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Sunday Sportive - Princes Risborough

JaegerJaeger Posts: 439
edited April 2009 in Sportives/audaxes/training rides
Just woken up from my post-ride sleep after the Princes Risborough sportive - my first of the year. Did the full route and it was HARD (please agree...!?! :oops: )! Those climbs didn't let up, esp. the long slog right at the end (the downhill from the top to the School was pretty awesome though - 51mph!!! :D ).

Any others here ride it? How did you find it?

Posts

  • richaricha Posts: 1,634
    Thought it was a great ride. Pretty hard with some good climbs. Great weather, not too hot and not too much wind. Route was pretty well signed and feeds were well stocked. All-in-all a good day out on the bike.
    Rich
  • akkersakkers Posts: 140
    i thought it was well organised, well sign posted and quite tough....the last 30 mins or so were really hard!!!

    But Id recommend it and I have the route saved on my Garmin to do again.

    Excellent Sportive, although I was disappointed with my time of 4 hours for the mid route :oops:
  • lurciolurcio Posts: 22
    Jaeger - 51mph, crumbs! I get twitchy at anything over 35. I think I must be more of a climber :)

    I agree, well sign posted, a nice long route and I think a great day was had by all.

    Many thanks to all involved!
  • Rich158Rich158 Posts: 2,348
    Yep great ride, great countryside and fantastic weather, what more could you ask for.

    I didn't find the climbs too bad, there wasn't anything that I found really testing. I don't know what my chip time will be, but I registered 4:02 on my computer for the full route.
    pain is temporary, the glory of beating your mates to the top of the hill lasts forever.....................

    Revised FCN - 2
  • JaegerJaeger Posts: 439
    I agree, there was some really great 'traditional English countryside' on the route. First time I've ridden it and it'll be in the calendar for next year!

    Good time Rich158, I'm waiting for the results to come up online, but computer says I was around the 4hr 22min mark for the full route (ave 17.9mph), so am well pleased with that. Spent a good hour over 90% MHR to get that though...!!!
  • harrywolperharrywolper Posts: 95
    I thought it was an excellent event and really well managed. I had the route in my garmin and did not need to look at it. However, the last 5-6 miles were tough with no big climbs just a constant 3-4%. I also got to 50mph on that drop. In the end I managed 4h 31m and 20s for full route - just made gold by 40s!!!
  • greeny12greeny12 Posts: 759
    I did this event last year and really enjoyed it, and it didn't disappoint this time around either.

    It's a really well-organised little event, a perfect way to get some miles into your legs early in the "season".

    Signposting was excellent, just one almost blind left turn after a long descent that should have had an extra alert because I saw some folk miss it and go straight on (hopefully they heard my shout...).

    I also got my first puncture in three years of sportives and, having done absolutely no long rides at all in the build-up, due to work/family commitments, I had completely cramped up to the point that I couldn't get out of the saddle or my thighs would lock up altogether with still 20 miles to go!! Thankfully the last hills were long rather than steep...

    Just scraped into the bronze time for the long ride despite this, so well pleased!

    It'll be straight into my diary as soon as announced next year.
    My cycle racing blog: http://cyclingapprentice.wordpress.com/

    If you live in or near Sussex, check this out:
    http://ontherivet.ning.com/
  • SouthernSportiveSouthernSportive Posts: 49
    Thanks very much folks - glad you enjoyed the day and thanks for coming and riding!

    I'm just getting onto the task of wrangling the results into shape. They should be online later this afternoon. And the first person to post a happy birthday to me gets a 10 second time bonus :wink:
    Martin

    trailbreak.co.uk
    southernsportive.com
  • ugo.santaluciaugo.santalucia Posts: 26,758
    harrywolper wrote:
    I thought it was an excellent event and really well managed. I had the route in my garmin and did not need to look at it. However, the last 5-6 miles were tough with no big climbs just a constant 3-4%. I also got to 50mph on that drop. In the end I managed 4h 31m and 20s for full route - just made gold by 40s!!!

    That drop is called Kop Hill, arguably the hardest climb in the Chiltern area... it is said to get to 25% at the top... I think it's more 18-20%, still quite steep by any standard, and yes... thanks to good tarmac it's very fast on the way down...
  • greeny12greeny12 Posts: 759
    By the way, does anybody know who was doing the photography on the route?
    My cycle racing blog: http://cyclingapprentice.wordpress.com/

    If you live in or near Sussex, check this out:
    http://ontherivet.ning.com/
  • ju5t1nju5t1n Posts: 2,028
    SouthernSportive wrote:
    Thanks very much folks - glad you enjoyed the day and thanks for coming and riding!

    I'm just getting onto the task of wrangling the results into shape. They should be online later this afternoon. And the first person to post a happy birthday to me gets a 10 second time bonus :wink:
    Happy Birthday!!
  • ju5t1nju5t1n Posts: 2,028
    Jaeger wrote:
    Just woken up from my post-ride sleep after the Princes Risborough sportive - my first of the year. Did the full route and it was HARD (please agree...!?! :oops: )! Those climbs didn't let up, esp. the long slog right at the end (the downhill from the top to the School was pretty awesome though - 51mph!!! :D ).

    Any others here ride it? How did you find it?
    I've gone metric, but I clocked my fastest ever speed on that hill... 85.1kph
  • ju5t1nju5t1n Posts: 2,028
    greeny12 wrote:
    By the way, does anybody know who was doing the photography on the route?
    Found them...
    http://www.takeyourpics.co.uk
  • JaegerJaeger Posts: 439
    So, the results are up! 4hr 22min for Gold - well pleased.

    Obviously I had a look down the list to check the real quick boys out, but can this really be right.............3hr 20min!!!! :shock: Average Speed to get that would be 23.4mph!!!
    Is it a time from the mid route that was put up in the full route section or do people actually go that fast?!
  • richaricha Posts: 1,634
    ju5t1n wrote:
    Found them...
    http://www.takeyourpics.co.uk
    How do you find the pictures of you. Look through all 500+?
    Rich
  • SouthernSportiveSouthernSportive Posts: 49
    Jaeger wrote:
    So, the results are up! 4hr 22min for Gold - well pleased.

    Obviously I had a look down the list to check the real quick boys out, but can this really be right.............3hr 20min!!!! :shock: Average Speed to get that would be 23.4mph!!!
    Is it a time from the mid route that was put up in the full route section or do people actually go that fast?!

    Almost certainly a rider who was booked into the full route and changed to the mid on the day. We have a change sheet for riders who do this to fill in at the finish, but there'll always be a few who forget, so the error can slips through the net. I've moved that one to mid now and spotted a couple more that I need to look into.

    Well done on that 4:22 - good ride!
    Martin

    trailbreak.co.uk
    southernsportive.com
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