Can I get Silver in Etape?

Setanta

I am doing my first E Tape in the Summer and I want to set a realistic goal for myself.

I ride a lot on Road and Mountain. I have never raced and am not a club cyclist. I perform resonably well in long hilly Sportives but want to set a goal for myself for the Etape

I am a big lad and am struggling to get my weight down- I am 6 foot one and weigh 97Kg.

Please can someone explain tghe variious time targets for the Etape and does anyone have advise on how I can decide on a goal

ugo.santalucia

Setanta wrote:

I am doing my first E Tape in the Summer and I want to set a realistic goal for myself.

I ride a lot on Road and Mountain. I have never raced and am not a club cyclist. I perform resonably well in long hilly Sportives but want to set a goal for myself for the Etape

I am a big lad and am struggling to get my weight down- I am 6 foot one and weigh 97Kg.

Please can someone explain tghe variious time targets for the Etape and does anyone have advise on how I can decide on a goal

I think getting alive on the top of Ventoux for a lad of your size should be already a goal.
Rahter than for the all sportif, which depends on a lot of factors, why don't you set yourself a tagret on the final climb? Under two hours would be a hell of an achievement

Ken Night

Setanta wrote:

I am doing my first E Tape in the Summer and I want to set a realistic goal for myself.

I ride a lot on Road and Mountain. I have never raced and am not a club cyclist. I perform resonably well in long hilly Sportives but want to set a goal for myself for the Etape

I am a big lad and am struggling to get my weight down- I am 6 foot one and weigh 97Kg.

Please can someone explain tghe variious time targets for the Etape and does anyone have advise on how I can decide on a goal

You need to be finishing in the top 10% of UK sportives to be in with a realistic chance of getting a silver in the Etape.

Riders in the Etape are age graded, so you need to take that into account

In 4 Etapes, I've not been able to fathom the timing system. Work this out....3100th in 05, easy silver, 842nd in 06, missed gold by 10mins, 1016th in 07 only just made silver(I think you had to finish in the top 100 to get gold my my category), 1330th in 08, missed silver by 30mins

Did the Dragon in 5h55m....for 109th and Ventoux in 1h 29m fresh

Ugo may be right....the Ventoux finish is hard, and a good time from Bedoin village is something to aim at(look for the marble strip in the road on the corner on the way out of the village-though it would be a good touch if there was a timing strip there)

jhop

If you can get Silver with the occasional Gold in the hillier UK Sportives, as I do, then you can usually 'survive' the etape but in my experience ( I've done 5 of the last 6 etapes) to get Silver you really need to be a regular Gold standard UK rider and as has already been said that requires you to achieve a place in the top 10% finishers.

Kléber

No one knows that the time will be but as the others suggest, you need to be in good shape and in your case, at 97kg, the law of gravity suggests you will struggle to get a time in the first third of riders. Don't let that discourage you, just prepare as best as you can and look forward to what should be a beautiful ride through Provence to Ventoux.

bahzob

I think its good to set targets but, unless in full on racing, ones that are, in the worn out phrase, realistic and achievable. Problem, as Ken says, is that "silver" is all a bit hit and miss and out of your control.

I'd advise taking a look at your sportive rides to date, figuring how they compare in term of difficulty to the etape and setting a personal time challenge for yourself. If you make it, and it turns out to get a silver, well that's just a bonus.