Can Simon Break A 290km Gravel Record? | Marcher Castles Way

The challenge: ride 290km of mixed terrain with 5,500m of ascent faster than anyone has before. The route: the stunning and savage Marcher Castles Way. The rider? Our very own Simon Richardson.

Follow Simon as he attempts to set a new Fastest Known Time (FKT) on one of the UK’s newest and most demanding long-distance trails. This is a story of endurance, determination, and the sheer mental and physical struggle of a 15-hour day in the saddle. Will he break the record, or will the route break him?

Check out the Strava ride here: https://www.strava.com/activities/15225016424
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This incredible route was created by Cycling UK. To find out more about the Marcher Castles Way and their other long-distance trails 👉 https://www.cyclinguk.org/routes/long-distance/marcher-castles-way

Chapters ⏱️:
00:00 – Intro: A 290km FKT Attempt
00:46 – The Route: An Introduction to the Marcher Castles Way
02:15 – The Goal & The Mindset: Aiming for the FKT
03:25 – The Ride Begins
05:13 – First Sights: Roman Cities & The Iron Bridge
07:14 – The Modern Advantage: Why GPS Makes This Possible
08:41 – The Birthplace of the Olympics: Much Wenlock
09:35 – Riding on Wenlock Edge
11:13 – The First Big Test: The Brutal Clee Hills
12:03 – Into the Pain Cave: “I’m in Mordor”
12:31 – Mid-Ride Bike Check: Orbea Terra vs Terra Race
14:28 – A Moment of Respite in Ludlow
16:23 – On Familiar Territory
17:47 – The Pacing Strategy & Fueling Update
19:50 – The Welsh Borderlands: Clun & Knighton
22:31 – The Final Gauntlet: The Three Big Climbs
26:32 – At The Limit: The Struggle up the First Climb
27:52 – Facing The Second Beast: The Stiperstones
29:27 – Hitting The Wall on The Long Mynd
30:38 – The Advice That Kept Simon Going
31:46 – The Mental Finish Line: Church Stretton
35:04 – THE FINISH: The Final Time & FKT Result

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It’s 6:04 a.m. and I’m about to ride 180 miles of gravel and road with 5,000 m of climbing. Or at least I’m going to try. It’s been a while since I’ve set off on a ride that I wasn’t sure I could finish, but frankly, those can be some of the best. Can I do it? Let’s find out. This is what we came for. It’s amazing how kind of isolated and wild and quiet this route is. Look. Oh my god. I’m having a good time. Can you tell? I’m absolutely done. The route I’m riding is the latest long-d distanceance trail to be added to the brilliant Cycling UK collection. It’s called the Marcher Castle’s Way and it carves a sineuous trail through the border country of England and Wales, tackling brutal climb after brutal climb. The route takes its name partly from the area which has been known as the Marches since 1086. During the Middle Ages, these were wild lands, a true frontier which gave rise to the densest concentration of thousand-year-old castles in Britain. Even today, it feels like something of a frontier. To the east, you have the pretty rolling hills with red brick cottages and stately homes. But then venture closer to the border into Wales, and things get altogether more rugged and remote. You can sense the wildness that always looms just over the next climb. One man who knows this well is Guy Castan, a veteran cycling journalist and bike tester. He’s been involved in setting up some of these long-distance routes and was one of the first to ride this one. He talked me through the whole route, but what was his first thought? I think the biggest word I can bring out is surprise. Uh I think it will surprise a lot of people, not only with kind of the quietness and the wilderness, but also the toughness of the challenge. [Music] I feel quite conflicted because on the one hand I’m genuinely not sure I can finish this ride, but on the other hand, being a competitive sort of chap, I’ve also got it in the back of my mind to take aim at the FKT, fastest known time. So, it currently stands at 18 hours and 54 minutes, which is a dauntingly long time. Anyway, the route is locked, loaded, and ready on my Wahoo Element Rome. At 288.6 km, it is shorter than I’ve done before in a day, which is good. And I have climbed more in a day before, which is also good. The issue I’ve got is when you combine both of those factors together and then add in the gravel. So, that’s why I’m in uncharted territory here. That is why there is a big question mark of whether I can do this. And that is also why it’s really going to hurt. [Music] I really want to just crack on now. Like yeah, I don’t know whether I can actually do it, but the prospect I’m genuinely excited about. Some of my best ever rides have been doing exactly this sort of thing. And with a challenging route in an area that is just utterly stunning. It’s going to be great. And I’ve overthought so many times how it’s going to feel, how fast I’m going to go. I really don’t know. I just know it’s going to hurt, but it’s also going to be absolutely mega. Soon as I press start, that’s it. Stopwatch is going to not not stop until I get back here. You ready? Right. See you in X number of hours. [Music] Right, then we’re off. These first few moments feel kind of surreal on something like this because ordinarily I’m very familiar with where I ride and I know exactly how long it’s going to take. This mean first of all Shrewsbury is a blooming nice place because I feel like I’ve started something like the adrenaline is flowing. This is that sense of like excitement just coursing through me. Not often you start a ride like that. [Music] Trying to get my bearings a little bit cuz just been a maze of twisty turny lanes so far. As you can see right now, not much visibility over the hedges. But there’s also a compounding problem with a bit of early morning mist. So actually all the hills in the mountains are completely obscured. So I sort of feel like I’m riding around the flatlands at the minute. But there’s a big one just sort of poking out off to my left. That’s token. We’re not going up there thankfully, but uh what lies ahead is currently a mystery. Turns out that’s a uh Roman city there. Rock sitter. Very nice. It looks too. [Music] So this is a very picturesque place is iron bridge which is widely claims to be the birthplace of modern industry which I think is meant to be a good thing although given where things are heading globally maybe it’s actually was the first step in the wrong direction but anyway this is where it takes its name from look the iron bridge that is pretty isn’t [Music] You come out of you cross the iron bridge and you go up a stinking great road kind of you go oh hang on this is this has changed a bit and then that so that takes you up into much wenlock and that’s when the kind of you really start to get that kind of borderland experience [Music] the big draw for this kind of thing for me is not so much about the challenge of the distance, but more the opportunity of tackling 290 km of of completely fresh trails and roads. It’s like a total stimulation overload. And these kind of routes really have only become possible relatively recently with the advent of GPS hedge units. Prior to that, yes, you could follow a route like this with a paper map, but over the course of 290 km, you’d be literally losing hours stopping and changing direction, whereas you can just follow the route on your head unit and ride every junction and trail and road like a local would as opposed to having to spend weeks scouting it out and committing it to memory. But secondly, because GPX files, so the the route file is so easily sharable that anyone can turn up and ride it like a local, no matter that there are perhaps 200 different roads and trails and junctions, you can ride it like one seamless trail. And I mean, even though it’s they’ve been around for a few years now, I still can’t believe how good it is. What an amazing innovation that headed head units have unlocked this total game changer. Well, that very pretty little place was much wlock. And as well as being pretty, it is apparently the birthplace of the modern Olympic movement. Not literally, but there is something called the much Wenlock Olympics. And it was that which inspired the actual modern Olympics. So there you go. Nice little facts for going onto dirt. Excellent. [Music] This is an absolutely amazing bit. So, I’m riding down somewhere called Wenlock Edge, which is like a long ridge covered in beautiful woodland. Just to my right, I can see like a hint of a view out in the direction of Wales. And the riding is not technical, but I can’t take my eyes off it for too long. I’m now two hours in. And got to say, if you if you ever dot watch, so where you look at people’s trackers on long distance races, you always see a huge number of people drop out really early on, like after a matter of hours. Always looks really strange if you’re preparing for a 2,000 km ride or race and you only last 100 or 200k. I can kind of understand in that your mind really plays tricks on you to start with. It’s something that I actually quite enjoy like just trying to focus on the here and now, the riding, not looking at how far I’ve gone or how far to go. I find it probably the most relaxing riding I ever do. Have to get in the zone, but you also can’t tune out and let your mind wander on to random things. I’m having a good time. Can you tell? I’m off Wenlock Edge now and back on to some tarmac, which is quite welcome actually cuz much as the off-road stuff is the best stuff, it’s obviously slower as well. And then you’ve got the two Cle hills which are the first big they’re your classic evil villain henchmen of the route. [Music] This is a real grind. Just about able to stay on the bike. [Music] Right then, there we go. The top. I cannot wait to get out of it if I’m honest. It’s a bit like I’m in the Lord of the Rings and I’ve been riding around the Shire and I’ve ended up in Mordor. I thought that wasn’t going to come until later on the ride, but this is just bleak. I’m done. Over and out. See you in Lello. This is what we came for in [Music] [Music] This is Lello at last. Made it [Music] right then. Let me hit you with some stats. It’s hard. That’s not a stat, but that’s a perception. So 440, 22k an hour average, 102ks. Slightly slower than I was ideally hoping for, but that last bit over the clear hills was utterly savage. Like I was getting a bit grumpy. I’m not going to lie. Uh whether it’s a lack of caffeine, I don’t know. But um I think it might have just been the fact that it was horrible riding. But anyway, this is nice. This is one of my favorite places. [Music] I said to myself that I would absolutely not be stopping for coffee here under any circumstances. I accidentally appear to have ordered myself an American company. [Music] Not entirely sure how long that stop was. I feel like it was about 2 minutes. I suspect it was about 10, which is uh it’s not ideal, but anyway. right on familiar territory now cuz my mom and dad live near here. So I did share my live track with them earlier from the Wahoo. So see if they can uh squeeze in a bit of cheering alongside whatever it is that retired people do that means that they’re so incredibly busy. Love you mom and dad. Just teasing And then suddenly you’re into Wales which is as you expect you know quite quite chunky. You go through Mortima forest and it’s classic. It’s quite funny cuz it’s classic old school mountain biking as well. You’ll see loads of mountain bike tracks as you’re going through. [Music] And then but it’s rolling hills from there. A lot bridal way. Uh so then some big pulls. The further you get towards Wales the longer and steeper the climbs get again. play folks who got opinions that are never. This bride away is a little overgrown. Ow ow ow ow ow. I’m soldier in this. There’s loads of bridal ways, but they’re horribly overgrown. I got I’ve still got the scars from the lacerations of when I did it last summer in terms of brambles and metals. So, but obviously that’s something to think about if you are riding. You know, a gravel bike goes through gaps in bushes easier than a mountain bike. [Music] Just gearing up for what will be my 450th gram of carbohydrate courtesy of precision fuel and hydration energy gels. And it’s occurred to me that like I feel like fine in terms of I have not run out of fuel, which is kind of like miraculous really when you think I’ve been riding for 6 and 1 half hours. Quite hard. But there’s something also slightly surreal about being sustained only by gel. I sort of feel a little bit like I’m being kept alive in a petetro dish. Let the evening for the night and the moonlight. Okay, according to my Wahoo Summit segments, this is the 22nd out of 41 climbs, which means math fans, I’m over halfway in terms of climbing. And actually, when you look at elevation gain, that looks like it’s over halfway, too. So, finally a bit of good news for my poor struggling head. [Music] [Music] Made it. Pretty good view. We’re in the thick of some hills now, that’s for sure. [Music] [Music] and through night and drop down to the valley there and then you’re up in then up and over into clung which is beautiful beautiful spot. Uh, great little shops as well. And that’s a really good place. That’s a good resupply spot. If you’re running out of snacks, fuel up then and fill your pockets then because then it’s a big old hall. It’s kind of you’re headed furthest west now into Wales. This is totally random. Not entirely sure whether peanuts count as performance food, but an entire little supermarket was the only thing I could think I wanted. up. I’m incapable of not fapping. Right. [Music] Onwards. 80 miles to go. I can do that. So then you drop down to Clum and then you’ve got another climb onto this amazing ridgeway that’s an old uh cattle drove road or motorway as I badly as I appallingly like to call them uh which has been you know ancient prehistoric route uh and that ends in two barrerows right at the far end and you can see right into Wales and just got that classic kind of panorama of rolling hills heading into the distance. Well, I was a little bit sad leaving uh Clun, but uh as I was exiting the village, I got cheered on by a policeman. He said, “Go GCN.” How cool is that? So, I feel a little bit more boyed up now. Um yeah, not quite at uh level of uh crying, but um anyway, we’re all good. Sun’s out. I’m on a nice smooth stretch of road for once. Um before I leave you currently um I’d like to recite a bit of poetry if that’s okay. So uh this is uh AE Houseman and the reason I’m reciting it is because it’s actually about this area. Clbury Clon Clung Gunford and Clun are the quietest places under the sun. It’s pretty isn’t it? I don’t know much about Houseman, but uh anyway, the only reason I know about it is because my dad spent an entire holiday once when I was a kid basically reciting that line. I don’t know whether he knows anymore, but uh anyway, no wonder I turned out like I did. Is it really? [Music] New town lies yonder over into Wales. [Music] Up to this point, nothing technical really in terms of riding. Absolutely. No, no worries on 45 mil tires or whatever you’re on if you’re on a gravel bike. And also, while your gears might have been a bit of a stretch up to this point, I don’t know exactly what bike you’re running on, but if you’re on a 10 to 46 or something like that, I’d be leaning on that pretty hard by now. And I’ve seen a lot of people walking climbs up to that. So by this point, I think if you want an easy ride, you’ll definitely be be glad you’d have taken a mountain bike, but a gravel bike is still possible. [Music] Afternoon. Uh I’m just seeing things [Music] on the long drover’s road into New Town. I think that was the point where the effort really started to bite. Prior to that, I’ve been feeling really pretty good. I had quite a lot of energy left. I wasn’t sore. I was definitely keeping things in check, but there was such a long sustained climb to get there. Such a lot of pedaling with zero recovery. That was the point where I started to feel like this was going to be a big challenge. The roads are just murderous. So, this was like a super nice pan flat road and then it just went off straight up a 15% climb and then it rolled over the top and it was flat again and then buff I’ve just gone up another 15 center which it’s fine. And I can get up them by so slow. Like my pace drops to like 6k an hour. It’s going to take a long time to finish at 6K an hour. But the good news is I have at least gone through 200k. In fact, I’m on 205k now. So yeah, happy with that. 9 and 1 half hours on the clock. It’s quart 4 in the afternoon. So, oh my god, look at this. It’s another one. I’m going to have to see you later. Then into New Town. Then you’ve got a lovely breather up the Montgomery Canal. That’s that’s a real welcome one as usual for this route. You know, flanked by castles all the way. [Music] you know, everything you’d expect. Rushes, swans, really nice, you know, long enough that you can actually give your legs a rest. And then you’re climbing up to Montgomery, drop down to Montgomery, uh, and then getting a bit of flatland, bit of rest bite, join Alpha’s Dyke again, and then you’ve got the big Shropshire Hills coming up. The first of the three big final climbs was absolutely savage. So, I started to feel better on this long stretch with a lot of recovery. And I’d thought then maybe that I’d be able to at least sail up this first one. But again, like every other flipping climb on that route, it was ridiculously steep [Music] and road turned to gravel, which turned to really rough gravel. And that was the point where I had to put my foot down for the first time and walk a section because I I didn’t have the power to get up this really technical point. And then the trail just dragged all the way along the top. Like I think it was really picturesque and beautiful, but at that point I was hating the fact that it was bumpy grass. It was really savage. I’ve made it to the top of the first one. I think [Music] sorry riding like at 280 W or something like I’ve got to do to get up. Oh, it’s just really tipping me over the edge. So, I’m kind of all right cruising along the flats and then going up little BS and stuff, but soon as I got to do that kind of power for like 30 minutes at a time, I can like feel my reserves just depleting. And then to make matters worse, that last bit was so bumpy. Oh my days. And then just as quickly as I got up there, I dropped down the other side and was faced with the second one. From the bottom, it looked even worse than the last one. Bigger and better. I mean, if it is the end of level boss, it’s got to be harder than the last one. The summit segments says 5k. There’s some really steep bits in it. [Music] [Music] At least that one, the summit was really stunning. I think probably the high point of the whole route in terms of views. The stiper stones was magical, frankly, particularly at that time of day. As tired as I am, even I can appreciate this up here. Look. Oh my god. But I was proper proper screwed by the top of that one. And I honestly didn’t know how I was going to get up the final one. Not sure whether that string is designed to keep me out or them out. Either way, can be lo a bit of time. Drop down from sniper stones. Then you’ve got a good old heave uh up to the top of Long Mind, which is an amazing sort of beached whale of a hill uh right on the Shropshire border. It immediately hit with gradients of 25%. And I dragged myself to the top knowing that that was the finish line effectively or thinking that that was the finish line effectively. But really I was on my knees at that point. [Music] I’ve reached the top of the last big one. I’m absolutely done. I actually last rode up this climb 30 years ago. And I do wonder what my 12-year-old self would have made of this. [Music] I think you’d be pretty baffled as to why I would even want to ride 180 mi, let alone what am I doing not riding a mountain bike, which is a fair point. And then the curveball. I don’t know why Guy neglected to mention this one, but the descent off there was utterly wild. [Applause] [Music] Like on a mountain bike it would have been good. on a gravel bike. After 250 kilometers, I had to walk. The the risks of getting it wrong were too great. I’ve still got a scar actually from when I crashed down there as a 12-year-old. Those rock those rocks are sharp. Didn’t fancy doing that one again. [Applause] [Music] And then when I finally arrived in church threaten that had been mentally my finish line for the whole day. Guy had said once you get there you’ve done it. And so I arrived there knowing that I could still get to the finish before sundown, but actually there was still a real sting in the tail. [Music] More climbing after more climbing. It did not feel like the end. It felt like more of the same. Mentally that was hugely challenging. I mean, my fault. I’d set myself a finish line before the finish line. [Music] I mean, it was my fault really setting these artificial deadlines and targets. I wanted to get under 14 hours cuz I thought that was doable based on my average speed from the first 6 hours, but inevitably my average speed was slowing. So, that went out the window. And then I thought, okay, well, mental maths, I can definitely get back to Shrewsbury before sundown. It’s 9 900 p.m. And then I slowed more and more and more, and it got to the point where I couldn’t ride up climbs off road anymore. I just didn’t have it in me. I was properly at the end. That’s never happened before. And then it was actually something that Mark Bowmont had said to me many many years ago when we were doing something stupid and I was pretty tired and maybe getting a bit grumpy and he said like don’t worry about when you finish just know that you will finish and you’ll get there in the end. You just need to keep pedaling which I mean sounds like common sense but actually is incredibly good advice for the end of something like that because I could just keep going whether I was walking or I was pedaling. I knew I was moving and I would eventually get to the end. And by having that in the back of my mind, I was able to at least find some peace and tranquility for the last 20k when mercifully it did go downhill and it was on tarmac. And whilst I didn’t get back to Shrewbury for sunset, I watched the sunset in those closing kilometers and actually that was pretty bloody good. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] The final time was 15 hours 13 minutes and 12 seconds. So technically it was an FKT. For anyone out there looking to get one, I would suggest that this is some lowhanging fruit for you. So I’m not expecting to hold on to it for very long. My average speed was exactly 20 km an hour, which was significantly slower than I was expecting before taking on the route and arguably should have been a bit more if I hadn’t completely cracked in those last two hours. And I managed actually for once to spend less than an hour not riding. So, uh, elapse time was 14 hours and 19 minutes. My average heart rate was 137, which is pretty high, but my average power was quite a lot lower. Uh, average power was just 167. So, a lot of time spent freewheeling. Let’s put it that way. The route was savage. I’m not going to lie. Like, that is not an easy ride of things. I think even if you were going to take two or three days over it, it is blooming hard. The bike was perfect. But because you there is a lot of tarmac, you would want a gravel bike, but some of the off-road sections are pretty chunky. So, I think you need some pretty good technical abilities and a very capable bike. But yeah, my overriding memory is it is hard. Really hard. And I’ll be honest, right now I don’t think I want to do another one. [Music] [Music]