We ran the first edition of The Tintern Trials in May 2021. The riders escaped with their lives and seemed keen for a second edition. I contemplated October but the Summer flashed by and to be honest, with some new course editions and challenges, September 2022 2024 seems more fitting. We are opening up participation a little and I am hoping to get about 30 riders on the start line. I have added more locations and tweaked the format a little - you can read more about the event below, if you would like to enter please drop us an email to vulturesandicecream@gmail.com and I will add you to the mailing list.

The adventure officially starts at 10am, to return by 3pm for beers in the sunshine. Between those times, the path, the route, the pace are all up to you. There will be two competitions; Teams of 1, 2 or 3 riders trying to collect the most points and then an individual timed sector competition. This is a social ride so the idea would be to stick together in teams rather than divide and conquer - I trust everyone not to cheat.

Team competition - Dotted over the maps provided are a number of Points Of Interest (POI) and Summit locations (fear not, all of which fall into the lowly Tump category). At each location there will be a red ribbon and a bag containing a card for you to collect. Each card will be worth a different score which has been created using a complex algorithm whose inputs have included factors such as distance from the start, surface grade, proximity to other POIs, danger level etc. At each POI there will be enough cards for every team. At each Summit there will only be three cards for the first, second and third teams to arrive. The winner will be the team which returns with the highest combined score by 3pm and if you are late you will be deducted 20 points for every 10 mins there after.

Individual competition - I have included four seven timed sections on the map. A classic flat gravel sprint, climbs to suit road, gravel and mountain bikes, a horribly steep road climb I have only ever driven up (and that was terrifying) and then an undulating off road loop. The fastest person on each segment will earn bragging rights and an extra 100 points for your team. Strava is probably the most common platform to record and measure this one, so if you want to be counted please upload at the end of the ride.

Which bike is best I hear you cry in confusion? The answer is I don’t know! Each POI and Summit is off road - how you get there is down to you. The roads in these parts vary from smooth and lazy to potholed and steep. The gravel fire roads and tracks are plenty and the rougher single-track short cuts are there to be found. If it helps, I have ridden all over these valleys on both a CX and trendy gravel bike with 33-53mm tyres.