Evans - King of the Downs

TheStone

Anyone doing this one?

Have plotted the route here (hopefully correct except a bit where they cross over):
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Ev ... -the-Downs

It's a bit like 'Surrey Legs of Steel' followed by 'Hell of the Ashdown Forest'

Will be tough 180km and somewhere close to 2700m of climbing.

Anyone done a Evans sportive before?

bigmat

Looks like its just us!

guinea

I'm thinking about this one.

I did an Evans ride a few weeks back. It was pretty well organised, but not too many people did the longer route, I was riding solo the whole day.

Gazzaputt

Was thinking of this but I'm waiting on the weather forecast. So far BBC has heavy rain for Sunday.

I really don't fancy 110 miles and 9000ft climbing in heavy rain!

DomPro

MTFU, a bit of rain won't do ya any harm.

I've got a 100 miles to do on Sunday, rain or shine. Will probably do this KoD next year instead.

Berns12

Hey have signed up for this too. Never done an Evans ride.

Does anyone know whether they have areas for storing personal stuff like arm warmers, jackets, etc which maybe needed post ride? Don't feel like carrying around any extra on a 110 miler!

Thanks

bobtbuilder

I am thinking of doing an Evans sportive on 5th July, so I would be interested to hear your feedback on this one when you've ridden it.

J09

I'll be there too, but I've been for one of their rides, the one near Woking.

About leaving our things, they were pretty ok for me to leave a bag behind their desk, but in a "no responsibilities" kind of thing...

xio

I see that the route has been changed a bit due to the triathlon - have you updated your route Kieran?

Jaeger

What weather! Kudos to anyone who made it all the way round...!!

Christophe3967

Did the first loop, and was so wet and cold that the sight of my car parked up was too tempting. Took arm, leg warmers andf overshoes, but left them in the car as it was sunny when I set off :oops:

TheStone

So cold and wet. And that wind at the end.

Was going fine till the rain. Pushed on through and felt better again when the sun came out (somewhere near the wall). Then the legs went and final third wasn't fun. Once the climbing was done, the wind seemed worse.

Took me 9h14!

Very well run. Signage was really good. Route was superb if the weather was better. Maybe a bit too far.

guinea

I couldn't make it this weekend unfortunately. However, the route has been saved to the garmin for future training.

Well done to anyone who finished it.

FransJacques

i'm sorry but that was just too long a course - the rain and the wind only make it worse. I was 7:04 which is just silly for a UK sportive - it's still relatively early in the season and given that the amount of cars increases as the day drags on it was a real drag.

I loved many parts of the course - especially the Kent side - there was one road with fantastic views out the left when we were on a plateau maybe 10 miles into the loop - lovely. The hills were all great as well - very challenging and steep, but maybe have the same hills with less mileage.

I also explained to the (friendly) Evans guys that arrow markers should not be wrapped around poles but should sit flat and proud so that you can actually see them before you're on top of them.

I started towards 9 am (maybe 8:55) and didn't ride with a single person all day - so basically I did a 180 km TT. Not a lot of fun but said Hi to most other participants I saw and also made a point of asking everyone i saw on the side of the road with flats or mechanicals if they were OK.

Did it strike anyone the number of flats? I was amazed. I escaped unharmed this week after paying my dues to the flat gods last weekend in the HHH with 3(!) of them.

glanders

I had a visitation from the puncture fairy, but managed to limp round the last 20 miles by repeatedly pumping the affected tyre up. There was a lot of gravel and crap on the roads, especially after that succession of 'showers'. I finished the long route in 6.45, but ended up clocking 115 miles. Did anyone else find it to be over-distance? I (along with at least three other groups of riders) lost the route markers near Yorks Hill and ended up climbing Ides Hill and missing the third feed station. Bit of a pisser since we also got to the second feed station before it opened and I ended up doing the ride on a single water bottle. All good learning points I guess...

FransJacques

In terms of times - the best one the Evans guys saw is 6:24 which is really good going. I was just over 7:00 but rode it 100% solo - a 184 km TT. Not complaining, serves me right for starting at 9 am. So can easily understand 6:24.

Early starters would also have had the *huge* advantage of having at least been near or past Shere by the time the rain started. I rode Leith, Pitch, Holmbury, Ranmore etc. with all those crappy muddy rocky lanes with torrents of water pouring down the road. Was shocking and I missed letting the bike rip on the downhills - wasted tons of time...but at least I got 1 hour more sleep the night before.

bigmat

7:30 ish for me, I started at 8am and was probably on my own for about 95 of the 116 miles I clocked by the finish. Took a couple of wrong turns that didn't help, particularly cruel were the two club riders who sent me the wrong way at the top of the Wall, down a private road with massive speed bumps that have probably knackered my wheels, then had to ride all the way back up again! I reckon it was about 25 miles too long, couldn't see the point of the part after Yorks Hill as it was just a painful old grind. Still, first century since last August and good to give my new bike a thorough work out, generally felt pretty good, although fact that I couldn't get out of the saddle (dodgy back after crash a couple of weeks ago) didn't help going uphill. Think my Yorks Hill time was around 3 minutes, so on a good day I'd have been in the prize draw (but nowhere near the record! :oops:)

dave milne

I too bailed after the first half as I was so soaked and cold I couldn't operate my gears and brakes. Shame, I would have been on for 6:30 maybe 7 hours

FransJacques

Times are up - Mr Hammond, 7:40 for you actually. 7:24 for me. On both counts I'm sure we did a lot of faffing finding routes (I even messed up the start and came back to HQ after the first loop to ask directions to the 2nd feed which was just after the Long Route started), the rain, riding buddies going slowly and dropping out and riding to Dorking etc., finding telephone booths etc.

As Evans said, a lot of people bailed after 1/2 way even tho they were down for the full sportive but their times are still up.

Of the long route finishers but I'll bet the price of the pint at least 5 of the earlier finishers only did the half. The acid test is to pump their rider numbers into the Phil O'Connor site and see if they have photos from the second half of the ride - hardly conclusive - but an indication. Also, from the pix, not to be judgemental but if someone looks ike Homer Simpson on a bike, I doubt they did this ride sub 7:45.

But I'm a betting man...

bigmat

What was your Yorks Hill time? I had a very quick look and quickest time I could spot was 2:50 so nobody made the prize draw for getting within a minute of the record. I was down at 3:24, kind of wished I'd killed myself going for a time, but tired legs and survival instinct kicked in - no way was I going to risk blowing a gasket and having to walk up!

FransJacques

Yorks hill time was 3:47 for 27th place. Your time was stunning! I'd hate to see what you might have done had you really opened it up!

When I get there (2:45pm) it was well organized with a girl reading the plate numbers to a guy with a laptop on the side of the road. She was also very encouraging - prob because I looked like death at the time. Even the photo guy issued forth words of encouragement.

What ride is next for you Mr H? I'm thinking of Chiltern 100 if I'm not away or Highclere.

bigmat

Little Lumpy next weekend, think its Surrey but further south.

http://www.littlelumpy.co.uk/epic.html

After that I'm doing the Dragon Ride in Wales but not much else planned this summer.

phreak

Would love to do the Lumpy, alas the awful trains make getting there from London tricky though. Really wish organisers would allow a later start time to give people without a car the chance to get there without having to spend the night.