The classic 100km gold grimpeur audax
A scenic ride that criss-crosses Dartmoor, with big views, big hills and hailed byCycling Weekly as one of the top ten UK audaxes. Soup control at Wonson, café control at Princetown plus a cake checkpoint. There are 2 start to choose from - 8am and 9am.
Test yourself on one of the classic gold Grimpeur rides. Starting in Bovey Tracey, the ‘Gateway to Dartmoor’, and climbing onto the high moor via pretty villages, narrow lanes, steep hills and a soup stop. The Devil finishes back in Bovey Tracey after tackling the infamous Widecombe Hill.
After last visiting 16 years ago, this year's Devil returns to the Northmore Arms in Wonson for the soup stop, with cake at Cold East Cross and a cafe control at Princetown.
As usual, there are two separate starts, at 8am and 9am, which have separate entries.
Enter on the Audax UK website here:
8am start: https://www.audax.uk/event-details/calendar/13469-the_dartmoor_devil__8
9am start: https://www.audax.uk/event-details/calendar/13470-the_dartmoor_devil__9
Congratulations to the riders that completed milestone Devils in 2025:
25th - Kevin Presland completed his 25th Devil,
18th - Steve Main and Dave Prudden completed their 18th Devils,
12th - David Woodland completed completed his 12th Devil and,
6th - Phil Beed, Andrew Bowyer, Elizabeth Dyson, Richard Hignett, Kyle Hoondert, Alan Meaton, Rob Norris, John Scanlon completed their 6th Devils.
The route for 2025 is the hardest of the Devil's three routes and changes around the Throwleigh area to take in The Northmore Arms made it even harder. After 2024's perfect conditions, this year reverted to more Devilish weather, at least for those that weren't very early finishers. The day started off fairly perfectly - dry, not too cold and with light winds. This meant that riders had a dry and unusually clear Pepperdon hill to attack and were generally able to have got up to the high moor before getting wet, which all but a few did.
Entries for 2025 were a record 256, of which 199 started on the day. Of the starters, 158 finished within time and a further 8 finished the route but were outside the 9 hours and 7 minutes time limit. As usual with the Devil, there was a good mixture of those that are new to the ride and those that have ridden it before, many many times for some. This year we had 70 first time starters and 96 who had tackled it at least once before.
Many thanks to the venues that hosted controls: The Cromwell Arms in Bovey for the start and finish, The Northmore Arms in Wonson for the soup and the Plume of Feathers in Princetown.
And many thanks to all of the helpers for making it happen and to all of the riders for putting themselves through it.
A fuller write-up can be found on South Devon CTC's website here: https://southdevonctc.org/32nd-dartmoor-devil-report
https://cromwellarms.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/northmorearms/
https://plumedartmoor.co.uk/