Dragon Ride 2008

mrmo

oldwelshman wrote:

Good to ride in a goup once or twice for a change.
Did any one else almost over shoot the descent off the last climb? Could have put a "cyclist slow" sign on that one though I guess it was my own fault for going to fast down there

30mph into the shrubbery. No grip and the corner seemed to tighten. Oh well live and learn.

ghrvaleview

There was a nasty crash on what I think was the same corner. A car driver and several riders were crowded around a rider on the deck (dressed in yellow). I don't think the car was involved but was busy trying to avoid riders who had stopped to assist.

Should have been signage on that bend for sure. I do hope the rider was okay and it looked worse than it actually was.

Otherwise well done to organisers, marshals, safety bikes and everyone who completed the ride!

Simon Notley

Was that the descent of the smaller (but unexpected) climb after the final descent of the Bwlch and the right turn in a village?

I was on my own for that section and had to admit it took me by surprise, but fortunately I really nailed the corners and got a great adrenalin rush which is probably all that got me to the end of the course (in 6:12 including stops I think).

Hello to anyone I rode with, particularly Simon and Jason who i rode with over the first couple of climbs but then dropped me on the run in to the second feed (I started too fast!)

A good event overall I think, although a bit of an issue with cars on the town sections and a frustrating delay getting going (and awful sound system as previously mentioned). Also, I'm not sure of the wisdom of having the riders going back to the car park crossing the finishing riders, I cam barrelling down there at 45kph and ended up overtaking a car that was making a meal of passing some finished riders.

Sfelt

Great day out, only my second sportif and first 100miler, sore everywhere but a great nights sleep last night, I felt a bit sorry for the guys at the feed stations, etiquette seems to go out the door. Would savoury/salty snacks help keep the cramps at bay?

Having finished this and still being a complete newcomer which events would you recommend in the coming months? I'm London based and have got the bug bad!

Many thanks to all the organisers and marshalls on the event. See you next year.

clanton

That corner was quite unexpected and I took it way faster than I would have normally and just "railed" arounhd it - great feeling! The ride was fantastic though I did get overexcited and went off too fast with the result that Bwlch the second time round was a nightmare. Managed to pull myself together though and finished fairly strongly with a time I was very pleased with.

Ken Night

Results are up

http://www.raceahead.net/SearchResults.aspx

Bush75

Anybody know the classification times for the categories? ie Gold, silver and bronze

I can't seem to find them

caw35slr

Brilliant event, but did I miss a drinks station after Cimla @ 45 km from the finish? By the time I got over Bwlch for the second time I was all but dry, so I was pretty well finished off by the sting in the tail at Llangeinor.

This was my first sportive and I've got to say thanks to all the volunteers who were doling out encouragement to one and all, thanks also to the friendly riders who took the time to chat to me going up those climbs.

caw35slr

Anybody know where to get photos?

jackfeeder

Well that was my first ever sportive and it was really good. Very impressed with the organisation and facilities. I agree with the choice of food, be nice to have a bit more variety.
Did better than I thought, did the 120km. 5hrs 18mins so pleased with that. Made a few mistakes with my choice of kit and took too much stuff with me. Still not 100% with clipping in and out of my pedals which caused me a few problems with red lights and traffic!
Just to say thanks to everyone who gave me a bit of a tow, especially the 2 lads between Glyneath and Neath, that was a big help before Cimla.
The only thing that I couldn't get to grips with was getting on the back of faster moving groups and when I took the front of a small group I'd look behind to see if we could get a few of us working together but they be gone out the back.
How do you go about this, it would make it more enjoyable next time.
Got to start saving up for a nice carbon jobbie now, surely I'd go faster than my converted halfords bike.
All in all a really good day, have to do a few more now.

Simon Notley

I'm not sure if there are officially gold, silver and bronze or not. There was a post on here apparnetly form the organiser saying that the boundaries would be 6:15 and 7:00 for the 180km, so I'm claiming that I got gold! The official times are up, I got 6:09 after also going too fast on the early climbs and underestimating the middle ones...

Mark Alexander

What a day!! Yesterday was a day of learning. The delayed start was because the inflatable start arch wouldn’t blow up.
The Ogmore

was at the start of one group. It was a great feeling. The local Ogmore Valley wheelers group of six leading out what turned out to be about 200 ish riders at about 20mph. I looked back and it was an awesome sight. Very cool.

I was ok with the climbs as I knew what was coming but, As a club mate was split with me, we decided to do it together. He hadn’t done 100 recently so we took it easy. We stopped at the feed stations the groups that we got into were good with everyone taking their turn on the front. I have to admit that I’ was stunned at how much energy I saved.

With 40 to go my partner began to slow and on the Cimla climb he blew up. At that point he clung to my wheel as I tried to get him home. Just before we hit the Bwlch for the last time. I was fresh as a daisy and chomping at the bit so we agreed that I’d go ahead.

Boy did I !! I put the hammer down and flew up the 4.5 miles of the Bwlch at about 12mph (I couldn’t work out why I was fresh but still holding back. I must have passed 30 riders going up there and then pushed all the way home. I was chuffed.
I have no idea of my time but I wasn't riding at my pace.
I then rode home to Cardiff.

All in all, a great practice sportif.
BRING ON MARMOTTE!!.

jhop

Unusually the gold, silver and bronze standards at The Dragon Ride appear not to be categorised according to age.
If 6.54 got me silver as a 57 year old surely the youngsters should have had to go a bit quicker for the same award?

I quite like the idea of basing award levels around an average speed and most of them seem to come out at around 16mph for me to get silver and usually if I can get silver standard in UK rides I can keep ahead of the broom wagon in the etape.

Posted Fri Jun 6, 2008 11:45 am
Somewhat short notice but we are looking to introduce some Gold, Silver and Bronze time standards. This has been OK'd by British Cycling. No prizes associated with the results.

Proposed levels are:

180km Gold -6hrs 14 min, Silver -7hrs, Bronze 7hrs+

120km Gold -4hrs 6 min, Silver -4hrs 38 min, Bronze 4hrs 38min+

These are based on average speed of 18 and 16mph

speckybecky

What would the standards be for women, I'm presuming not the same as the men otherwise even the fastest woman on the 120km route would be getting a silver?

I really enjoyed myself...thanks to the organisers and marshals for a fantastic day. I quite liked having bananas at the feed stations, a bit of real food rather than gooey gels or stodgey energy bars!

clanton

caw35slr wrote:

Anybody know where to get photos?

I think they'll be up on Sportive photo but probably not before Tuesday or Wednesday.

Bronzie

caw35slr wrote:

Anybody know where to get photos?

http://sportivephoto.thirdlight.com/vie ... mid=158135
but not available yet - should be able to search by your rider number provided you had it on the front of your bike not wrapped around the seatpost :roll:

Managed 6-07 which surprised me - how come it was so much faster than last year's route :?:
Quickest time last year was just under 6 hours, but this year Dan Staite banged round in 5h11! :shock:

Bronzie

jackfeeder wrote:

The only thing that I couldn't get to grips with was getting on the back of faster moving groups and when I took the front of a small group I'd look behind to see if we could get a few of us working together but they be gone out the back.
How do you go about this, it would make it more enjoyable next time.

Just a case of practice makes perfect I think - riding with your local club's chaingang training rides is the best place to practice this sort of thing

Ken Night

Bronzie wrote:

Managed 6-07 which surprised me - how come it was so much faster than last year's route :?:
Quickest time last year was just under 6 hours, but this year Dan Staite banged round in 5h11! :shock:

Though I haven't personal experience of previous editions of the Dragon,I've done others over the last couple of years.

I believe the growing sportive scene is attracting higher quality riders, and generally the standard is going up as people get used to the format of 100+ miles rolling to hilly routes

Sorry not to meet you Bronzie, or Oldwelshman...I looked out for the kit and tattoos

I did approach one heavily tattooed rider, with the greeting "old welshman?" and got an incomprehensible reply-in Welsh of course.

Oh well, shades of trying to meet "Soshocked" on the WRC last weekend

Bronzie

Ken Night wrote:

I believe the growing sportive scene is attracting higher quality riders, and generally the standard is going up as people get used to the format of 100+ miles rolling to hilly routes

Yeah, but I'm not getting any quicker! :roll: There is no way I'd have done just over 6 hours last year (if I hadn't fallen off) - was on target for 6-40 or so - by my reckoning the course was at least 30mins faster than last year.

Shame I didn't meet up with you Ken, but there were a LOT of riders milling around. Too many jerseys to take in. I did end up buying Oldwelshman a lamb burger though - just so he felt at home like :P

Club of the Day Award must go to Cardiff Jif - riding in a nice group and they obviously have a great sense of humour - check their website if you don't believe me:
http://www.cardiffjif.com/
A bit like the Cardiff Ajax, but they get those stubborn stains out that lesser clubs leave behind

oldwelshman

Bronzie wrote:

caw35slr wrote:

Anybody know where to get photos?

http://sportivephoto.thirdlight.com/vie ... mid=158135
but not available yet - should be able to search by your rider number provided you had it on the front of your bike not wrapped around the seatpost :roll:

Managed 6-07 which surprised me - how come it was so much faster than last year's route :?:
Quickest time last year was just under 6 hours, but this year Dan Staite banged round in 5h11! :shock:

I did better than expected with ilness and did it in 5:53.
The reason the times are faster Rich is the route last year was 200km not 180km as it started and finished in Bridgend.
In addition to that, it headed to Port Talbot and went over Cimla and bwlch twice on the long drag so would have lowered av speed as it is a long old drag that way.

Pirahna

The delay at the start was because of cars trying to park backing up onto the roundabout, and they didn't fancy letting the groups out into the traffic.

I'm very impressed with all the times. My ride time was a leisurely 6.47 but 7.24 overall. One puncture, three bottle fill ups and 4 wee stops. Not too bad considering how slack I've been training this year. With hindshigh I could have gone quicker as I tagged onto a group off the bottom of the last climb and had the energy to get dragged along at a steady 30mph to the finish. Never mind, I'll do a sub 7 hour next year.

jhop

speckybecky wrote:

What would the standards be for women, I'm presuming not the same as the men otherwise even the fastest woman on the 120km route would be getting a silver?
!

Specky you are of course right gender too should be taken into account when setting standards and usually it is.

Rich.H

Well, no rain and therefore no need to strip the bike down means it was a great day for me

Finished with an official time of 6h 12m which was nearly an hour faster than I managed last year. I feel like I am going well at the moment and felt really strong over the last 20km, which is good news with the Etape coming up soon :roll:

I really enjoy this ride but the one thing I would like to see changed is the run through Neath and the Cimla climb - I know we need to get back to the Bwlch but these parts of the route are really not in keeping with the rest. I wonder if it could go further into the Brecons and come back over the Bwlch from the north? I'll be there next year whatever...

Oldwelshman, it was me who said hello just before the top of the Rhigos - you were going well!!

As others have said, there were some lovely bikes out. For some reason, I have now developed an irrational longing for a pair of Lightweights

Rich

SteveR_100Milers

I smiled at the txt from raceahead:

"Congrats Steve in finishing the Dragon in DNF, well done!"

:roll:

Norch

When I arrived yesterday there was a very long queue for the gents toilets in the college sports hall (didn't realise there were some portaloos round the corner) and so as the queue was 98% male we started using the ladies as well. Got right to the front of the queue and this bolshie girl came in and demanded instant access as she was “female” – well no arguing with that. Next chap who finished in cubicle nicely held door open for her to be haughtily told to “PUT THE LID DOWN!!”. I have to say I wasn’t the only one to laugh out loud

Mark Alexander

Bronzie wrote:

caw35slr wrote:

Anybody know where to get photos?

http://sportivephoto.thirdlight.com/vie ... mid=158135
but not available yet - should be able to search by your rider number provided you had it on the front of your bike not wrapped around the seatpost :roll:

Managed 6-07 which surprised me - how come it was so much faster than last year's route :?:
Quickest time last year was just under 6 hours, but this year Dan Staite banged round in 5h11! :shock:

the dragonride site says that they'll be on Phil O'Connor and has a link

Diesel_engine

I'm mighty impressed with the times on the Dragon. Does it really have 3000m of climbing?

Well done, all!

portuguese mike

Mark Alexander wrote:

What a day!! Yesterday was a day of learning. The delayed start was because the inflatable start arch wouldn’t blow up.
The Ogmore

was at the start of one group. It was a great feeling. The local Ogmore Valley wheelers group of six leading out what turned out to be about 200 ish riders at about 20mph. I looked back and it was an awesome sight. Very cool.

I was ok with the climbs as I knew what was coming but, As a club mate was split with me, we decided to do it together. He hadn’t done 100 recently so we took it easy. We stopped at the feed stations the groups that we got into were good with everyone taking their turn on the front. I have to admit that I’ was stunned at how much energy I saved.

With 40 to go my partner began to slow and on the Cimla climb he blew up. At that point he clung to my wheel as I tried to get him home. Just before we hit the Bwlch for the last time. I was fresh as a daisy and chomping at the bit so we agreed that I’d go ahead.

Boy did I !! I put the hammer down and flew up the 4.5 miles of the Bwlch at about 12mph (I couldn’t work out why I was fresh but still holding back. I must have passed 30 riders going up there and then pushed all the way home. I was chuffed.
I have no idea of my time but I wasn't riding at my pace.
I then rode home to Cardiff.



All in all, a great practice sportif.
BRING ON MARMOTTE!!.

Do you know how long it took you?

Go-KL

This was only my second sportive (I did the Exmoor Beast last year) as I am a runner who is doing a bit of cycling on the side ( I did around 5 weeks of semi cycle based training for this after the London Marathon in April). I though it was a great route - not quite the shattering experience I was expecting because the gradient of the hills was more Highlands than Devon and Cornwall. It did though make the descents great fun and not as hairy as the Exmoor ride.

Aside from the delay at the start I thought the area worked pretty well - I was grateful for there to be a shop selling clothing as I had managed somehow to arrive with only one cycle glove. I thought though the portaloos could have been better signposted and maybe just more of them.

If it was the inflatable start thing that caused the delay then that is unfortunate. If it was because entrants were still trying to park and created problems at the roundabout then it may be an idea to suggest riders allow more time to arrive at the venue. At most large running races they suggest at the very minimum 1 hour and recommend arriving 1 1/2 to 2 hours ahead of the start - partly to minimise parking problems. I thought suggesting 45 minutes was cutting it a bit fine.

Anyway, away from the start I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. There seemed to be a bit of a problem at the first(?) set of traffic lights (Up a bit of a hill) where we presumed the sensors in the road were not recognising our bikes and kept 200 or so cyclists stuck there for what seemed like forever... I think had a rebellion not ensued then we could still be there now...

Like at the Exmoor Beast, I found on the ride that I was strong on the climbs, passing loads of cyclists. I was ok on the descents but weak on the flat bits and the long very slight climbs in the Beacons, where I could not stay on the back of most of the club cyclists. I guess that is just because I lack that bit of power in my running based legs and more experience riders are better at pacing themselves (I like hills so I attack on them and to hell with the consequences!)

The drinks stations were like feeding time at the zoo - quite funny really. I did not eat any of the food provided (I was carrying my own) but did appreciate the electrolyte drinks. It wasn't though the bacon sarnies and home made cakes of the Exmoor Beast. To be fair to Dragon Ride the volume of cyclists make such luxuries hard, but I felt there could have been a touch more choice on what was to offer.

I loved the first Bwlch and Cimla but struggled a bit on the second Bwlch (Trying not to be sick from too much sugar and Powergel and with intense pain in my feet where the cleats are). I had to resort to taking my feet out of the pedals on the following descents and stretching them, which caused me to nearly come to grief on the final descent with the hairpins (As mentioned in posts earlier). I found the best cure to mask the pain in the feet was to push as hard as possible in the final run in - which saw me clocking my fastest 'flat' miles of the day.

I finished in 06:28 (06:15 minus the stops) which I was pretty pleased with considering my novice status. I then heard from my brothers who had planned to cycle from Cardiff to cheer me at the finish - got lost, rode 45 miles or so (One in flip flops on a bike he first used to do his paper round on about 10 years ago...) turning up at one point at Bridgend college instead of Pencoed....

Rather than leave them to their own devices getting back, I sent the wife back to Cardiff in the car and navigated them back 17 miles on the bike to Cardiff. It actually made for a quite nice recovery ride and helped me log my biggest single day's mileage which was a bonus.

All in all a great day's riding which I would recommend and do again.

portuguese mike

What a great day. Totally lucked out with the weather (probably mean we'll get something Biblical on the Etape).

I was really pleased with the way i went after last weeks misery at Highclere. Took it easy to start with and ended up with a ok time. Official time was only 7.07 but i had agreed to wait for my mate at the top of all the climbs so my ride time was 6.25 (my mates was 6.45) which i'm very pleased with. i felt pretty good on the second ascent of the Bwlch which hopefull bodes well for the pyranees and like a lot of people went like a train to the finish.