UCI Cheshire Cat cyclospotive

le_patron

OllyBianchi wrote:

popette wrote:

I didn't overtake one single person, apart from the dad with his little girl and a few old people on their shopping bikes (not part of the event of course). That was the highest standard of event I've ever been on - you lot were flying along

Wife and I got around the short route in 4.26 so must have been at about the same pace as you and found that we were faster than all people on touring bikes but couldn't hold onto the serious people, So we spend most of the day on our own. Good fun though and it helped that we knew all the hills around Delemere and Kelsall too.

Given the number of people who got lost we were both amused by all the people who clearly have a serious amount of money to spend on their hobby, and would rather spend £800 (or whatever) on a pair of Zipps so they get around 30 seconds faster than £150 on a cheap Garmin so they don't get lost. While I'd love a pair of Zipps or a full set of Assos kit or whatever, I think not ending up in Macclesfield by mistake would make my day nicer than either of those two things.

It's never normally an issue. I had a GPS, but didn't put the route in before hand. I've done loads of events all over Europe and never got lost, apart from the Cheshire Cat 2 years in a row. At least I got lost with about 20 other people this time.

le_patron

howiejmidlands wrote:

That was my first ever sportive, and it will NOT be my last. I enjoyed it once i had finished the short route. I thought my training was OK, but my group shot off up the road and i was blown off the back after two miles. 6 miles in the group 2 minutes behind me caught me, and i couldnt get on the back of those guys either. So i rode my own ride.

I was never ever built as a climber, even in my youth, and the hills clobbered me. I had to walk up the last part of the hill coming out of Delamere Forest. I have only ever trained up to 50 miles before, and the last ten miles i had nothing in my tank. I shoved all my gells down, drinks, cup cakes, bananas, just nothing left.

Finished in 4:43, so was quite pleased.

Next deed is the Lakeland Loop on the new Felt bike from C+, so that should be an experience and baptism of fire for the red devil.

The short route signs were thankfully all in place, and i thought it was well managed, but then i havent anything to compare to.

The Lakeland Loop has some really severe gradients that come after quite a long ride - not for the faint-hearted, save everything for the end !

pjm-84

No I did the long course. Big guy on a Trek Madone

I started off with a black Gore jacket but stopped to take it off about 40km in. By this stage I was nice and warm and performance was starting to suffer. Even the arm warmers came down at one stage!

I cycled for a little while with a Kingston Wheeler guy who informed me that he had stayed with a friend in Manchester and was doing Flanders the following weekend. His friend was recovering from a virus? Vermooten?

Got caught by a strong group after the second checkpoint and a couple of guys I had passed and worked with suggested I jumped on. Took the opportunity but it was a little jumpy with people hanging on by their finger nails. It split when it hit the hills and I pressed on with Mow Cop in mind.

I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the signing either and spent a few times looking over my shoulder to check that I hadn't missed anything, especially when batting along at speed.

wheeler585

hey pjm think you was i n our group at the end,where everyone was looking at each other and scratching there heads on where to go!! So glad we got on track as i give it big licks all the way round and was hoping for a good time.

wheeler585

Yeah im on the video nasty,video 3 at the end of it dressed in black, white helmet. Rob wheelerNorth yorks!......cringe!!!

pjm-84

There was couple of guys at the end who knew the way back. They were intent on keeping the pace high and I was trying to play traffic marker boy by stopping at the road junctions so that the chasing pack could see which way they had gone. I then had to chase back to these guys who were taking no prisoners. I did this twice and then had to press on when I lost sight of them and the pack hadn't appeared!

wheeler585

yeah i remeber you,you looked about 6ft 4 or somthing did you have a red trek madone? The signs at the end were pretty pants like,if i would of been on my own i would of got lost and still be out there now i think!!!

pjm-84

Yep that was me. Good guess at the height!

poucher

Hi All,

I was only too pleased the way the weather turned out, wish I'd entered the long route now, but as it was only my second Sportive I thought I'd stick with the 60 miler, did it in 3hrs 40min fairly comfortably.
Still find it hard to eat / drink on the bike, dropped my energy drink bottle at one stage and had to turn around and go back for it :oops:
And almost choked on a Go-Bar :shock: but apart from that everything went quite well!

Whats all this about cakes and tea at the finish?? I was back by about 12:45 and all I got was a small cardboard box with an empty pie tin in it, and some strange bits of black plastic :? :?

Rode back to the Mother-in-laws at Lostock after the finish so I did about 66 miles in total, didn't feel safe on that dual carriageway into Northwich so I hit the back roads instead.

Next event is Kirklee's for me, need to get some more training miles in and figure out how to eat pork pie's on the move!!

Cheers,

Poucher

Maurice Thepity

I did the long route but went off course due to the missing signage. We got rounded up by one of the motor cycle marshalls, at the time I was riding on my own so at least it got me back into a group again.

Ended up with 103 miles on the clock at the finish.

Was it just me or did we have the ever lasting headwind?

Fantastic event.

cougie

Looks like some of the pics are up on the marathon photos site at least.

Cant see mine yet, but I was towards the back...

andy_wrx

the marathon photos site

Yeah - but it was cheaper to do the event than get the photos :x

pjm-84

Ouch......

Marathon price tag.

cougie

I'm just grateful that I look so rough in all my events that I've never yet felt the need to buy a picture of me !

thetrotter

I thoroughly enjoyed Sunday's ride.

I had forgotten just what a good route Geoff had devised showing off the different aspects of the Cheshire countryside (even if the route did stray into Staffordshire at one point). I thought the diversion to Talke actually improved on the orginal route through the centre of Alsager. I never go up Mow Cop from Station Road if I can help it and I now remember why - it didn't help that someone had light a fire alongside the road and the wind was blowing the smoke across the road. Trying to avoid breathing too deeply at that point was not ideal. The sausage rolls at the final feed were a welcome relief from flapjacks.

I thought that the route was well signed - certainly one of the best of the many sportives I have done over the years. I realise that the missing signs took the edge of the day for some, particularly if you weren't carrying the printed instructions. Someone had taken the trouble to follow the route and remove eight signs which suggests a deliberate attempt to cause maximum disruption rather than idle vandalism. As soon as Geoff became aware of the problem he sent out the NEG riders to replace them.

poucher

What a load of rubbish those pictures are, all from the wrong angle, hard to identify anyone, can't see anything of the bikes and they dare try and charge prices like that!
Wow! I'm in the wrong job :shock:

Poucher

wheeler585

Yeah must agree with you poucher!!! The pics last year were alot better,as you got to see the bike and the rider very clear!! Think he must of stopped in the pub across the road for a few beers me thinks!!

poucher

Rob,

Did you travel down the same day? your from Yarm are'nt you?

Poucher

wheeler585

Yeah i travelled down on the day,but made a bit of a hash of it as told all my mates about the clocks going forward.......what did i forget to do :oops: hr late gutted!! p.s yeah im from Yarm,how did you get on anyway?

poucher

Rob,

See my post on previous page 3hrs 40 mins for 60 mile route, I'm "slightly older than you" shall we say!! but still enjoyed the day.
Can't believe how many people were stopped with punctures in the first 15 mile or so :roll: next one for me is Kirklees then the Etape Caledonia.

Cheers,

Poucher

wheeler585

Yeah tell me about it!!! Must of counted around 15 to 20 people with puncures that day. It looked like the hedges had just recently been trimmed down so hence the carnage. I was praying not to get one as i didnt have a pump on me!!

I went round in 5hrs 25 for the long route,would of been alot quicker if i wouldnt of gone 3 and half miles out my way!! Due to lack of signage which really frustrated me as i knew i was up for a good time!!

But overall had a really good day,met up with some old faces from last year which was nice. Next yr sub 5hr!!!

pjm-84

I thought that the route was well signed

I generally run a GPS to avoid missing signs but in this case I couldn't get the GPX file to work with Memory Map and didn't have time to plot it out manually so was reliant on the signage. As stated I found myself looking back a few times to make sure I hadn't missed a turn. I was aiming for a 30kph average over the route so you can appreciate at some points I 'm batting along at 40-45kph, (especially the stretch where the wind was behind us ). At these speeds I again have to say I found the signage a little small.

wheeler585

The signage would be better if there was a sign before the junction and at the junction with a arrow sprayed on the floor as well,plus the sign being yellow or orangre and twice the size. Maybe over the top but this would totally prevent any misapes for next year,and stop people wingeing! Like moi!!

cougie

I dont think that the locals would like it if we sprayed the roads. Even if the paint was biodegradeable or something.
Signs were fine for me - never had any problems seeing them. They were bright pink.

Pics are rubbish - none of my number and the unidentified ones - theres only about 12 pages there - still none of me. Pah. Pretty certain I wasnt going too fast to be caught !

pjm-84

They were bright pink.

what about the size . anyone colour blind?

trio25

I thought the signs were a little small. But my main problem was there wasn't enough of them. On some sections it seemed a long way between signs!

Tootler

That was my first sportif of the year and I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I took notice of the forecast so consequently I was a bit overdressed.
I was expecting Mow Cop to be a bit of a brute but I was a bit disappointed that it wasnt as bad as the hype.

The only negative for me was the lack of toilets at the leisure centre. I do like to have a good poo before a ride and having to stand in a 10-deep queue to have a poo was just ridiculous.

And which halfwit came up with the idea of having sausage rolls at a feed station?

cougie

Thanks for that description of your toilet habits Tootler - very enlightening.

If anyones interested - I just had a wee and that was fine. ;-)

My riding pal swore by the sausage rolls at the feed - so just goes to show that you cant please everyone.

Oh meant to say- did anyone here lose an etxeondo wooly hat - on the climb up to Kelsall ?

I picked it up but forgot to hand the darn thing in at the end. Mail me if you know what the colour was. ;-)

andy_wrx

Queuing for a '10-deep poo' sounds a little offputting I must admit, even with overshoes.
:?


I wonder what the point of the timing mats was, if all they're going to do is publish overall times and no splits ?

Perhaps some issues with timings anyway, as they have
- 510 people completed the Long in 4:41:28 to 8:33:22, mainly in the upper 5's and 6's
- 259 completed the Short in :2:59:11 to 7:39:12, mainly in the 3's & 4's

4:41 seems damn quick for the Long, I wonder if that was someone entered for the Long who actually did the Short ?
7:39 could be someone doing the short fairly leisurely, or could be a Long time ?

cougie

I think maybe the timing mats were to make sure that you did the right route ?

They only had one of them at each stop - so its not like you get an in and out time ? Or I didnt.

What would be the best time - one with the shortest time overall, or someone who blitzed each section and then has an hour to recover at each feed ? I think the former.

Anyway - its all a bit of fun.