Malmesbury Mash 212km Audax Ride from Cardiff Gate

The Toby Carvery, Cardiff Gate

I’m not sure why, but the thought of riding from Cardiff to Malmesbury and then back again really appealed to me. Living in Malmesbury, doing it the other way round makes a lot more sense, but then sense and cycling don’t always go together.

I won’t bore you with the preliminaries, but suffice to say, Saturday's 7.00am start from Cardiff Gate on the eastern side of the city involved setting an alarm clock for what on any other day I’d think of as the middle of the night, followed by an hour’s drive on a near deserted M4.

A car park outside of a closed Toby Carvery might seem an unlikely setting for the start of an adventure, but this is Audax and so nothing seemed out of place.

Coinciding with our departure were the first few spots of rain which were of the cold, icy variety. It wasn’t exactly a downpour, but it was enough to warrant some riders pulling over to put on their rain jackets.

Any ride from a city, particularly when it has such a close neighbour, is bound to incur some urban cycling, but I still found the unfamiliar surroundings absorbing.

The transporter bridge
(Click once to enlarge the pictures)

A personal highlight was seeing for the first time Newport’s Grade 1 listed transporter bridge over the River Usk. Built in 1906, this impressive piece of engineering is still in use today.

Time to refuel at Chepstow

The Murco garage on the A48 outside of Chepstow was our first control. As I joined the queue of riders offering up their minimal purchases in exchange for an all-important receipt, panic swept through the ranks when someone turned from the counter and said that they’d just run out of paper.(No doubt an old Audax joke). I was relieved to see the member of staff priming a new till roll.

There’s something special about cycling over the Severn Bridge that driving fails to capture; just how high up you are for one thing. Once on the other side, we climbed up to Alveston and by the time we’d reached the top, the sun had broken through making it a very pleasant morning.

Getting held at a set of traffic lights on the A38, a peloton of around 9 or 10 of us took shape and we stayed together until we eventually dissolved near Wickwar. Shared miles always pass by so much quicker.

The ascent to the Somerset Monument after crossing Inglestone Common is always a bit of a challenge, but it set up a fast running section through Didmarton and Sherston into Malmesbury for lunch. I headed straight to a place I know where beans on toast is a house speciality - my own kitchen.

Before leaving the town on the B4014 to Tetbury, I stopped at the Co-op at the bottom of Tetbury Hill to obtain a receipt. Not having my lock, I had to endure an agonising wait at the kiosk whilst the customer in front of me took advantage of every conceivable service available by buying his lottery ticket, scratch card, cigarettes, putting some money on his electricity key, gas key and asking for cashback.

The Tudor Arms at Shepherd's Patch

With my bike having narrowly avoided becoming a crime statistic, from Tetbury I took the A4135 down into Dursley and out through Slimbridge to the control at The Tudor Arms. This was once a beer and cider house for the Irish Navigators who dug out the Gloucester to Sharpness Canal by hand. The food coming out of the kitchen looked very appetising and I made a mental note to return on another day.

Some of the lanes from Slimbridge down to Berkeley and on towards Elberton might have been clogged with mud in places, but it only served to add to the rural charm.

Travelling in the right direction, but on the wrong side

Returning to the Severn Bridge, I managed to miss a turn and ended up going back on the wrong side. With no harm done, it was then just a case of following the A48 back to Newport and out the other side to Cardiff Gate. It sounds easy, but my city cycling skills aren’t what they could be and negotiating fast moving roundabouts tested them to the limit.

After a swift coke in The Toby Carvery, I jumped into my car and drove back to Malmesbury.

My thanks go to the organiser Ritchie. Also, the two lads whom I first met when they were stopped at Berkeley and Bairdy for kindly guiding me over the last mile or so, by which time the Garmin had surrendered and in the half-light my cue card had become a blur.

Course details can be found here