BRIEF:
Head to the coast… Fiddlesticks you’ve missed your connection! Head to Gold Hill in Shaftesbury before returning through Longleat Estate. #wills_hills & views, 3 different railway paths include.
Event review summary:
Route:
Extensive route notes and a variety of files will be distributed to entrants via email a week or two before the event. In the mean time use the interactive map for an overview of what lies ahead (subject to change); toggle the elevation & grade on/off by clicking the key. *Please note plugin's 'grade' is experimental so take it with a pinch of salt, especially where rocky outcrops may be present.
| Type: BP | Points Distance: 150 | Total Distance: 165 |
| Speeds: 12.5-25 | AAA: 2.00 Silver Grimpeur | Climb: 2200 |
| Time: 13h12 | Entry closes: 22/04/20 | Entry (min): £10.00 |
description:
Exit Bristol using the Whitchurch Way then continue tracing the former Bristol & North Somerset Railway into The Mendips and its old mining towns. Continue south through the rolling East Somerset hills and dip into Dorset. You’ve missed the connection to Easton on the Bill so divert across Blackmore Vale to Shaftesbury and the cobbles of Gold Hill! Edge the West Wiltshire Downs and pass through Longleat to Frome and the southern end of The Cotswolds. Enjoy the 2 Tunnels, part of the old Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway, before popping out in Bath and following the former Midlands Railway shared path back into Bristol to a warm welcome in Easton.
details:
Hot drinks, breakfast and dinner included.
There are a couple of width restrictions early on along the Whitchurch Way which aren’t suitable for trikes and tandems, a suggested alternative will be provided.
On street parking locally, you’ll be updated before the event.
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What others think.
Lovely stuff
Beautiful route, with huge variety in scenery and type of road …..and an entertaining amount of sharp climbs.
Bill's Easton Connection (2019)
Bill’s Easton Connection (2019). The hardest 300 I have ridden overall. There are no spectacular climbs, but rather there is a constant war of attrition on the legs, with short and sharp ups and downs and, as the downs are often laney, little oportunity for the more cautious rider to get speed up. Portland Bill makes for a lovely mid-point, especially if you haven’t been there before, and the return North to Bristol is filled with some particularly lovely villages, as well as the cobbled climb up to the cafe in Shaftesbury (which caught me out — the trick, I was told, was to commit early), and Longleat’s grounds. Never has Lansdown Hill seemed so long and so steep. Will Pomeroy, the organizer, increases his reputation as the Torquemada of the Audax world, testing one’s faith in one’s legs. Only the pure of heart survive. All is forgiven, though, when one realizes the elegance of the route’s naming. Pictures #gwrbec
