Dunsfold Sunday Sportive - 12th October 08

shane515

Hi all

Anyone doing this, received e-mail last night containing info regarding the new start location due to amount of riders registered :P will be doing this with a few mates!!

May see you there,

Shane

LuckyPierre2007

Yep, there's a group of us. Did Legs of Steel last week so wasnt chuffed to see the route is quite similar, including some of the hills!

Hope the weather gets better again too.

shane515

Hi all

What a day we did the mid route in the end, glad so, never ridden in the area before so some of the hills came as a 'suprise'. Fog was a bit thick at the off but was soon replaced by the fab sunday sunshine. Will be back next year....if there is another one?

Shane

rplavery

Well I have finally done my first Sportive, after a couple of Evans' Ride-It rides and what a day. I am well and truly hooked now.
Couldnt believe how many cyclists had turned up to park by the runway at Dunsfold.
Decided I would start gently with the short 45 mile route. It said 2,500 ft of climbing on the internet blurb, but in the end my GPS said 4,000 ft. My time of 3hr40mins (ave 12.7mph) was only 20 minutes off the Bronze time. It was certainly a hill course, although the Surrey Hills are very pretty- when the fog lifted. Of course, with the clock ticking, there is no time to dawdle and admire the view.
With the early chilly foggy start I really did wear too much clod weather gear.
I guess the best way of getting a good time is to be part of a small team slipstreaming each other.
There were certainly some fast cyclists on the road, though being practically a race on normal roads, I wonder if sometimes more risks are taken with other traffic.

Whats the etiquette on taking a tow for a mile or so off fellow cyclists who overtake you- not that I really wanted to keep some of the paces being set?

Gussio

It was a good route with plenty of hills, but I would also take issue with the 1,400m of ascent that the route blurb provided - my reckoning was 2,200m which is quite a bit different....

Riding in and out of the fog that loitered in the valleys was rather atmospheric and the sunshine for the second half of the route was glorious. Could do with more days like Sunday before the end of the year.

9velozero

The trickiest bit of the whole ride came within yards of the start and finish. Firstly swerving to avoid the poor bloke who had a blow out before leaving the airfield, then swerving to avoid a learner driver who was oblivious to my final dash for the line at the end and nearly knocked me off my bike with only a matter of yards to go.

After that the miles of unrelenting series of short sharp hills in between didn't seem too bad!

dal105

My 1st sportive also. I also enjoyed the day, did the mid route and just crept inside the bronze time with 4h 14m, which I was fairly chuffed with, especially as I went round most of the way on my own without any drafting assistance.

I found a couple of the hills to be very hard work - think I might need to get a compact double or a triple chainset for next year...

Scariest moment for me was also near the finish, when I was chased for about 1/4 mile by two dogs that came out of the "mobile housing" site. Didn't enjoy that as my HR was already high enough - I was doing about 25 mph and they were still going for my ankles.

Saw a guy in a RedHill CC shirt down at the side of the road with an ambulance in attendance. Anyone know if he was ok?