New Forest Rattler

Thomas the Tank Engine

..just done the Rattler today....great weather,great course ,big loop round the forest , well signposted , even had marshalls with flags at main road junctions! Lots of cattle grids which were not a hazard compared to the NF ponies and donkeys parked in the middle of the forest roads !

They're were lots of riders of all abilities out there...probably attracted by the flat route and 79 mile course(with a shorter option), which made a nice change from the normal sportives.

Lots of tea,coffee,soup and flapjacks at the end provided by very nice smiley helpers at what was a very picturesque HQ at a private school..and all part of the entry fee...although as it was for charity ,so a contribution was optional !!

One for next year...

pigeon42

Me & Mr P did this too today - 79 mile route! It was a really well organised day, really friendly marshalls and other helpers out - soup was much appreciated at the end, as was the icecream van

Airwave

Very well run.Good directions.I had a great time&the weather was glorious which allways helps.Heads up to the Tichfield Terriers if any of you are on the forum .The soup was very welcome at the finish as were the smiling young ladies serving it

Blodwenblod

I know why it's called the rattler - it's the cattle grids! Excellent fun had today. Even managed a "silver" time on my second ever sportive.
Thanks to all concerned with organising it.

daniel_b

What a great day (I'm Mr P as mentioned above), nice numbers of riders, great friendly efficient organisation, what else do you need really?

Good job with your silver on your second sportive Blodwen, what time did you manage??

I did exactly the same, ie silver on my second sportive, only just though, 4h 54m, but that time means that Mrs P up above achived a gold time on her second ever sportive - well done her

Dan

1878

47-miler for me, did it in 3h10 which I was happy with - especially satifsying to overtake a few of the Triathlon riders where ours courses overlapped

Lovely course and very well organised as the others have said, and I'll happily be signing up for next year.

Steve

Blodwenblod

Ah Dan, would it be giving the game away if I told you my time was 4'54 mins?

fridgeboy

Agree with previous posters - very well organised, generally flat and well-surfaced roads, and horses everywhere. In fact I fell off at one particular horse-infested stretch near Burley - fortunately only my pride was damaged.

Did my best average ever for that length of ride - 17.7 - so it must have been pretty flat. Glad I had a compact chainset though when arriving at Blissford. I guess the advertised wheelbarrow race up it next weekend should be interesting.

I did the Salisbury RC Seventy70 about 6 weeks ago - it follows quite a similar route but goes round the NF clockwise rather than anti-clockwise. Much smaller rider numbers, cheap as chips, and no signposts - so a bit of navigation to do en route - but still very enjoyable.

Terrier66

Great event and fantastic route. Thanks to all the organisers for making it such an enjoyable event. It's in the diary for next year.

Airwave thanks for all the help in the chain gang sorry the Terriers hind legs gave out on the final 20miles. More team members for next year and we'll have a crack at going under 4 hours.

Big respect to RAF MIck who broke rear gear cable just after the start but hung with the Terriers and Airwave for 40 miles at over 20.4mph ave.

Next outing Southdowns Challenge on 20th September a few more hills but a great route.

howiejmidlands

Fully agree with all of the comments. A great event and many other big events could learn from this one.
I had a fantastic ride, 79 miles in 5:40
What a result, i am hanging my wheels up now, it doesnt get any better than this for me.

Renster

Glad everyone enjoyed the ride. I am the event manager and we spent a long time getting all the signage in place on Saturday and ended up having only 3 hours sleep before the event. All well worth it though - and the weather really helped!

We will definitely be running the Rattler again next year and all entrants from this year will get priority booking. Also, the results will be posted up later today/early tomorrow on our website.

If you want to have a look at the pics from the event then please visit the following link: http://www.georgeburgessphotography.com ... emId=81609 There's some pretty good shots of people grimacing on Blissford Hill :shock:

The Rattler team are looking to run an event in France next year. Full details will be available soon, but I would like to gauge whether this would be of interest to anyone?

Cheers,
Ren

daniel_b

Hello Renster,

your 3 hours sleep wasn't in vain, I don't recall anywhere where the route wasn't very clear!

Do you know when the entries will be open for next year?
Good news that this years (is this the first year?) entrants will have priority

The France idea certainly sounds like it might be a goer, myself and my girlfriend would definitely be interested.

Will you send something out on e-mail?

Many thanks

Dan

Renster

Hi Dan

We will be scheduling next year's date with Moyles Court soon and will then let everyone know. Also, apologies that the results aren't live yet. They will be very shortly.

With regards to the France idea, yes we will be posting out to all that did the Rattler around Christmas time (unless you opted out of our mailing list). We still have to finalise some detail. It should be fun though.

Thanks so much again for taking part - it was a great day.

Cheers,
Ren

howiejmidlands

Hi Renster

Take a bow.....well organised event and i for one will be back next year and would be interested in the French ride also.

Really enjoyed my day out

chapeau

bcooperuk

Myself, my wife and my 13yo son also completed the Rattler last weekend. We did the 47 mile route as it was our first event.
Agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment here that it was an extremely enjoyable day out, well organized and sign-posted. I'm certainly pleased with my 3hr 26 time, although freely admit to being beaten by Blissford Hill

As we've only been actively riding for the past couple of months we were not quite sure what to expect from such an event. But now we are hooked and are eager to book up our next event in order to have something to aim for.

We'll certainly be up for it again next year, and this time i'll be aiming for the longer route.

Well done to all concerned, and a big thumbs up to the school for providing such an excellent location to set-out from.