How did the WPC Start?

We had completed the SW Section Photographic Challenge, organised by Tim Pattemore, on a couple of occasions and thoroughly enjoyed having an excuse to ride to a wide variety of locations throughout the West Country.  

Many of the places we had never heard of and some proved challenging to navigate to .... but it was a great way to explore the SW Peninsula.

So, having enjoyed the SW event, we decided to contribute a similar event, based in Wales, to "The BMW Club" calendar.

We asked Tim if we could follow the same format as the SW Section event and he was very helpful in assisting us to set up the first WPC in 2018.

The SW Section Challenge is running again this year under new 'ownership' & a link to enter will be added to this page, when it's available.

What does the WPC involve?

Entry is open to all current members of The BMW Club.  If you would like to enter, at any time after December1st 2024, you complete a simple entry form and in return will receive the link to a Google map.  

After the positive response in previous years, we are again including the 'Organisers' Bonus' which is just over the border into England, so the Google map shows the 21 locations and contains any additional information that is required.

The objective of the Challenge is simply to give club members a reason to get out on their bikes.  It is not competitive in any way. Entrants may visit as many or as few of the locations as they wish.  To reach many of these, you will ride some of the best and most scenic roads in Wales.  

For previous events, if you were to start and finish in Abergavenny and planned to visit all the points using the most efficient route, you would have covered around 800 miles.  This is why the word “Challenge” is in the title!

We chose a wide variety of locations including pubs, cafes, churches, dams, viaducts, pieces of outdoor art, statues and lighthouses to name but few.

We hope this brief explanation encourages you to enter the WPC and explore Wales.