Sunday 13 April sees a little race in France called the Paris-Roubaix. You might have heard of it. Large sections take place on rubbish old cobbled roads, giving the race a reputation for toughness and leading to its more familiar nickname of the Hell of the North.

Inspired by this race, the Winchcombe Cycling Club and Cheltenham and County Cycling Club have been running their Hell of the North Cotswolds “reliability trial” for 18 years. It’s a 100km route (with a 50km option) over a mixture of tarmac, “white” roads and bridleways – about 25% of it is “properly” off-road but a lot of the roads aren’t exactly smooth… The organisers have added more off-road for this year, and say that the route is “significantly more challenging”.

The HONC is held on the same day as the Paris-Roubaix, with the 19th running of the event therefore on Sunday 13 April at 9am. Last year over 900 riders took part, with the mixed terrain leading to a mixed bag of bikes from full-sus MTBs through cyclo-cross bikes to tourers…

Enter before April 1 and it’ll cost you a paltry six quid. You can download an entry form from the Cheltenham and County Cycling Club website. If you’d like to know more, contact Brian Hayward on 01242 603418 or Pat Alexander on 01242 535654 (weekdays). Or email [email protected].