UK sportiv, hilly Audax Mar-Apr?

kevin_stephens

I'm aiming to take part in La Ventoux sportiv late May 2008. As part of my training/build up it would be good to get in some really hilly UK rides around Mar Apr. Do you know of any suitable events, ideally N England / N Wales?

Thanks

SteveR_100Milers

take a look on www.cyclosport.co.uk

Lists most if not all UK sportives.

Bronzie

Also have a look at the Audax UK calendaer:
http://www.aukweb.net/cal/index.htm

The events marked "AA" or with a distance in metres in square brackets are supposed to be especially "hilly" courses - not that those without these markers are particularly flat!

Audaxes are a great alternative to sportives for long sportive training IMO - more on the calendar and much cheaper to enter too! The only downside is that audax riders do generally ride at a more sedate pace than in sportives - which is not a bad thing at all in many instances unless you are trying to improve your riding in a group at speed.

ricadus

Use the audaxes for hill and distance training and find a mid-week club chaingang for the group riding and speed work.

The Ventoux is an hour-and-a-half climb, so you may have trouble finding something that exactly replicates that, but riding in cr*p UK late winter conditions may be useful if the weather is as bad on the Ventoux as it was in this year's event.

ricadus

Bronzie wrote:

Audaxes are a great alternative to sportives for long sportive training IMO.

For the budget conscious, they are better priced certainly – effectively a quarter of the price of a UK commercial sportive.

Noodley

A few audaxes with hills:

5 April - The Elenith, starting just outside Kidderminster: 305km with 4727m of climbing (see you there!)

20 April - Spring into the Dales, starting at Hebden Bridge: 110km with 2205m of climbing (see you there as well - maybe!)

27 April - Tan Hill 200, starting at Padiham: 210km with 3701m of climbing (won't see you there)

ColinJ

Noodley wrote:

A few audaxes with hills:

5 April - The Elenith, starting just outside Kidderminster: 305km with 4727m of climbing (see you there!)

20 April - Spring into the Dales, starting at Hebden Bridge: 110km with 2205m of climbing (see you there as well - maybe!)

27 April - Tan Hill 200, starting at Padiham: 210km with 3701m of climbing (won't see you there)

You beat me to it! It's one of my favourites, especially since it starts and finishes just round the corner from me.

There's a (very lengthy!) write-up of my 2006 SITD here.

kevin_stephens

Thanks for the audax info, I will have to register to get full access to the calendar. In the meantime what is the current audax ruling on mudguards outside summer? Will I be able to get away with raceblades on my best bike, or will I need full mudguards and hence an audax type frame?

Kevin

Bronzie

Kevin Stephens wrote:

In the meantime what is the current audax ruling on mudguards outside summer?

Most events now allow riders without guards, but I believe certain organisers can still stipulate guards must be used. Usually noted with an "M" as a special entry condition if required.

I must admit, I for one wouldn't want to sit behind a rider using "blades" on a mucky audax ride. My face is ugly enough as is without being sprayed with cow crap.

Noodley

Kevin Stephens wrote:

Thanks for the audax info, I will have to register to get full access to the calendar.

<shhh, keep this quiet > You don't have to register. You can go to the toolbar for month by month searching on the top left hand side which gives access to the calendar for each month. It is something like J F M A M J J A etc and easily missed.

Mossrider

Spring in to the Dales is run by the Huddersfield Cycling Association. They do another reliability ride in around February / March from Brighouse which is around the eighty mile mark (and last year was pretty testing). Not able to spot the dates on any of the local club sites but its been quite well attended so keep your eyes open.

ColinJ

Mossrider wrote:

Spring in to the Dales is run by the Huddersfield Cycling Association.

According to this website, it is the West Yorkshire District Association of the CTC - is that just Huddersfield Cycling Association by another name?

Mossrider

No, not sure of the exact relationship but I believe that the HCA is a or the prime mover (a couple of the local CTC's are amongst the 16 or so affiliated clubs). My club has a good turnout for that reason. As said there is a pretty good warm up a month or so earlier - this year it was on the 25/02. Check out a couple of the local club websites for details nearer the time.

CPCrossland

Speaking as the organiser (and co-originator) of Spring Into the Dales (and other events), I am able to confirm that this event is run by the Halifax Section of the Cyclists' Touring Club (CTC) on behalf of the West Yorkshire District Association (DA) of the CTC. It is registered with Audax UK, and validated by them, as part of their long distance cycling calendar. Although its selling point is the climbing and the landscapes, rather than just the distance.

Most of the cycling clubs around here including Halifax CTC and West Yorkshire DA are member clubs of the Huddersfield Cycling Association which I understand was founded in 1927, incidentally a year before Halifax CTC. The last list of clubs I saw included:-
Batley Cycling Club
Condor Road Club
CTC Halifax
CTC Huddersfield
CTC West Yorkshire
Drighlington Bicycle Club
Halifax Imperial Wheelers
Halifax Racing Club
Holme Valley Wheelers
Huddersfield Road Club
Huddersfield Star Wheelers
Race Scene
Ravensthorpe Cycling Club
Sowerby Bros CRT
VS Cycles (Brighouse)
VC Bradford
West Yorkshire Police CC

The HCA calendar of events organised by its member clubs is a wonderful melange of events: time trials, races, audax, standard rides, hill climbs, sportive, cyclo-cross, social etc., and a goodly number of local cyclists take up the opportunity to ride in a selection of these.

I'm always particularly pleased to see club members and club groups taking part in our events. This level of participation has seen Spring Into The Dales (with its shorter sister event Leap Into The Aire) move into a position as one of the most popular (i.e.largest) Audax events in the country. Which I guess is also a selling point. Obviously, I'm grateful to the members of those clubs affiliated to the HCA for helping us to achieve that.

And for anybody looking to work out their calendar for 2008, we always pick the third Sunday in April, or the fourth if that clashes with Easter.

Regards

Chris

Mossrider

Thanks for putting me right on that one Chris. I was misled. We had it down as an HCA event (which I suppose it is in an umbrella sort of way) rather than an HCA organised event, which I erroneously assumed it to be. Hope to be there this year. You're correct about the vast range of events on offer in the area. I've dabbled in plenty of them myself. A few more events like yours and the reliability ride in Feb and we could really put this area firmly on the cycling map.

ColinJ

Mossrider wrote:

... A few more events like yours and the reliability ride in Feb and we could really put this area firmly on the cycling map.

Judging from the variety of accents I've heard on local events organised by Chris (and others) I'd say it is already there! People are coming from all over the place to ride events round here.