The Light at the End of the Tunnel 200km (Gravel)

209km cycling event starting from Crewe. Controls at Rocester, Bakewell, Romiley and Crewe., plus 5 information controls.

A new event for 2024! A 200km, multi surface event. 3 AAA, over a third of the route is off road, an epic challenge awaits!

The route uses a variety of bridleway, byway, canal towpath, traffic free cycle paths, etc and is ideally aimed at riders with some off road experience on a suitable machine*. None of it is technical but for an audax with a minimum speed of 14.3km you will have to be confident in riding the whole event in the time allowed. An 07:00 start helps maximise the days sunlight, 14.3 km gives an extra 40 minutes over 15km/h minimum, not a lot in reality, it would have been easy to set it as a Brevet Populair at 10km/h but where's the challenge in that? Free tea / coffee at the start, pub finish.

Out of Crewe to route takes you to Wheelock Rail Trail, The Salt Line and onto the canal around Church Lawton. Back on roads at Kidsgrove to start the day's climbing. A downhill after the picturesque Kynypersley Reservoir gets you to Endon where you pick up the canal to Cheddleton. Back on the road for some more uphill, followed by a downhill to Oakmoor where you pick up the delightful, traffic free Churnet Valley Cycleway. At the end of the cycleway, in Denstone it is now over to Rocester which is a control location. Nourishment can be found in the Buttercross Cafe (recommended) or Premier village store. The next section stays on road until Ashbourne where you pick up the Tissington Trail, approx 25km at an average of 1% uphill, it all traffic free and a nice place to be and the long drag allows you to enjoy your surroundings. When you leave the trail and get back on roads it's a super fast downhill section to the vibrant Peak District town of Bakewell, another control location with plenty of commercial options available. The section from Bakewell to Miller's Dale is the lovely, traffic free Monsal Trail, yes it is uphill (again), but the 10km section is steadily graded at an average of 1% and features some absolutely great long tunnel sections (you won't need bike lights but please take care as your eyes adjust). The light at the end of the tunnel definitely shouldn't be the light of an oncoming train as they stopped in about 1968 and a recent plans to reinstate a railway was rejected by government. From Miller's Dale over to Romiley is mainly on roads but there are a few bridleway and byway sections. Romiley is also a control and there is a petrol station and other commercial options to fuel the final push south for home. Through Chadkirk Chapel estate and onto the Middlewood Way, a 25km well surfaced, traffic free path that take you to Macclesfeild, back on the road now for some welcomed downhill for the next 10km (and virtually flat for the last 20km to the arrivee), two short off road sections at Swettenham and Brerton Green are simply too nice to leave out even though by now you will just be wanting to get back as quick as you can.

*Suitable machine: I guess you could ride it on a penny farthing, unicycle or trike if you wanted but for your best chance of success a gravel type bike or tourer would be ideal, I'm confident I could get around on my regular audax bike (700c x 32mm) in high summer when it hasn't rained for a month, but a 35mm or bigger tyre with some tread pattern would give me more confidence on the off road sections, especially if it had been wet recently.