The Dragon Ride is one of the toughest cycling sportives in the UK, and the seed for doing this was sown in 2025, when Adam Williams completed the Dragon Devil (299km, 4500m climbing). After some persuasion, I agreed to do the 222 km Grand Fondo ride with 3,500 m of climbing. The training for this started in earnest in March 2026, and with the support of the St. Neots Cycling Club (SNCC), family and hours of virtual climbing on Zwift, I was as ready as I could be.

On the day, SNCC had 9 riders at the event, with 4 of us starting the Grand Fondo and the rest doing the Medio route. Unfortunately, Adam had a nasty crash 4 weeks before and had to withdraw from the event, but it was a pleasure to share the ride with Richard Slade, Dom Chapman and Jessica Stock. Now to the ride.

The day was probably like no other day in Wales! Sunny, no wind and 20 degrees. Perfect for cycling. The climbing was relentless, and the descending was exhilarating. I loved it. The views were spectacular in Wales, and the organisers delivered a perfect event. The four stops along the way were all needed to refuel and take on water, and the salted potatoes were as good as their reputation.

After 80 km and before the second feed station, the organisers had put a very tricky and steep timed climb – The devil’s elbow. It took me 8m 54s to climb: 687 out of 3175. At 62 years of age, I was pretty pleased with that and also the quickest of the SNCC riders on the day!

Jessica was quick up the first climbs and soon left us, but we all tried to stay together for as long as possible, meeting up at feed stations. Jessica was not feeling great after the 2nd feed station and decided to switch to the Medio route, and thinking we might miss the cut off (we had 1 hour to spare!) for the Grand Fondo, Dom and I pushed on together. It wasn’t until the final decent did I went solo, feeling remarkably strong and able to push hard to the finish.

Overall, my fuelling and hydration strategy was spot on, and I managed to average 24km/h for the whole ride. The ride took me 11 hours and 27 minutes, and my ride time was 9 hours and 17 minutes.

The Dragon Ride is hard, even on a perfect day, and Ash and Ebony did so well to make it to the second feed station, and I am sure they will be back again to try and tame the dragon.

To close, when I crossed the line, I felt a mix of emotions, because:

• I had achieved/exceeded my goals
• I had shared the day with some amazing friends.
• I had finished without the person who inspired me to do it,
• and my training had got me through all 222km and enabled me to enjoy every single kilometre.