300's can been see as long day rides ...for a 400 then most of us mere mortals can expect to ride through the night and see the sun come up before we finish. The ride out from Chepstow was pretty fast and hot ...and some of the looong Welsh climbs left us feeling very hot ....the lumpy bits lived upto their names but not as bad as I remember from 2009 ..I must be getting fitter!  It was a busy ride ....over 100 in the field (it's a PBP year!) and we soon found our slot and spent the remaining 24hours playing leapfrog with those riding at a similar pace!  A seaside destination is always a good thing ona ride in my book and little Newquay didn't disappoint with a sparkling harbour, bucket and spade shops (no kiss me quick hats though) and a fine cafe overlooking the sea. The locals and tourists were suitably bemused as to why the place had become cycling central for the day and couldn't quite believe where we had come from and that we were heading back there overnight!  It's a long long climb out of Newquay ...goes on bit by bit for seven miles ...but eventually we topped out for a spectacular view of the sunset.  Night riding always goes in a bit of a blur ...back via Llandovery (cafe stop there at 10pm) and then on via Brecon to the little village of Bwlch for a proper audaxer's b&b ...i.e 1 hours kip on a wooden village hall floor with apple pie and custard for brekky! It's only 50k from there to Chepstow ...we left in the dark but were soon serranaded by the dawn chorus as the birds announced the arrival of a new day ....eventually we cl,imbed and descended the last hill for second breakfast in Chepstow at 7am.  400k ...it's a long way!

Breakfast in Haye-on-Wye

Faccombe 4 on the wheel

yours truley in Newquay