Disappointed with my first sportive experience
Comments
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ugo.santalucia wrote: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.
The epic is much more picturesque than the chilterns and much shorter.0 -
Away from SE England, for a start; I can understand SE-centricity when it comes to bankers, traffic jams, crime and pollution, but for cycling, or any of the other really good things in life, go north and west!ugo.santalucia wrote: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.
As far away as possible from Basingstoke, to start....
Applecross is 616 miles from Basingstoke by road, and on another planet in terms of character. As for signage, it's not difficult when there's only a junction every 20 miles or so.
Similar things could be said about any part of Scotland (barring the central belt, and even there you'd be surprised at some of the scenery and quality of roads) and also the Lakes, the Peak, most of Wales, Exmoor, Dartmoor, ...0 -
oldwelshman wrote:ugo.santalucia wrote: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.
The epic is much more picturesque than the chilterns and much shorter.
I agree, the Epic was simply stunning, especially, but not only, the Elan valley loopleft the forum March 20230 -
Rach E wrote:
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.
[...]
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.
The state of the roads sounds pretty average for the southeast. It could be the Chilterns or the Surrey hills -- all well known cycling areas. It's a bit like complaining about the state of the pave in the Tour of Flanders Sportive or the broken cobblstones in the Arenberg Trench on the Paris Roubaix Sportive.
Dealing with the gravel and flint on the road after heavy rain is part of the experience of cycling. You have to learn to deal with it and develop your bike handling skills to avoid the hazards. You can't go hammering along many of these lanes.
However, you should expect good signage on a sportive ride but also you have to look out for the signs as well. Again if you are hammering along you are more likely to miss a turn.
Roads in Belgium and France almost always have a ditch down the side even along the smallest roads where any debris can run off into. Which brings its own hazard where cyclists can fall into (guy in front of me went head first into a ditch on the tour of Flanders!) and you often see cars trapped in the ditch.
The more you ride this sort of terrain (get on the tube at Baker Street and go ride around Amersham and Chesham) the better you'll be able to deal with these hazards. You may eventually enjoy them like I and many others do.
Don't be put off. And try the Chilterns 100 rides like others have recommended.
http://www.chiltern-hundred.org.uk/
Or try my 50k loop http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Amersham-Chilterns-Loop Lots of grass and moss in the middle of the road and gravel. But I rarely puncture on my 23mm Vitoria Open Corsa evo-cx tyres; and they are hardly super tough.
Bin0 -
binlinus wrote:Rach E wrote:
Or try my 50k loop http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Amersham-Chilterns-Loop Lots of grass and moss in the middle of the road and gravel. But I rarely puncture on my 23mm Vitoria Open Corsa evo-cx tyres; and they are hardly super tough.
Bin
Thanks for that link.
Looks like a nice route that i may try
Any others from Amersham or Chesham?0 -
NWLondoner wrote:Any others from Amersham or Chesham?
Quite a few good routes around there. Me and my mates have each got our favourites. I'll put a few others up when I get the time.
Bin0 -
I think I've saved a ton of Chilterns routes starting from Great Missenden on Bikehike.co.uk , Bikemap.net and mapmyride.com
Just use the search engines of the above mentioned websitesleft the forum March 20230 -
Come and do the Cheddar Sportive in North Somerset, first 63 miles is pretty easy, lovely flat rural riding with a couple of small hills, then 37 miles in the Mendips, but all hills are 6-7% average gradients.
Quiet roads, fantastic scenery, and the chance to avoid mountain goats while cycling (you not the goats) without leaving the country!0 -
Burgess Hill Sportives later on down in this thread, they have a training day end November, then run sportives in March & August - I did them both & they are very well organised, but yes there are some dodgy lanes & gravelly roads involved, but not sure if you can really expect not to see varying terrain over a 65 mile or 95 mile course ?My knees hurt !0
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These have been excellent in the same area:
Hampshire Hilly Hundred
White Horse Challenge0
