2018 Sportives
Discussion
idiotgap said:
Nice to meet you at the midway feed-stop Alex - great ride!
Yes was a great day and the weather was nigh on perfect. We stuck to our strategy of going easy for the first loop, that went out the window for the last 10-15km of the first loop.
I think a few people rode past us prior to the first feed station, but then stayed on as we left never to be seen again. Same story on the other two stops, the road got very quiet in the end.
The last feed station was very tactically positioned for those who had blown up on the hardest climb or who had walked up.
We went round in 7hr 6mins, 7hr 22 including stops and felt ok at the end. 2 of those climbs were pretty tough and I have ride a few tough ones over the years. Easy compared to the Marmotte, don't tell you friend that!
Considering I haven't done the volume this year as not doing Marmotte this year I was happy with 213w NP over 7 hrs, just need to shed some more timber.
Rode the Shropshire Market Towns Sportive yesterday. Door to door it was 151km and 1031m of climbing. Having suffered somewhat on the climbs of the TdY Sportive in May, it was quite nice to only need the granny ring once all day.
Good value for £20 with four feed stations with no queues and decent cake (as opposed to the epic queues at the TdY).
Good value for £20 with four feed stations with no queues and decent cake (as opposed to the epic queues at the TdY).
ALawson said:
idiotgap said:
Nice to meet you at the midway feed-stop Alex - great ride!
Yes was a great day and the weather was nigh on perfect. We stuck to our strategy of going easy for the first loop, that went out the window for the last 10-15km of the first loop.
I think a few people rode past us prior to the first feed station, but then stayed on as we left never to be seen again. Same story on the other two stops, the road got very quiet in the end.
The last feed station was very tactically positioned for those who had blown up on the hardest climb or who had walked up.
We went round in 7hr 6mins, 7hr 22 including stops and felt ok at the end. 2 of those climbs were pretty tough and I have ride a few tough ones over the years. Easy compared to the Marmotte, don't tell you friend that!
Considering I haven't done the volume this year as not doing Marmotte this year I was happy with 213w NP over 7 hrs, just need to shed some more timber.
I don't think my friend is under any illusions about the Marmotte, but he's just keen to get some decently long days in the saddle. I'm losing timber very gradually through commuting, it's getting me fitter though and I had a PR on every hill I'd done before I think yesterday, which was good considering the distance. I also spent some time waiting for my friend at the top of the climbs which reverses the situation of a year or two ago.
Good, time! I had to get back to light a BBQ and feed the kids for 5 pm (that went out the window as one had to see GP out of hours). Should have listened to that voicemail!
Yes, those were the two hills. Most of the steep stuff is always tough the first time you do it as you never know when the top is, I shall remember for next time. Have to say you have some great terrain in your neck of the woods.
Yes, those were the two hills. Most of the steep stuff is always tough the first time you do it as you never know when the top is, I shall remember for next time. Have to say you have some great terrain in your neck of the woods.
Did the Welsh Dragon, and it reminded me why I don't bother.
Here are some "highlights"
. £90 Entry (Think we paid £65 as a group though)
. Pasta Party.............Where was this Pasta party exactly? No "village" the day before
. Can't go through car-park to start on bikes, so have to bike through a field with gravel! Watched two blokes stack it.
. Marshals who genuinely didn't give a crap, and stood at points on phones, not letting us know if traffic is coming.
. Tacks all over the road 10 mile in. Disgusting.
. Our little group used 5 inner tubes here, so we bought some more at feedstop......£7 each for cheap Valverts!
. The food at feed station 2 left out in the sun, so all melted!
. Cheapest awfullest drink powder. Tried a gel too, give me gut ache.
Route was signposted well though.
Here are some "highlights"
. £90 Entry (Think we paid £65 as a group though)
. Pasta Party.............Where was this Pasta party exactly? No "village" the day before
. Can't go through car-park to start on bikes, so have to bike through a field with gravel! Watched two blokes stack it.
. Marshals who genuinely didn't give a crap, and stood at points on phones, not letting us know if traffic is coming.
. Tacks all over the road 10 mile in. Disgusting.
. Our little group used 5 inner tubes here, so we bought some more at feedstop......£7 each for cheap Valverts!
. The food at feed station 2 left out in the sun, so all melted!
. Cheapest awfullest drink powder. Tried a gel too, give me gut ache.
Route was signposted well though.
lukefreeman said:
Did the Welsh Dragon, and it reminded me why I don't bother.
Here are some "highlights"
. £90 Entry (Think we paid £65 as a group though)
. Pasta Party.............Where was this Pasta party exactly? No "village" the day before
. Can't go through car-park to start on bikes, so have to bike through a field with gravel! Watched two blokes stack it.
. Marshals who genuinely didn't give a crap, and stood at points on phones, not letting us know if traffic is coming.
. Tacks all over the road 10 mile in. Disgusting.
. Our little group used 5 inner tubes here, so we bought some more at feedstop......£7 each for cheap Valverts!
. The food at feed station 2 left out in the sun, so all melted!
. Cheapest awfullest drink powder. Tried a gel too, give me gut ache.
Route was signposted well though.
Seriously, come do the Loch Ness Etape next year, flawless from start to finish. Couldn't recommend it higher.Here are some "highlights"
. £90 Entry (Think we paid £65 as a group though)
. Pasta Party.............Where was this Pasta party exactly? No "village" the day before
. Can't go through car-park to start on bikes, so have to bike through a field with gravel! Watched two blokes stack it.
. Marshals who genuinely didn't give a crap, and stood at points on phones, not letting us know if traffic is coming.
. Tacks all over the road 10 mile in. Disgusting.
. Our little group used 5 inner tubes here, so we bought some more at feedstop......£7 each for cheap Valverts!
. The food at feed station 2 left out in the sun, so all melted!
. Cheapest awfullest drink powder. Tried a gel too, give me gut ache.
Route was signposted well though.
lukefreeman said:
Did the Welsh Dragon, and it reminded me why I don't bother.
Here are some "highlights"
. £90 Entry (Think we paid £65 as a group though)
. Pasta Party.............Where was this Pasta party exactly? No "village" the day before
. Can't go through car-park to start on bikes, so have to bike through a field with gravel! Watched two blokes stack it.
. Marshals who genuinely didn't give a crap, and stood at points on phones, not letting us know if traffic is coming.
. Tacks all over the road 10 mile in. Disgusting.
. Our little group used 5 inner tubes here, so we bought some more at feedstop......£7 each for cheap Valverts!
. The food at feed station 2 left out in the sun, so all melted!
. Cheapest awfullest drink powder. Tried a gel too, give me gut ache.
Route was signposted well though.
At least you got to see the food at the feed stations. The queues for food/drink at the first two feed stations on this year's Tour de Yorkshire Sportive (also run by Human Race) were huge, so we skipped them. The queue at Pateley Bridge looked a good 15 to 20 minutes.Here are some "highlights"
. £90 Entry (Think we paid £65 as a group though)
. Pasta Party.............Where was this Pasta party exactly? No "village" the day before
. Can't go through car-park to start on bikes, so have to bike through a field with gravel! Watched two blokes stack it.
. Marshals who genuinely didn't give a crap, and stood at points on phones, not letting us know if traffic is coming.
. Tacks all over the road 10 mile in. Disgusting.
. Our little group used 5 inner tubes here, so we bought some more at feedstop......£7 each for cheap Valverts!
. The food at feed station 2 left out in the sun, so all melted!
. Cheapest awfullest drink powder. Tried a gel too, give me gut ache.
Route was signposted well though.
Ended up getting some water from a village hall that was open and bought some from a Spa in Otley.
Only two I have done this year, were the King of the Downs and the SWRC May Flower, both were pretty excellent and only £30 per person. Evans managed to give away a small multi tool, High 5 bottle, box of high 5 stuff, an inner tube, breakfast and a hot dog/burger at the end.
Feed stations and signage on both sportive was great.
Entry fee and hotel was one of the main issues in not doing Dragon Ride or TOC this year.
Feed stations and signage on both sportive was great.
Entry fee and hotel was one of the main issues in not doing Dragon Ride or TOC this year.
Harpoon said:
Rode the Shropshire Market Towns Sportive yesterday. Door to door it was 151km and 1031m of climbing. Having suffered somewhat on the climbs of the TdY Sportive in May, it was quite nice to only need the granny ring once all day.
Good value for £20 with four feed stations with no queues and decent cake (as opposed to the epic queues at the TdY).
I did the same.Good value for £20 with four feed stations with no queues and decent cake (as opposed to the epic queues at the TdY).
It was good fun and their major climb had a nice view.
ALawson said:
Go over The Burway?
Not on the Market Towns route.Last June I went that way to visit some friends who live between Shrewsbury and Welshpool. Just as I started climbing out of Church Stretton the rain arrived and by the time I'd gone over the cattle grid, it was biblical. I stopped to put on the rain jacket I'd grabbed from home as a late decision and slogged my way up & over. There was a sportive from Ludlow going up at the same time and the people running the feed station in the first car park were desperately trying to stop their gazebo relocating to Wales.
My pre-planned route then added to my suffering by going over Stipperstones. A ride filed in the character building category.
Its a great hill to ride up, my wife's parents live in Church Stretton so a favourite climb of mine. Worst conditions were boxing day or so, a few years ago. Got to the top and the 3 degrees in the valley was now 0. Riding through puddles and noticing that they were freezing was the first hint to get off the Long Mynd. Some great roads in the Stiperstones area as well.
Chicken Chaser said:
flight147z said:
9 days. Really looking forward to it. Most of my miles so far this year have been indoors due to the weather!
https://www.rideacrossbritain.com
Ace, I saw that and would love to have a crack at it one day. Not cheap though and I'd never get the sponsorship. https://www.rideacrossbritain.com
Please provide a diary if you can when you do it. I'm sure plenty of here would be interested.
https://nkbdoesrab.wordpress.com
flight147z said:
I'm back - 6 months later. I've started a blog which I hope to update over the course of the ride. The link is below if you are interested. Just 19 days to go!
https://nkbdoesrab.wordpress.com
I'm two days in - still updating the blog daily even though I'm about dead each evening if anyone is interested. Should get day 2 up tonighthttps://nkbdoesrab.wordpress.com
I went and road a chunk of the velo south route on Monday just to get a feel for it. I was amazed by the number of "Stop Velo South" posters etc around. Are we going to end up with some nutters parking across the route or throwing tacks all over the place? I never have figured out how you do an on the go puncture repair on tubeless tyres!
williaa68 said:
I went and road a chunk of the velo south route on Monday just to get a feel for it. I was amazed by the number of "Stop Velo South" posters etc around. Are we going to end up with some nutters parking across the route or throwing tacks all over the place? I never have figured out how you do an on the go puncture repair on tubeless tyres!
Go to the cycleclinic website, Malcolm has written a good guide on tubeless repair. As far as he is concerns he only takes the tyres off once worn out. You should in theory check the amount of sealant you have, if concerned put another 30ml into the tyre. That should ensue anything below about 3-5mm self heals.
In my experience holes that size always do, the issue is when they are larger than that.
You then need some tyre worms which you insert with an applicator, let them go off with the aid of some normal patch glue and you should be able to reinflate the tyre. Issue is that Co2 may well blow the worm out or cause the sealant to separate or not work then the gap between worm and tyre continues leaking.
Malcolm is an advocate of carry a small bottle of sealant, value core remover, worms and some super glue.
If the worst happens (which I have had twice in 4 years of tubeless) a big >10mm sidewall team then I am afraid its tyre off, boot in tyre and use a tube (console yourself that it would also have killed a clincher as well). Well ridden tyres should remount quite easily and I use IRC levers, I keep one side of the tyre on the rim if needing to do this.
I rode about 50miles on Ride London with a tack in the tyre with no noticeable reduction in pressure!
williaa68 said:
I went and road a chunk of the velo south route on Monday just to get a feel for it. I was amazed by the number of "Stop Velo South" posters etc around. Are we going to end up with some nutters parking across the route or throwing tacks all over the place? I never have figured out how you do an on the go puncture repair on tubeless tyres!
My sister lives pretty close to part of the route and says there's been quite a bit of local moaning. Hopefully it won't spill over into any unpleasantries though.Out of interest, were there any parts of the route that were particularly noteworthy? I know the climb up Harting Hill at around 90 miles is going to hurt but do I need to steel myself for anything nasty in advance of that?
I read that there has been a legal challenge to stop Velo South.
https://road.cc/content/news/247930-legal-challeng...
https://road.cc/content/news/247930-legal-challeng...
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