My first sportive ride today

ForumNewbie

I just happened to be on Evans site yesterday and noticed that they had a Sportive Road Event planned for today starting just 10 miles done the road from me at Harewood, West Yorkshire. I decided to go for it and went down early this morning and booked on to the Medium Ride.

As I knew most of the roads I knew it would be hilly, but all put together in a 53 mile route it was even tougher than I expected but I still enjoyed the challenge. I managed to do it under 5 hours (including stops) which I know is not fast for most people, but I was happy as that was my target and I had to work hard to achieve that.

I was impressed with the organisation of the event by Evans - everyone was friendly and helpful and the route was really well-signposted. Although I knew the area, and was therefore confident I wouldn't get lost, it is good to know that if I try another Evans sportive where I don't know the area, I should be able to find my way round okay without consulting my map that much.

jacster

I agree.
It was my first too and I opted for the medium route.
Was well signposted and plenty of drinks stops. Managed 3hr 25 so v pleased with that. Would definitely do another.

ForumNewbie

Well done jacster - that's a great time on that route.

jacster

It was a fantastic route. Some great countryside - and thankfully it stayed dry!
Some of those hills were very tough though - nice to get payback with one or two fast descents!

rolf_f

My first Sportive as well. I was going to do the medium but the actual route was a bit shorter than the provisional and too similar to a route that I did last week so I upgraded to the long

Has to be said that the climb up to Greenhow Hill from Burnsall is pretty tough though in compensation there was a nice long tailwinded downhill that got me up to nearly 43mph. I got momentarily confused by the signing on the second drink stop which was just round a corner and invisible til you got to it. Unclipped on the wrongside and fell hard onto a very gravelly road surface making a mess of both knees. Was in a bit of shock (a car stopped to ask if I needed help) but after 20 minutes or so I was able to gingerly set off to try and complete the remaining 35 miles.......

.... which were OK really. I did think after Almscliffe that it should be relatively easy riding aside from the final climb to Harewood. Didn't know about the climb before Sicklinghall....

Got back in under 6 hours I think - 5:07 riding time, just under 15 mph av speed which I'm happy with considering the fall and the fact that my bike is a 20 year old Dawes 501 tourer which weighs about twice the other bikes I saw at the event! 73 miles and 7100 feet of ascent.

The long route extension was a bit lonely - I saw no other cyclists on route until I got back onto the medium.

Might do the Lake District medium in two weeks - really was all very well organised with excellent signposting as jacster said; I only looked at the maps once when I was trying to distract myself from the pain of the fall.

ForumNewbie

Rolf F wrote:

My first Sportive as well. I was going to do the medium but the actual route was a bit shorter than the provisional and too similar to a route that I did last week so I upgraded to the long

Has to be said that the climb up to Greenhow Hill from Burnsall is pretty tough though in compensation there was a nice long tailwinded downhill that got me up to nearly 43mph. I got momentarily confused by the signing on the second drink stop which was just round a corner and invisible til you got to it. Unclipped on the wrongside and fell hard onto a very gravelly road surface making a mess of both knees. Was in a bit of shock (a car stopped to ask if I needed help) but after 20 minutes or so I was able to gingerly set off to try and complete the remaining 35 miles.......

.... which were OK really. I did think after Almscliffe that it should be relatively easy riding aside from the final climb to Harewood. Didn't know about the climb before Sicklinghall....

Got back in under 6 hours I think - 5:07 riding time, just under 15 mph av speed which I'm happy with considering the fall and the fact that my bike is a 20 year old Dawes 501 tourer which weighs about twice the other bikes I saw at the event! 73 miles and 7100 feet of ascent.

The long route extension was a bit lonely - I saw no other cyclists on route until I got back onto the medium.

Might do the Lake District medium in two weeks - really was all very well organised with excellent signposting as jacster said; I only looked at the maps once when I was trying to distract myself from the pain of the fall.

Hi Rolf, sorry to hear about your fall - you did well to finish after that. That must have been the drink station we were turning right at on the Medium Ride and you were coming down the hill and turned left. I can't remember if there was a sign on our side coming up the hill, just an arrow turning right. I didn't need to stop there anyway as it was only about 3 miles since the first drink station for us on the Medium ride, but it must have been a long way for you

I have not yet had the courage to try shoes with cleats yet. I don't even use clips - just flat touring pedals. I think I'll stick with them a while longer.

As soon as I saw Greenhow Hill was on the Long Ride, I decided to definitely go for the Medium Ride. I have done it once from the Grassington side, but it took me ages.

I also thought it was going to be easy when I passed Almscliffe Crag, but I also wasn't expecting that climb on the way to Sicklinghall.

However the worst part of the ride for me was the last 4 or 5 miles along the A659 from Linton to Harewood as the road surface was terrible and it was really busy with traffic . I feel sorry for any families or inexperienced cyclists who might have done the 14 mile Fun Ride, as they would have had to cope with that as well, which wouldn't have been much 'fun'.

Well done on your average speed for such a hilly riide, and good luck if you do the Lake District one which could be even more hilly.

rolf_f

Don't let my incompetence put you off clipless. Overall I think they are pretty good but I might try the ones without the lateral slack as they might be quicker to get out of! Can be handy if you find yourself in the wrong gear on a climb as you can power up much more effectively - but then you have more incentive too knowing that if you stop you'll probably fall over!

I think the drink stations were optimised for the long route - the ride down to Burnsall was mostly fairly easy so really it was just Greenhow that made you empty your bottle! I was down to one by then as my second flew off my rack bag just as I got to the roundabout at Bolton Abbey and landed on the lid breaking it. I turned round and picked it up and drank what hadn't leaked out already - including a large chunk of the lid :oops:

I'm actually still tired from the weekend, eating piles of food and my kneecap is a big red bruise!

verloren

Nice work on the time, ForumNewbie. There's lots of folks here who could do that faster, but don't forget that 90% of the population couldn't even be ars*d to try it.

ForumNewbie

I see that the Rider Times have now been published on Evans website for last Sunday's sportive. I know it wasn't a race, but I was relieved to see that I wasn't the slowest. The overall average speed (including stops) for the Medium Ride was 11.81mph and I wasn't too far short of that.

The overall average speed for the Long Ride was 13.78mph which seems pretty good on that course.