Devil Ride - Too tough for only my second sportive

dttlincs

I know you don't do a sportive because it's easy!
I did the London to Canterbury last year, 200km in 9hr 25min with a bottom gear of 39x25.
In hindsight could have been faster if I had not stopped at all the feedstations. Also I carried too much kit/food etc. Also I think a compact or triple would have helped my overall time.
I was looking for a sportive for August or September which is tough but achievable and am considering the Devil ride in August. It is 180km I think with as I understand the website a 9hr 30min time limit. Is this too ambitious?

dennisn

dttlincs wrote:

I know you don't do a sportive because it's easy!
I did the London to Canterbury last year, 200km in 9hr 25min with a bottom gear of 39x25.
In hindsight could have been faster if I had not stopped at all the feedstations. Also I carried too much kit/food etc. Also I think a compact or triple would have helped my overall time.
I was looking for a sportive for August or September which is tough but achievable and am considering the Devil ride in August. It is 180km I think with as I understand the website a 9hr 30min time limit. Is this too ambitious?

Nothing wrong with stopping at all the food stops on a ride of this length. It will keep you
in food and water. Just don't stay long. You know, talking with friends for an hour and things like that. Get in, get and do what you need to do, swallow your food, take a drink, and get moving. If the food stops are fairly close together you can skip one or two. Here in the states these types of rides have stops every 25 miles or so and that works out pretty good. Keep eating and you won't bonk. Well, not as bad anyway.

Dennis Noward

dennisn

dttlincs wrote:

I know you don't do a sportive because it's easy!
I did the London to Canterbury last year, 200km in 9hr 25min with a bottom gear of 39x25.
In hindsight could have been faster if I had not stopped at all the feedstations. Also I carried too much kit/food etc. Also I think a compact or triple would have helped my overall time.
I was looking for a sportive for August or September which is tough but achievable and am considering the Devil ride in August. It is 180km I think with as I understand the website a 9hr 30min time limit. Is this too ambitious?

Nothing wrong with stopping at all the food stops on a ride of this length. It will keep you
in food and water. Just don't stay long. You know, talking with friends for an hour and things like that. Get in, get and do what you need to do, swallow your food, take a drink, and get moving. If the food stops are fairly close together you can skip one or two. Here in the states these types of rides have stops every 25 miles or so and that works out pretty good. Keep eating and you won't bonk. Well, not as bad anyway.

Dennis Noward

Brian B

dttlincs wrote:

I know you don't do a sportive because it's easy!
I did the London to Canterbury last year, 200km in 9hr 25min with a bottom gear of 39x25.
In hindsight could have been faster if I had not stopped at all the feedstations. Also I carried too much kit/food etc. Also I think a compact or triple would have helped my overall time.
I was looking for a sportive for August or September which is tough but achievable and am considering the Devil ride in August. It is 180km I think with as I understand the website a 9hr 30min time limit. Is this too ambitious?

Have you been training weekly since last year and whats your weekly milage and your average training run and your biggest training run. Also have you changed to a compact or a triple and lastly how much do you weigh.

Sorry for the many questions but I could not offer any real advice until I knew a little bit of your current fitness, training and bike set up. I am doing the devil ride but will have a lot of 100 miles plus real hilly runs and other really long and hilly sportives in legs so to speak before I get there.

I have done my first two sportives of the year in the last two weeks and I did a lot of 30-40 mile hilly training runs at a fast pace a few time per week and whenever I could I would try to fit a big run in at weekends to get the endurance side of things built up. This seems to work for me.

dttlincs

BrianB
Firstly yes I tend to train all year but somewhat unstructured.
Mostly 2 10 or 15 mile rides at a good tempo or TT speed(often on turbo in winter).
This would be ave speed 18/19mph outside 21/22mph on turbo.
Then one longer ride at slower pace at weekends 30 or 40 miles. 16 to 17mph.
I do live in Lincolnshire so it is 10 miles to get to any sort of hill!
Not changed gearing yet but bike frame developed a crack this week so new bike and opportunity to get more suitable gearing is iminent.
Weight 14 stone 6'1. Last year weighed 13st7 for the ride and expect to lose some weight as I up the mileage up to the event.
I think losing the weight is achievable as is upping the training mileage. Didin't seriously struggle with the distance last time.A couple of the short sharp bits were a struggle on a 39x25 for me but I did not get off and walk!

Brian B

dttlincs

I am like yourself and dont really have much structured training. The training that I do involves lot of hilly routes and every odd weekend a 80mile to 100mile hilly route(in better weather months).

The only thing I could suggest to yourself is to try to get a few more long distance runs under your belt as I find that during sportives I up my usual pace slightly. The devil ride is very hilly and some of it very steep so I would suggest a compact or a triple.

I use a triple solely for the fact that I like to climb really steep hills and its great to have the option to use the small gears plus have a standard set up too. When doing local rides or not so hilly sportives I am never in my inner ring of the triple but I love having it there for steep climbs and long climbs abroad.

I am 6ft2" and weigh in at 13.8 stones so around the same as yourself and it does not hold me back on the climbs.

Practice makes perfect on the hills but distance is the key and you can always go a bit harder on the flat doing intervals to simulate the difference in gradients when climbing and gets your body used to changes in intensity.

You will get round it no problem, dont worry

Anonymous

dttlincs wrote:

BrianB
.A couple of the short sharp bits were a struggle on a 39x25 for me but I did not get off and walk!

Get smaller gearing for the Devil Ride....it does the Devils Staircase/Gammallt etc back to back...and the Devils Staircase is one of the steepest stretches of road out...

I think the whole ride tallies over 3000meters ascent...

Never cycled around this aprt before and think it will be brilliant...especially having the lads who do the Autumn Epic etc organising it!

JamesB

Dttlincs ---- Devils ride is 160 km , ie 100miles; it is about 10 000ft of climbing with, yes the Devils staircase , keep wide on the hairpins and it isn`t so bad ; the Gamallt afterwards IMHO is harder as it goes up very steeply and then keeps going across the moor; but once you`re over that there is a respite after Tregaron before getting to Devils Bridge and the turn back to Elan valley / Rhayader area. After Abbeycwmhir there is another respite down to Newbridge before a few sharp short hills back to Builth. Do it and enjoy!!

It took me just over 7 1/2 hours (excluding all stop times) at end of last year -( my bottom gear was 34 x 29 on a road bike with saddlebag to carry food) -- to do in November as part of the course designing / validation for Phil W . As he says on the website it is designed to be enjoyed and show people an interesting and varied area, not to be as hard as posible as more hills / distance could have been added in

James

andy_wrx

JamesBwmb wrote:

As he says on the website it is designed to be enjoyed and show people an interesting and varied area, not to be as hard as posible as more hills / distance could have been added in

That's a decent attitude. I want a sportive to be a decent tough day out, with a feeling of achievement afterwards, but some of the 'my sportive's harder than yours' macho posturing very much puts me off.
I don't want it so hard that I feel I really don't want to be there.

If the weather were bad, it could be dangerous.
Particularly with a route like the Devil, where I can't see any means of bottling-out and short-cutting back from halfway round

FondoMan

It is 180km I think with as I understand the website a 9hr 30min time limit. Is this too ambitious?

Hi - just to confirm that the distance is bang on 160km. The time limit has been somewhat dictated by the times that we were able to secure the event centre for...but I am not unhappy with the 9h30m limit as it fits well with what we would have set anyway -purely becuase I like round numbers :roll: we have requested an extension to make the time 10 hours, but I don't think we will really need that extra 30 mins.

If things look like getting tight for anyone at the back of the field there are a few small cutbacks near the end that would trim 5-10 miles. For the Autumn Epic we have not had anyone near the limit, but have always operated a policy of staying in touch with the tail enders to make sure that they are happy to continue.

And everyone will be issued in advance with a marked OS map and detailed route card (in addition to route arrows and distance boards), so that they check their progress at all times.

Cheers, Phil.
www.cyclosportives.co.uk - Devil Ride/Autumn Epic

JamesB

Phil

liking round numbers maybe it should be 10 hours --- given that there are 10 major clmbs - over 100 miles and 10 000 ft (ie a power series of 10) ascent a ten hour limit would round it all up very nicely!!

James

FondoMan

liking round numbers maybe it should be 10 hours --- given that there are 10 major clmbs - over 100 miles and 10 000 ft (ie a power series of 10) ascent a ten hour limit would round it all up very nicely!! Very Happy

I agree! I really do like my round numbers - so am trying for a 30 min extension at the event centre.

PLUS! Partly in response to rider requests, we are investigating a second route option at the Devil Ride - the "Little Devil" - which would be 100km (wey hey, another power of 10 ) - the idea being to still take in the Staircase, but not the second Devil (Bridge).

Still a challenging route, but one that splits away from the longer one just after the Staircase/food stop at 28 miles, then takes in some truly lovely riding in its own right to offer a more do-able ride for less experienced riders or those who don't want to take on the full 100 miler.

We would not ask riders to choose in advance - people would be free to opt for the Little Devil when they reach the split point (which would be very clearly sign posted).

Anyway, we are still investigating options here, and I will keep you posted!