White Rose: How was it for you?

SunWuKong

Really enjoyed but did struggle from about 160 km onwards so Langbar was fun :?

Great organisation and good tough route.

Met Howie and cycled a fiar part of the ride with a guy (Richard) from Harrogate Nova. Also a couple of guys from London using it as training for the Etape.

Tan lines are now fully in place.

OFOAB

Everything bar the Hawes Harridan was superb. Only downsides were I had an appalling day, including walking up hills, which is something I haven't done in years, and getting a severe telling off from Mrs OFAOB for being so late - so exceptional was the time she worried about me, God bless her cotton socks.

I spotted some familiar forum descibed jerseys, bikes and tattoos but in my confused state couldn't put names to the assorted owners.

scak456

My 1st sportive so did the 80k.

Was going well then 30 miles in my seatpost clamp snapped so had to ride the last 20 miles bmx style - out of the saddle uphill and sat very low (compact frame) on the downhill.

Still managed a silver and bike computer said 3:12 (Gold was 3:10).

Didn't suffer enough so I'll be back and going longer ....

Bloody great event and as others have said the organisation was superb.

Cheers
SK

HarryB

Personally it was a nightmare for me thanks to sever cramp from 50 miles onwards. But it's a fantastic route and I'll be back next year and will make a better effort of it. Great organisation and great support.

moritat

robbie the roadie wrote:

moritat wrote:

Some bloke leaned his bike against her car and got an earful.

Fair enough really.

Not meaning to imply it wasn't. That station was quite fun really because as you were munching you could hear her shouting, "Only one bottle of water, no more than 2 bananas" I hope she's there next year because it's the characters you meet on your way round that add to the enjoyment.

Forgot to add that I took a long skid early on coming downhill and ended up on the grass verge. Got home to find the tyre was rubbed through to the fabric but it lasted.

Scared to death taking my 90 Kilos down from Dent Station.

Thanks to everyone who gave me a tow in particular the crowd from Ilkley and the 3 guys who bombed down from Ribblehead (Harrogate CC, Max Hurzeler and Specialized jerseys)

Got to knock 5 minutes off next year for Gold. Didn't think I'd even make silver so well chuffed to get so close.

Legs have gone on strike riding in to work today though!

Anonymous

moritat wrote:

robbie the roadie wrote:

moritat wrote:

Some bloke leaned his bike against her car and got an earful.

Fair enough really.

Not meaning to imply it wasn't. That station was quite fun really because as you were munching you could hear her shouting, "Only one bottle of water, no more than 2 bananas" I hope she's there next year because it's the characters you meet on your way round that add to the enjoyment.

The Dragon lady...Mmmm...I hope she isn't there...I always think theres a way of speaking to people and all I felt at that feedstation was an attitude which made me feel "she hated us all ? " Only negative thing I'll say about the whole thing...it was so nice to speak to the nice people at the 3rd Feed...and I told them of the Devil Woman at the last feed...they just smiled and said "I've a funny feeling I know who that is"....

andy_wrx

From White Rose website

With forums such as www.bikeradar.co.uk running threads like "WRC how was it for you????" we are hoping to get some feedback about the event so if you are one of the hundreds of riders who tackled the event this year, let us know your thoughts.

Hang-on, let's not be too nasty about this lady at Hawes - remember she was a volunteer, giving-up her Sunday so we could all ride round in the sunshine.

I leaned my bike on someone's car (resting my tyre against the car tyre, no paintwork contact) and no-one said anything - but then perhaps it was someone else's car (a red Megane coupe, I think...)

Someone was trying to grab a couple of Tracker bars and I think she said 'you're only allowed one of those, have a flapjack instead' - which seems fair enough to me, if she was trying to ration the food so that the latercomers didn't arrive to find it had all gone.

There was also another guy wanting 4 (four :shock: ) bottles of water, which didn't go down too well, but then...

So thank-you Mrs X, whoever you are, thanks for turning-out unpaid and letting me have a super day.

Thanks to all the team at WRC.

Blonde

Regarding rationing, it is not fair for those who are slower or start later to arrive and not get anything as the faster ones have had it all so it seems reasonable to me. The angry man shouting at pee-ing cyclists at the first stop had a fair point as well - it was a residential area and all they had to do was go to the public toilets up the road or wait for a few minutes until they were out in open country. Perhaps the organisers might sign the toilets from 500m for next year to try to dissuade people from attending nature outside peoples houses, though it shouldn't really be necessary!

I found it a good ride in all but didn't like the climb or descent of Garsdale head much - the climb was hard enough but the descent was worse - far too steep, gravelly, narrow and bumpy. I did wonder about the reasoning behind some of the route actually. There was one road near the end which seemed to be little more than a track and was used heavily by ramblers/ dog walkers . It seemed strange to me to send a large group of cyclists down it when there are plenty of other wider/less pedestrian roads with better road surfaces and fewer walkers in the road. The route was on the whole very well signed and it was great not to need a map or route sheet. I completed in 8:48 including a half hour stop for lunch in Hawes and overall thoroughly enjoyed the day out.
Shame there were only MASSIVE T-shirts left at the end though, so I didn't get one!

Anonymous

andy_wrx wrote:

From White Rose website

With forums such as www.bikeradar.co.uk running threads like "WRC how was it for you????" we are hoping to get some feedback about the event so if you are one of the hundreds of riders who tackled the event this year, let us know your thoughts.

Hang-on, let's not be too nasty about this lady at Hawes - remember she was a volunteer, giving-up her Sunday so we could all ride round in the sunshine.

I leaned my bike on someone's car (resting my tyre against the car tyre, no paintwork contact) and no-one said anything - but then perhaps it was someone else's car (a red Megane coupe, I think...)

Someone was trying to grab a couple of Tracker bars and I think she said 'you're only allowed one of those, have a flapjack instead' - which seems fair enough to me, if she was trying to ration the food so that the latercomers didn't arrive to find it had all gone.

There was also another guy wanting 4 (four :shock: ) bottles of water, which didn't go down too well, but then...

So thank-you Mrs X, whoever you are, thanks for turning-out unpaid and letting me have a super day.

Thanks to all the team at WRC.

I've no problem at all with the lady rationing...what I'm saying is there is a way of speaking to people....yes, she gave up her sunday and I applaud that....but it would be much nicer is she brought a calmer attitude...maybe she doesn't deal with stress to well?..but I do remember at the 3rd feed saying 'i'm only allowed one bottle of water?"...and the girl told me to have as much as I want...which was nice as I had 2 much nicer with a relaxed attitude...

nickwill

Blonde wrote:

I found it a good ride in all but didn't like the climb or descent of Garsdale head much - the climb was hard enough but the descent was worse - far too steep, gravelly, narrow and bumpy. I did wonder about the reasoning behind some of the route actually.

That' the definining section of the route to me. A hard climb is followed by a wide open section with great views, followed by a technical descent. Perhaps I don't mind the descent as much because I know it quite well. You then have the grind up to Dent Head and Ribblehead. I always find it a tough bit of riding, but derive a perverse satisfaction from it.

I agree about people urinating in full view of that man's house in Grassington. It's particularly bad because the toilets are nearby. I also get upset about people throwing gel wrappers and bottles at the side of the road.
However I had a great day out!

pdstsp

I'm another one with only praise for the whole thing - organisation, route, volunteers, signing - my best day on a bike in the six years since I took it up. If Carlsberg did days out on the bike......

Rode the 133k on my ownsome but chatted with various people as they passed me - and special thanks goes to the guy who warned me about the descent to Malham - I suspect I might have overcooked it going down there.

Have just got back from a quick recovery ride - got stung by a wasp which flew into me helmet and then I got a puncture - if Mathew Parris did recovery rides...

bikerm4

Photographs on line at http://martin.photium.com/group3091.html

svenwardle

Blonde wrote:

...but didn't like the climb or descent of Garsdale head much - the climb was hard enough but the descent was worse - far too steep, gravelly, narrow and bumpy!...

Hmmm.
I reckon that organisers of these events plan the best route they possibly can, usually on roads they know and love, with the aim to showcase and show off the quality of cycling in the local area.
Hard, challenging ascents and descents come with the territory, surely?
The WRC is about as good as it gets in this respect, I think.
If a rider thinks a descent is 'far too steep'.... I'm lost for words, to be honest.

Ken Night

bilbo.baggins wrote:

I realised from reading this thread (and looking at the icons) that I saw 'Ken Night' and was just behind you (for a spell) going up the Coal Road.

.....and no doubt overtook me at a rate of knots

bilbo.baggins wrote:

Back to seeing 'Ken Nights' bike. I wondered about the disc brakes when I saw it.

Just the bike for the poor surfaces on several descents-it's a soft frame, and of course great braking. First time out with it on a sportive, and as I had two punctures, not such a good idea, as I can't seem to get the rotor back into it's slot, without upsetting the alignment of the pads which then means a fiddle

pdstsp wrote:

- and special thanks goes to the guy who warned me about the descent to Malham - I suspect I might have overcooked it going down there. ...

that one caught me by surprise-a hot and cold moment with a backwheel skid before getting the line right

svenwardle wrote:

Hard, challenging ascents and descents come with the territory, surely?
The WRC is about as good as it gets in this respect, I think.
If a rider thinks a descent is 'far too steep'.... I'm lost for words, to be honest.

The problem with that descent is the poor surface where it's straight, one great pothole where after the first bend, and the steep hairpins at the bottom which steal height so painfully gained, which ought to be rewarded with a fast flowing descent-it's all part of the ride though.

hugo15

Finally managed to find a photo of me! Here I am struggling up the steep climb before Malham.

http://www.derekbphotography.co.uk/photo1202991.html

Datameister

bilbo.baggins wrote:

Climbing the Coal Road I passed a guy who had a HR monitor 'beeping' his HR - I joked with him it's ok unless it gives out a continuous tone - alarmingly 5 secs later it more or less did but he seemed to 'reset' it!

Back to seeing 'Ken Nights' bike. I wondered about the disc brakes when I saw it. Later I thought I wish I had them. Not long after leaving Malham was coming down a steep descent, then BANG, couldn't hear a thing, bike all over the place. My front tube had blown (3" hole) and pulled the tyre of the rim with it. As I must've been going pretty fast I'm very lucky not to have come off. Thanks to everyone who offered assistance.

My HRM was the errant bleeper. We have to talk about bike control. I came off big-style on the hairpins at the bottom of the Coal Road, when my overheated front rim burst the front tube. Equally, my thanks to all those who enquired after my well being and offered asistance

campagsarge

I did the 80K ride which was beautiful. Goodness knows how you guys do the longer routes - I might be brave next year and do the medium route! Well done to everyone who rode and therefore made it such a great day when out on the road. Chatting, working and taking in the scenery with other cyclists is such a wonderful experience and contributes to making the event what it is.

Equally, a massive thanks to all the people involved in organising and running the event at BC Yorkshire and all the guys at the rugby club who had been preparing the food weeks in advance. Whatever you do though, don't mention Rugby League whilst in the bar - its the Dark Side

It is such a brilliantly organised event and probably the best £20 worth of cycling you can buy on this planet.

bobh

Many thanks for all your kind words about the event, they really are appreciated.

With this the third edition of the event stepping up to over 1000 riders we were mindful that we needed to make a few changes. The previous HQ structure was a concern to us and we needed to avoid having a log jam of people particularly if our request for good weather went unheard. So we switched to a marguee structure for registration with a separate tent for "dibbing" with buffer zones to handle any build up. The result was that we had little queuing with some even managing to do "ride throughs". This also left us able to focus on the main building becoming a riders lounge rather than a rugby scrum.

Out on the road we had doubled up on the signing crews and the checking system for placement. Sat phones; now the order of the day enabled us to give a rapid response to some of the riders who had disabling mechanicals.

For the feed stations we wanted a more varied approach than just flapjack and water and so we went for more choice. A big thanks also to SIS for their sponsorship of the feeds. A big "ouch" if our friendliness" fell at a feed as we aim to deliver service with a smile. In defence our officials there, in addition to a long day, had been harrangued by complaints from local people, some of the issues over which were discussed earlier in this thread.

Can I just finish by giving a special thanks to all of the team who made a monster effort to put the event on. For some of us this meant back to back days and nights in addition to holding down our "proper" job. We are all volunteers, the only reward being the buzz from your comments and the knowledge that we are able to develop new young talented riders with the event proceeds.

If you enjoyed the event then why not go for the "double" with the sister event the Ryedale Rumble" on the 27th July. The purple heathered North York Moors and some great roads.

Bob Howden
Event Administrator
Chairman British Cycling Yorkshire Region

Ken Night

bobh wrote:

Can I just finish by giving a special thanks to all of the team who made a monster effort to put the event on. For some of us this meant back to back days and nights in addition to holding down our "proper" job. We are all volunteers, the only reward being the buzz from your comments and the knowledge that we are able to develop new young talented riders with the event proceeds.

Bob, may I add my thanks to your staff, to yours and to those already posted

No problem with the "friendliness" at a feed, I think it was understandable-more room there would have helped as would easier access to the drums of SIS (it may have been that, which raised the temperature)

Very many positive things about the day-getting my brother to ride (and enjoy) the 80k was a real bonus, and it'd be good to encourage all comers to get people involved in cycling. Why not reach out into business to attract company "teams" or otherwise get new people into cycling

The fact you can attract 5 entries from Plymouth, and so many from Scotland is a testament to the attractiveness of the event-which can be used further to benefit cycling

One plea, to all sportive organisers-it's great to have some savoury stuff. On the "Fred" there are tuna and ham rolls. On the French sportives too (there you have "jambon sandwich" and slices of salami, and the same of cheese)

Adrian Hunt

Any results yet?

Superb event, very well organised and a great route. SURELY the weather can't be great again next year ....... how may years on the trot would that be?

mrushton

Despite some of my reservations about the toilets or the 1 bottle of water rule at Grassington (why not fill large containers and use those or advise people where the nearest shop is), it was well organised and the staff v.helpful. it was the ideal sort of day for that type of event.

tlr

Further thanks for a great event. We managed to beat last years time on the medium course, got round in 5.09, but it felt harder than last year, perhaps the breeze on the way out didn't help.

Savoury food would have been great, but having the SIS at all feeds was very useful.

Is it just me or have the roads got significantly worse since last year? There were plenty of times when I feared for my wheels on potholes. It certainly made me cautious on the descents.

Thanks again.

bilbo.baggins

Ken Night wrote:

bilbo.baggins wrote:

I realised from reading this thread (and looking at the icons) that I saw 'Ken Night' and was just behind you (for a spell) going up the Coal Road.

.....and no doubt overtook me at a rate of knots

Not at all. I was having a 'steady eddie' day out. I didn't have the required training miles in my legs, plus I was worried about getting carried away and over-cooking it on some descents, so I took it fairly easy and spent almost an hour in total at the feed stops.

Re' everyone's comments about organisation / route / etc. Just a few comments from me that may help solidify things that are correct plus a small niggle of mine:
- route/signage. fantastic. agree with comments that some descents are technical and demanding especially for riders who do not know the roads (I think a few of the local lads forget what it's like to ride these roads 'blind') however I don't think there should be attempts to create excessive signing of bad corners as the onus is on the cyclist to be aware of road conditions
- feed stops. again fantastic. great selection. it was obvious everyone on each stop, without exception, was working extremely hard to keep up with demand from 100's of voracious cyclists
- timing/signing on, etc. fantastic. logistics spot on
- water at feeds. this is my only niggle. why do all events need to have seemingly endless piles of plastic bottles. The SIS drinks were in gallon drums. Is there not something similar that can be done with water? I know there's a potential issue with what do people drink it from if their bottles are full of energy drinks, but even large disposable paper cups would be an improvement. There was even a tap at Hawes with lovely cool fresh water
- (don't want to finish on a negative). weather. fantastic. well done again with the organisation

Thanks again to everyone involved

campagsarge

I think I briefly rode with the guys from Plymouth to the top of Greenhow. We had a good group of us riding thru and off before I went out the back just before Grassington.

It was great to see cyclists from loads of places and I respect your dedication.

bobh

Feeds

The logistics of the feeds means that we have to load the vans the night before, that suggests we would have a problem with anything perishable. We would then have fallen foul of food hygiene regualtions having such food on display all day in hot weather...we don't want to poison you!

We almost went to supplying water by bowsers but we were faced with problems there. They had to be mounted on platforms (in a public car park) to be able to get the SIS drums under the taps. They cost £180 each to fill in addition to the hire cost and as they would have needed to go in during Friday working hours they would have been at risk from any idiot who might have wanted to add something to the flavour! With bottles we can also move them around to pick up demand elsewhere. In this case the surplus from one feed was returned to HQ to meet the additional demand

Just some of the logistical "behind the scenes" issues that we have to deal with. Perhaps the main one is "bodies". If WRC is to run next year we have to widen out our core group of volunteers. So whilst it's still fresh in your minds we would welcome help. What we can do is continue our "Bring a body" offer. For that you are guaranteed entry and gain a rebate on the day for your full entry fee if you turn up with 1 or more volunteers. If interested we can start to take names now.

nickwill

Bob,
I just wanted to say again how brilliantly organised this event is.The signing on procedure was incredibly relaxed from the punters end of things. To have things running as smoothly as that with 1000 bodies involved is a credit to you. The availability of SIS drinks at each checkpoint was a major pluspoint.
I think the route really shows off the best of the Yorkshire Dales and has a good variety of terrain (most of it going upwards!).
Having missed silver by 17 seconds :evil: , I will be back next year.
Well done to all!

Earthdreamer

I'd like to echo all the great sentiments expressed in this thread. I'm in awe of the people organising something on this scale, and doing it all so well. I'm incredibly grateful to all the volunteers who gave up their time to give us riders a cracking day out. When the legs finally give out I will be there on the other side of the fence to do my bit.

Also fascinating to get an insight into the kinds of issues you face at the feedstations. Rather you than me!

JLC

I was a volunteer on Sunday at the first feed station, and can say I thoroughly enjoyed the day helping out. It was great to be a part of the event and see so many happy cyclists. We had a good laugh at feed station 1 whilst also trying to help riders as much as possible.
Having received the timetable of what needed to be done before, during and after the event I was amazed by how much time and effort some of the volunteers put into the event. The details were like a military operation. I think the feedback suggest that this excellent planning played dividends.
I would certainly urge anyone to volunteer for the day. We were made very welcome, given instruction and provided support if we required it. I have also provided some feedback to the main organisers on a couple of small things that could make things easier on the feed station I was working on for next year or the Ryedale Rumble.

howiejmidlands

I would just like to add my humble opinion.

Organisation was fabulous, i think i told Bob it was FANTASTIC, and it was meant.

Just a point about the feed stations, well stocked, loads of drinks and no issues at all here. But how many guys actually made a point to say thank you to the volunteers. They are unpaid and giving their time, and a genuine thank you for your support. Becasue without them we would be bloody thirstty and joining long queses of tourists in cafes for water and a slice of cake.

I will be back, and maybe even try and get a tema from my company together.

THANK YOU

JLC

Plenty of people said thankyou to us on the day at the Grassingtion Feed Station, which helped making the volunteering enjoyable.