Hampshire Hilly Hundred

NUFCrichard

Is anyone else doing this on Sunday?

I can't find a way to get there for the start time on public transport from London, making me think of dropping out as I don't want to have to shed £100 on train fares and a hotel.

Is there a train I'm missing? Hope so as it looks like a good ride.

jhop

NUFCrichard wrote:

Is anyone else doing this on Sunday?

I am doing it for the first time and hoping it will continue my build up for the Wessex at the end of the month but looking forward to it in its own right as it were anyway.

Driving down early so no public transport issues for me.

shakey88

NUFCrichard wrote:

Is anyone else doing this on Sunday?

I can't find a way to get there for the start time on public transport from London, making me think of dropping out as I don't want to have to shed £100 on train fares and a hotel.

Is there a train I'm missing? Hope so as it looks like a good ride.

Your best bet is getting a train to Winchester and then cycling to the start from the station if that's practical for you.
Sparsholt is less than 5 miles from Winchester,just head towards Andover on the B3049 and it will lead you right to the start,and will give your legs a nice little warm up before the off too
The weather's set fair and it should be a great ride,hope you make it

juggler

yes - cross to the London bound side of the station (tunnel under the tracks if you are getting off from a London train) and exit station there. At end of car park, turn left and you come almost immediately to a mini roundabout, turn right and keep going, you will hit Sparsholt College in a couple of miles (exit to Sparsholt college where the HHH starts is on the left and sign posted)...... bit of a hill to climb from the station though :-)

Unfortuantely looks like the Sunday Service from London starts too late... may be a bit tight to make the last 9:30 start time...

GavH

I live a mere 4 miles from the start and couldn't even get a place! I'm not too bothered though as I haven't put the miles in as much as I would have done had I a confirmed place. I've ridden most of the route before and if the weathers as good as the Met Office forecast says then it'll be a good event. My problem now is whether I plan to incorporate some of the route on my Sunday long ride or try to avoid it altogether.

phreak

I had a the exact same problem, which prompted me to start this thread http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12622202

I have family on the isle of wight so I'm visiting them today and getting the train up from Southampton instead as that gets to Winchester in ok time. Major pain though for those of us without cars.

jhop

What a lovely ride.

My first time on this one and it was a cracker; not just the weather but the route, HQ, helpers, feed stations and of course all the other riders that I met all helped to made this rather special.

And to cap it all with 5.55 on the clock got to the standard for Gold for riders 18 years younger than me!!!

toontra

Yes, good fun and well organised. I wasn't sure what to expect from the course. What a lot of hills! None too steep (apart from the short bit up Watership Down) but the sheer relentlessness of them made getting into a rhythm difficult. Probably good training!

5.58 for me (gold in my category).

FransJacques

it was all good except for the broken pavement about 2 kms from the finish which saw me have a massive blow out. Not a hapy bunny as that was flat no 2.

I was circa 5:45 but the Garmin was a little fussy today.

Overall a great route and I'd do the ride again for sure. Don't like the location of Sparsholt tho, it's not great for those like me who have to take the train down then ride to the start then ride the course then ride back to the train again.

But the weather, the sunning scenery and the lack of busy roads was unbeatable.

Bring on highclere!

cookiemonster

Yep - I was impressed, well organised (no daft queues to sign on, sufficient bathrooms), well signposted, great route with very little of the silly crappy lanes that so often sportives use and feed stations (though I only stopped at) that actually had a stack of stuff to hand out (real sis, rather than the aromatherapy version,,,,, flapjack, bananas, oatey things, etc, etc)

5:32 for me with a 29.2kph average which Im pretty happy with

jon

juggler

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juggler

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jhop

Quote 'I was circa 5:45 but the Garmin was a little fussy today.'

Why do you need 'the Garmin' ?

Times were given on the nice little printout at the end. Which is about the only redeeming feature of those wrist attached transponders as opposed to the ones that attach to your bike.

I too thought that broken patch of road near the end was dreadful and needed to be highlighted when we came through a couple of guys nearly went down as they hit it.

TheStone

Broken road at the end nearly took me out too. (a 4th crash this year and I'd be tempted to give up).

But that shouldn't take from an excellent day. Really well organised and perfect weather.
Did anyone else prefer this year's route to last year? Was it roughly the same, but different start point?

7:23 for me. Poor time, but training's way behind this year. Felt strong towards the end for the first time in a while.

BeanPole

First sportive for me and what a great day. Only managed 7.06 but I think I spent too much time at the feed stations (actual ride time was 6.34) and I didn't really need to stop at the last one.
That bad bit of lane towards the finish nearly wiped me out too. Should have been marked or something.
Met some nice people. To the bloke I spoke to towards the end - good luck on the Etape. To the bloke who stuck on my rear wheel for 5 miles then dumped me on a hill - do your fair share next time you jack b***ard :roll:
I will definately be having a crack at it again next year but maybe a compact chainset would help - I thought my eyes were going to pop out with the pressure of grinding up Watership Down with my double!!

stjohnswell

cracking day, big thumbs up to the organisers. the registration was simple & efficient, the signage excellent & the course traffic free.

probably the best organised sportive i've done.

1878

It was my first sportive and had a great time. Well organised though we did a few extra miles as some b'st@rd had taken down the sign for the long route at the split Then bonked and had a really difficult 20 miles before getting a second wind around 70m or so.

Ended up taking way longer than anticipated and being the last two home but who cares - we finished, I really enjoyed the course and will be happy to sign up for next year.

phreak

It was a fine event. Also took a wrong turn as there were a few other similar signs out and being colour blind it was tricky telling them apart. Added a few extra miles to the route but it was such a lovely day it wasn't anything too serious. First century but it was ok, the excellent feed stations certainly helped.

whiteboytrash

1878 wrote:

It was my first sportive and had a great time. Well organised though we did a few extra miles as some b'st@rd had taken down the sign for the long route at the split Then bonked and had a really difficult 20 miles before getting a second wind around 70m or so.
r.

Is that what happened !! I did the midi route and couldn't work out why my ride was so short..... I was waiting for the spit but it never came. I only realised when someone at the last feed station said "good riding only 27km to go"... odd that they used kilometers but because I'd only done about 95 at the time so meant I wasn't doing the long route. Really annoyed because I was on for a good time.

Its a great sportive but I think they should start more people together. I was caught out on my own too many times and would prefer if the spacing was only 45 minutes or so to find the appropriate group to ride in.

juggler

Sign posting could have been better. Why not signal the turn ahead of the junction? Signs were quite small and placed right on the turning...:so if you had your head down doing 30kph you would have missed the turn.

1878

You certainly weren't the only one caught out - one guy ahead of us turned back when he realised, and there was another group of 4 behind us though I think they decided to crack on with the 77 miler as they should have overtaken us otherwise.

What time did you set off? There were regular good-sized groups going off up to about 08:40 and then a few fast riders after that.

I guess they can't let too many people start at once, some of the lanes near the start really aren't good for mass group riding.

Oh, and if I had another small gripe, it would be to suggest marshalling a 'no-riding' zone around the start. I was amazed how many c0cks thought it would be a good idea to ride across in front of the groups starting out.

Stuck on a Giant

I'd give it 7 out of 10
Signage could have been better - the White Horse Challenge 2 weeks earlier was the best example of signing I have seen - BIG signs before, at and after the turns.
MUCH better warning needed for the potholes near the end - I, like loads of others, thought the 'Caution Cyclists' was aimed at car drivers. Couldn't they have put some gravel down with a carpet over it?
Nice route, good feed stations, and personally, Sparsholt worked well for me, but I live withing 45 minutes and got there by car.
I measured 2040m of climbing - less than claimed but I wasn't complaining by the end
Standards tough but acheiveable, even if I did miss my Gold by about 2.5 minutes, the cramp on Watership Down didn't exactly help there.
Next up, day 1 of the Tour of Wessex, no chance of a Gold there!
And now I'm a bit scared of Highclere - same sort of terrain, 26 more miles, and potentially half as much climbing again.