Disappointed with my first sportive experience

Rach E

I've just done one of the Evans Ride It! cyclosportives with my partner and another friend. We did the "long course" option from Cliddesden House near Basingstoke in Hampshire.

We started in smallish groups of around 10-15 riders. We stayed as a peloton for about 2 miles, but, as we were at the front, we took a wrong turning two miles in (badly signed!) and went off course (only about a mile out of the way, but annoying none the less).

The roads were just awful - 90% of the ride was on extremely narrow, twisting and gravelly country lanes and farm tracks. Some of the roads even had grass and moss growing down the middle of them. There were some dangerous descents because of this, and there were *loads* of punctures owing to the gravelly road. This was meant to be the "road" sportive (there was a MTB-version on the previous day).

There were also loads of junctions which meant a very stop/start nature to the ride.

I appreciate that sportives aren't meant to be competitive, but I'd been hoping to ride a bit faster and ride more in a group. The conditions and route meant it was impossible to have any bits where we could really put the foot down.

Probably my own fault for not doing research first, but is this the norm for a sportive? I've been rather put off doing another one now.

wizlyn

Bad luck Rach, sounds like a pretty disappointing use of a day.

Don't give up on sportives altogether though - doesn't sound like the Evans RideIt! formula is quite working yet... hopefully it's only teething problems + they'll sort it out.

I can only speak from my own rather limited cycling experience, but loved the only sportive I've done so far - Burgess Hill Rumble in August. Great route taking in the best of Kent/Sussex hills, unerringly accurate signposting and feedstations (with flapjack) aplenty...

holmeboy

Yeah! don't give up on Sportives, I've done a few and none of them anywhere as bad as what you Describe.

hopper1

+1 for keeping at the sportives.
Having read reviews about Evans RideIt events, I was thinking of doing one, if it coincided with my time off, they were rated pretty highly! :shock:

itboffin

That's really bad luck in fact I was planning on doing that sportive but dropped out due to injury, trust me there are loads of really good sportives in Hampshire, Wiltshire & Berkshire - i've done pretty much all of them this year, try www.cyclosport.org

I dont think anything can be done about the PF visits thats the west country for you

GavH

I've just moved from Winchester and did a couple of sportive routes around Hants this year - all very good. Sounds like this has been a fairly poor effort on the part of the organisers in terms of route selection and certainly not endemic of sportives in general.

Rach E

Thanks for the tips! I'll definitely do another one. The results are up now, and the times are pitifully slow which shows even the best riders had a very tough day out there (it looked like nearly every group had at least one puncture).

I'll look out for some more popular events in 2010 and hopefully have a better experience!

The Ride It blog said today that they're going to look into improving future ones after feedback received, so I'm sure things will improve. I've read reviews of some of their other events as well and it definitely looks like it could be a one-off (although the general consensus is they have quite small turnouts).

Hi, Wizlyn!! I'd wondered where you'd gone, although saw you'd done the London duathlon so figures you were coming back. Really glad you are!

Philip Whiteman

Rach E wrote:

I've just done one of the Evans Ride It!
Probably my own fault for not doing research first, but is this the norm for a sportive? I've been rather put off doing another one now.

Regretably your experience is typical of a number of sportive events. There are a few that do fall into the excellent rating, such as as the Mad March Hare, Cumberland Challenge or Autumn Epic which I have happily ridden.

However, due to the high variability in quality and some charlatan operators, I have given up on sportives. No longer am I prepared to cough up £25 for an event that is quite fundamentally poor and a rip-off. In my experience nine out of ten audax rides have been a positive experience. In the odd instance of a poor audax event. all you loose is the small fee of £5 and possibly a day in the saddle. In a few cases, I would even go as to assert that audaxes can provide more than a sportives and a fraction of the cost.

I no longer regret the transition even though I once had high hopes for sportives.

The only you question for any prospective audaxer is, can you hack riding without road signage?

phearnde

I did yesterday's Cliddesden Ride-It.

As I live nearby in Basingstoke, I wasn't at all surprised at the state of the roads, unfortunately it had rainded the day & night before, therefore there was a lot stone & gravel that washes onto the roads.

I think Evans should have warned about the likely state of the roads, and put out some tyre recommendations - Highclere Castle back in June.over similar terrain, did just this.

I used Conti Gatorskins yesterday and didn't get any punctures!

Thinking back on you are right that there were alot of turns.

I guess the choice of roads, is a compromise between busy, clean roads and less busy but gravelly roads.

Like others have said, don't give up on the Sportive format

bompington

You should do the Etape C, nice roads, really fast with nothing to get in your way, and of course there's very little chance of any punctures :?

craker

Have a look at the the Highclere sportive - it's big, well marshalled and well signposted. It was in June this year and heavy rain had washed flinty stones into the road so there were punctures... but if you ride around Newbury you're probably familiar with the girth and quality of the roads in the Combe Gibbet / Bourne valley areas - lovely riding.

vorsprung

Most UK sportifs don't run on closed roads

So they will tend to go for quiet roads

In the South ( Hampshire for instance ) this will mean tiny lanes

If you want good roads with minimal traffic then early season events in Wales are the best bet

MrChuck

vorsprung wrote:

Most UK sportifs don't run on closed roads

So they will tend to go for quiet roads

In the South ( Hampshire for instance ) this will mean tiny lanes

If you want good roads with minimal traffic then early season events in Wales are the best bet

Good point here.
The Evans one may well have been lacking, but the nature of roads in this country means a lot of sportives will take in narrow lanes and some of them have will have iffy surfaces (especially after bad weather).

rdt

Philip Whiteman wrote:

However, due to the high variability in quality and some charlatan operators, I have given up on sportives. No longer am I prepared to cough up £25 for an event that is quite fundamentally poor and a rip-off. In my experience nine out of ten audax rides have been a positive experience. In the odd instance of a poor audax event. all you loose is the small fee of £5 and possibly a day in the saddle. In a few cases, I would even go as to assert that audaxes can provide more than a sportives and a fraction of the cost.

I no longer regret the transition even though I once had high hopes for sportives.

The only you question for any prospective audaxer is, can you hack riding without road signage?

I've only ridden a handful of sportives (inc Gran Fondo Cymru, Autumn Epic), but they were big-name events and very well run, so my experience was good.

But I also think that Audaxes seem a bit of missed opportunity - for the organisers who could achieve much higher participation - and for mainstream road cyclists to whom it never occurs to ride an Audax, them being perceived (partly correctly) as the preserve of bearded, loner, fuddy-duddies with panniers etc.

Based on my modest Peak District-ish experience of Audaxes, the routes have been exceptional, a real joy to ride, whereas the Sportives tend to veer more towards main (A) roads, maybe as a means of attracting people from outside the area to bag the bigger name climbs, but which are not much fun to ride when jammed with cars as they are come midday on a weekend.

The upside of Audaxes being just a few quid obviously comes with the *major* downside of being unsigned, and needing route maps, which is more than a bit crap when you're trying to crack on, and enough to put most people off.

On this point, maybe GPS devices have the ability to transform the appeal of Audaxes in the future, offering great routes at low cost, as "everyday" events, while leaving the big Sportives to cater for the major challenge event market, whichyou just ride a handful of in a year?

Philip Whiteman

rdt , I think you make some excellent observations. It is where audax organisers can up the anti, that audaxes will become more modernised. People such as PeakAudax have produced audax events with plenty to offer and often on a par with some sportives with excellent venues, routes, gpx, general information, provisions on the day, etc. AUK should take note!

You mention the GFC along with the Epic - by what I can gather, the GFC laid the foundations for those who believe in excellent sportives. Certainly the guys at Epic have similarly provided excellent events. These are the wheat of sportives, the problems lay with chaff that occur in some other quarters.

Going back to the initial message on this thread, I would recommend soliciting views from friends have ridden sportives and ask for their experiences. There are so many new events that entering cold can be a risky business. Equally there are a number of established sportives that are pretty dreadful. So whilst, I have shouted in favour of audaxes, there are still some good sportives out there. The question is, which ones?

ugo.santalucia

Rach E wrote:

I've just done one of the Evans Ride It! cyclosportives with my partner and another friend. We did the "long course" option from Cliddesden House near Basingstoke in Hampshire.

We started in smallish groups of around 10-15 riders. We stayed as a peloton for about 2 miles, but, as we were at the front, we took a wrong turning two miles in (badly signed!) and went off course (only about a mile out of the way, but annoying none the less).

The roads were just awful - 90% of the ride was on extremely narrow, twisting and gravelly country lanes and farm tracks. Some of the roads even had grass and moss growing down the middle of them. There were some dangerous descents because of this, and there were *loads* of punctures owing to the gravelly road. This was meant to be the "road" sportive (there was a MTB-version on the previous day).

There were also loads of junctions which meant a very stop/start nature to the ride.

I appreciate that sportives aren't meant to be competitive, but I'd been hoping to ride a bit faster and ride more in a group. The conditions and route meant it was impossible to have any bits where we could really put the foot down.

Probably my own fault for not doing research first, but is this the norm for a sportive? I've been rather put off doing another one now.

Hardly surprising. In built up areas to avoid the traffic and police restrictions on these events, the organiser has to go fo country lanes, which can be dreadful. I normally only enter sportives in beautiful quiet parts of the country... like Wales, the Lakes, the Peaks etc...
Also, these Evans events with no pedigree in anonymous parts of the country are hardly exciting.

jacster

Gator Skins - a good choice at this time of the year!
I did a Ride It event and actually found it pretty good. In fact for the price it was excellent.
Well signposted, free gels and decent provisions at the food stop.
Definitely persevere with them Rach E.

nasahapley

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I normally only enter sportives in beautiful quiet parts of the country... like Wales, the Lakes, the Peaks etc...

Yep; you'll not get a 'bad' sportive route in the Dales or Lakes (my usual stomping ground), and so far as I'm aware the well-known sportives in the north generally get good write-ups. Definitely worth a trip up IMO. Of course, bad weather can make any event less fun than it would otherwise be, and by the sounds of things that played a part in mucking the course up for this Evans event. Good to hear you're going to stick at it Rach; I've had nothing but good experiences of sportives (tbh I've only done two (in fact the same one twice)).

TommyEss

If you're in Newbury, come and ride our (Reading Cycling Club's) Anthony Maynard Sportive next July.

Then there's Highclere nearby, Chilterns 100 etc. etc.

hitthewall

Since you're in Berks, check out the Southern Sportives next year. I did 3 this year and found them well organised with good routes.

ugo.santalucia

hitthewall wrote:

Since you're in Berks, check out the Southern Sportives next year. I did 3 this year and found them well organised with good routes.

Very arguable... both the Princes Risborough and Woodcote ones run through some dreadful lanes and I've literally seen dozens of punctures.
In the area the Chiltern 100 is probably the best one, although I wouldn't recommend it to a novice, in view of the 21 climbs it includes, most of which at 10-15%. To give you an idea, I find it harder than the Dragon Ride or the Autumn Epic.

I think in the south the Circuit of the Cotswolds is a good sportive for novices: quiet roads, well paved, some climbs, only one steep climb (really steep actually), good organisation.

ugo.santalucia

hitthewall wrote:

Since you're in Berks, check out the Southern Sportives next year. I did 3 this year and found them well organised with good routes.

Very arguable... both the Princes Risborough and Woodcote ones run through some dreadful lanes and I've literally seen dozens of punctures.
In the area the Chiltern 100 is probably the best one, although I wouldn't recommend it to a novice, in view of the 21 climbs it includes, most of which at 10-15%. To give you an idea, I find it harder than the Dragon Ride or the Autumn Epic.

I think in the south the Circuit of the Cotswolds is a good sportive for novices: quiet roads, well paved, some climbs, only one steep climb (really steep actually), good organisation.

Mendip rouleur

I've had my first season of sportives this year and generally been very pleased.

The only really poor experience was Wild Edric in August in Shropshire. The culprit was also poor road choices-twisty gravelly descents which were downright dangerous in places.

A good tip is to go on forums like this and see what experiences others have had-before you enter. I rode the Tour ride this year (I won a place in a raffle as I wouln't have dreamed of paying the fee to enter) and it turned out to be the most well-organised and fun day of the lot.

Other than that I have ridden 5 others which have all been great, and I think the best thing has been riding with large froups of new people from all over the place (like my riding performance), which is what sportives are about for me.

jgsi

Mendip rouleur wrote:

I've had my first season of sportives this year and generally been very pleased.I rode the Tour ride this year (I won a place in a raffle as I wouln't have dreamed of paying the fee to enter) .

?.. surely if you plan to do a lot of 'sportives' as your hobby, the cost is pretty irrelevant but the quality is not?

paul_xedos

Regarding the original posting:-
As someone who has done a lot of Sportives this year (about 10 including some in Europe) I would say this was as good as any and found it to be really enjoyable. I realise there were a few dodgy points with the signage but Evans should be praised for putting so much effort into these events and charging so little. To me a tenner for waymarked routes around quiet country lanes, drinks stations and village hall facilities at the start and end is fantastic. Also, the fact that they seem to be the only people in the south organising sportives through the winter is fantastic. Route-wise it seemed fine and at some points felt quite taken aback at how scenic it all looked
If any one from Evans is reading this thread, don't be put off from holding these events as I think they're superb

Incidentally, can you point me in the direction of the results?

Cheers
Paul

Rach E

Thank you everyone for the tips!! It's nice to hear some positive experiences.

Paul_xedos - I really don't want Evans to be put off doing future events. I just think that they could have planned things a bit better. When I finished, there were quite a few people distressed that they'd taken wrong turnings, and at one point we were passing groups with punctures nearly every 500m! I'd also have chosen different tyres (and possibly a different bike!) if I'd known it was going to be that bad. I'm still not 100% confident on my road bike, and some of the roads were positively scary! BUT I appreciate that they are hard to organise and it's a great thing that they're trying to run events in parts of the country where sportives wouldn't normally be held.

One of our group got a puncture quite early on in the ride, and we also stopped a few times to blow up the tyre again!

The results can be found here: http://evanscyclesrideit.blogspot.com/ (second blog entry)

I think my main annoyance is we normally average 18-19mph on an easy training ride, and it was frustrating not to be able to get to this kind of speed because of the turns and nature of the roads.

But the organisation was spot on, and the guys at the start/finish were fantastic!

The Chiltern 100 sounds great. I've just come back from 7 days climbing the cols on the Marmotte route in France so it sounds right up my street :-)

TommyEss, Definitely will look out for the Reading CC sportive next year. Do you have some TTs up Streatley hill, perchance?

oldwelshman

ugo.santalucia wrote:

hitthewall wrote:

Since you're in Berks, check out the Southern Sportives next year. I did 3 this year and found them well organised with good routes.

Very arguable... both the Princes Risborough and Woodcote ones run through some dreadful lanes and I've literally seen dozens of punctures.
In the area the Chiltern 100 is probably the best one, although I wouldn't recommend it to a novice, in view of the 21 climbs it includes, most of which at 10-15%. To give you an idea, I find it harder than the Dragon Ride or the Autumn Epic.

I think in the south the Circuit of the Cotswolds is a good sportive for novices: quiet roads, well paved, some climbs, only one steep climb (really steep actually), good organisation.

The Cotswaolds for novices? Yeah right, how many people did you see actually ride up that steep climb? Cleeve hill? I just got over it chewing the bars at 3mph!!
There were only another 6 or 7 around me who were not walking and some very good riders/climbers I know were walking!!
Same for the Autumn epic, glas clwyd is way harder than anything in the chilterns. I live and ride round the chilterns and none of the climbs are that bad, steepness or long, it is just the accumulative effect as the route just criss crosses to get all of the climbs available into the ride.

nicky_7751

Hardly surprising. In built up areas to avoid the traffic and police restrictions on these events, the organiser has to go fo country lanes, which can be dreadful. I normally only enter sportives in beautiful quiet parts of the country... like Wales, the Lakes, the Peaks etc...
Also, these Evans events with no pedigree in anonymous parts of the country are hardly exciting.[/quote]

So what part of the country do you have to travel to so it's not anonymous :shock: :?:
Country lanes in any part of the country after rain can be pretty horrendous.

ugo.santalucia

oldwelshman wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

hitthewall wrote:

Since you're in Berks, check out the Southern Sportives next year. I did 3 this year and found them well organised with good routes.

Very arguable... both the Princes Risborough and Woodcote ones run through some dreadful lanes and I've literally seen dozens of punctures.
In the area the Chiltern 100 is probably the best one, although I wouldn't recommend it to a novice, in view of the 21 climbs it includes, most of which at 10-15%. To give you an idea, I find it harder than the Dragon Ride or the Autumn Epic.

I think in the south the Circuit of the Cotswolds is a good sportive for novices: quiet roads, well paved, some climbs, only one steep climb (really steep actually), good organisation.

The Cotswaolds for novices? Yeah right, how many people did you see actually ride up that steep climb? Cleeve hill? I just got over it chewing the bars at 3mph!!
There were only another 6 or 7 around me who were not walking and some very good riders/climbers I know were walking!!
Same for the Autumn epic, glas clwyd is way harder than anything in the chilterns. I live and ride round the chilterns and none of the climbs are that bad, steepness or long, it is just the accumulative effect as the route just criss crosses to get all of the climbs available into the ride.

Yes, but Cleeve hill is only one, and so is Glascwm (well there's another one equally steep and a bit shorter just before the food station)... the Chiltern 100 has 21 climbs at 10-15%... I've seen people starting to walk up Whiteleaf... and they were only half the way... imagine walking up another 10... it can become a day to forget.

I've done the Chiltern 100 3 times and always found it pretty hard towards the end... generally finished in 6 hour s30 to 40 minutes. Generally felt completely empty with 10 miles to go (or was it 10 Km the sign?)
I've done the Autumn Epic in 5 hours 50 and at the end I wasn't completely worn.

ugo.santalucia

nicky_7751 wrote:

Hardly surprising. In built up areas to avoid the traffic and police restrictions on these events, the organiser has to go fo country lanes, which can be dreadful. I normally only enter sportives in beautiful quiet parts of the country... like Wales, the Lakes, the Peaks etc...
Also, these Evans events with no pedigree in anonymous parts of the country are hardly exciting.

So what part of the country do you have to travel to so it's not anonymous :shock: :?:
Country lanes in any part of the country after rain can be pretty horrendous.[/quote]

As far away as possible from Basingstoke, to start....

Rach E

The Hampshire countryside around Basingstoke is actually very picturesque (down to Arlesford).

Cotswold definitely sounds fun. I enjoy climbing :¬)