I have had a good study of the route and marked it onto my mapping software. I was born in Gwynedd and fairly familiar with many of the towns and main roads along the route. I must confess though, being fairly new to road cycling, I have never cycled in North Wales nor attempted an event of this scale before.
If anyone is interested I have compiled a Google Map page for the route: [url]http://www.the-lamberts.co.uk/cycling/gran-fondo-cymru.html[/url]. (If you have mapping software of your own and it supports .gpx files, then change the .html extension to .xml on this url and save the gpx route file output with a .gpx extension).
Now I am trying to convince myself it is not as bad as it looks. The quoted 3500m ascents is what the mapping software would calculate, which takes into account every little undulation. Studying the elevation profile (also published on the I-Team website), I would say that the hills of any significance add up to about 1700m with largest continuous ascent at 330m - half as easy already .
I headed off to the Surrey Hills on Saturday to put in some of my training for this ride (missed the CR due to mechanical problem) . My mapping software calculated it as a 54mile ride with 1270m of ascents of which I calculated 740m on significant hills, with largest continuous ascent at 180m. I survived reasonably comfortably. I know this analysis does not take into account gradients nor winds, and I know I will need to do a lot longer training rides, but this is enough to give me an idea of what I have let myself in for.
Huw - I'm looking forward to the training rides you mentioned you would organise - I will need them.
P.S. I'm booked into the The White Lion Royal Hotel in Bala.