Who's doing the 2010 Cheshire Cat?

popette

yes, I was also surprised they took out the time stopped at feed stations. I barely stopped at all in order to try to improve my time!
My total time was 6hrs 32mins (6.19 when you take out the feed stops) - which, if my filtering and sorting is correct, puts me 5th Lady, which I am over the moon with

Great day out on the bike. Organisation, signage, food stops, course, marshalling and the choice of food at the end all combined to make a superb sportive for me. As it is the 3rd time I've done it, I didn't expect to say this but I would definitely do it again if they use the same format - top day out.

Hate that bloody Wincle though.

pickled

fluff. wrote:

pickled wrote:

I'm one of those. I did tell them I wimped out and did the 67 but I'm still down in the 100 section.
Also, is there a way to sort by time?

You can select a column and filter on it in Excel (Sort and Filter button, top right).

Thanks I'm using open office, but I eventually found the filters!
Think I'm inside the first 200 for the 67 mile route. So reasonably happy.
It felt far worse though...

skinsey

I've done some sorting and filtering too, and reckon I'm about 72nd out of the 1025 ish finishers of the 100 miler, with 5 hrs 43. I'm very happy with that, as the Forum Spring Fling ride was the longest run of the year till Sunday (and that was only 55 miles). I have, however, followed Carmichael's Time Crunched Cyclist training programme to the letter, and think that made a lot of difference. After the advised 3 weeks off high intensity stuff, I'll be going back on it for events later in the year.

As to the event itself, Kilotogo have got these pretty much sorted to echo lots of other comments. If I wanted to be really quarrelsome, I'd question the value of the safety speech at the start line as I was frozen by the time I got there, and just wanted to get away. Overall, however, first class.

markgoldstein

According to the spreadsheet I managed 314th in 05:51:19, although they told me a total ride time of 6hrs 11 mins at the end of the ride.

Managed to get all the way up Mow Cop in the saddle - I couldn't actually make out the top for most of it as my glasses steamed up with the effort! 192bpm up by the pub, which made the surprise bit round the corner more difficult than it should have been.

I actually gave the CCCR rider - John - a lift home back to South London after he spotted my Dulwich kit in the bar. He was brought down by a stray pheasant which shot out of the hedge directly into his front wheel - not good at 35mph! Thankfully he only suffered a bad groin strain, with no broken bones.

Pokerface

I did some sorting and checking, and even if you include the feed stops, I was number 1 overall on the 120 mile route.

andy_wrx

markgoldstein wrote:

According to the spreadsheet I managed 314th in 05:51:19, although they told me a total ride time of 6hrs 11 mins at the end of the ride.

Add-up all the split times (except start split, which is presumably the time you started after they started the clock and let the first group go) and you get 6:11:13
i.e. add the split times for each leg plus the split time between the in&out mats at the feedstops.

As I posted above, for some reason KiloToGo seem to have given 'finish time' as your time less the time spent in the feedstops, i.e. is ride time only not total time.
First time I've ever seen a sportive do that.

I've emailed them but they haven't responded...

There are also lots of people on the spreadsheet without any in/out times at the 3rd feedstop - a few may simply have ridden past it without bothering to go in, but I reckon the majority of them will have been entered for the 100 but only done the 67 on the day.

I'm not sure as a result whether we can get any sensible finishing positions or times out of this.

moolarb

andy_wrx wrote:

markgoldstein wrote:

According to the spreadsheet I managed 314th in 05:51:19, although they told me a total ride time of 6hrs 11 mins at the end of the ride.

Add-up all the split times (except start split, which is presumably the time you started after they started the clock and let the first group go) and you get 6:11:13
i.e. add the split times for each leg plus the split time between the in&out mats at the feedstops.

As I posted above, for some reason KiloToGo seem to have given 'finish time' as your time less the time spent in the feedstops, i.e. is ride time only not total time.
First time I've ever seen a sportive do that.

I've emailed them but they haven't responded...

There are also lots of people on the spreadsheet without any in/out times at the 3rd feedstop - a few may simply have ridden past it without bothering to go in, but I reckon the majority of them will have been entered for the 100 but only done the 67 on the day.

I'm not sure as a result whether we can get any sensible finishing positions or times out of this.

It makes sense to me and I prefer just a straight comparison of ride times. Otherwise you're comparing how long you had to queue up for a sausage roll, or the time you waited for the loo. The feed stops would have been busy for some and quiet for others as the start was staggered.

It's not a 100 mile TT or a race, it's a sportive.

andy_wrx

Indeed it is a sportive not a race, times are published in name order only - but we can see people using Excel sorting to get a position from the published times...

I've never seen any other sportive publish times with the times in the feedstops deducted - all others have been start -> finish total times, including time in feedstops, having a pee, fixing a puncture, getting your breath back at the top of a hill, etc, etc.

If you were to have a rest for an hour at each of the feedstops, you might well ride between them quicker than if you had quickly refilled your bottles and shot off again.

Pokerface

Well - to be fair, most sportives don't track time spent at rest stops so it would difficult to subtract it from the overall. Most of them have your start and finish times and that's it.

fluff.

skinsey wrote:

IAs to the event itself, Kilotogo have got these pretty much sorted to echo lots of other comments. If I wanted to be really quarrelsome, I'd question the value of the safety speech at the start line as I was frozen by the time I got there, and just wanted to get away. Overall, however, first class.

I seem to be going against the grain here, but 28 quid seemed a bit steep to me for what you got. No (included) food at the start or finish, save a cup of tea, and choice of food was pretty limited at the stops on route. Plus, the route used a fair selection of busy roads. I'm not unhappy with the event or anything, but the trend for these things to get more expensive while giving you less, doesn't seem that great to me.

fossyant

The mats were a good way of tracking a rider's completion. I did a fair few bits of trickery with excel too.

Those 'not verified' had missed a stop somewhere - there were a fair few riders going over the mats, turning round and carrying on....back over the mat....i.e. a 5 second split - Which is great.......

I thought I'd been quick as possible at the stops - averaged about 9 minutes... park bike, grab a water refill (queue as I'd not got off till 9.30am.....), grab a nanna, eat it and go.........

Some folk did hang about at stops...............

TBH the £28 was well spent - there were stacks of staff....'i.e. it's not done for free', marshals - food what else other than nannas eh.......great.. Fair few cakes, but found I couldn't eat much dry stuff anyway.....the 'energy drink' was fairly dilute, but meant my supply of 'powder' did the three stops, and was a bit neat for the last 25 miles....

As for busy roads...that's life, you have to cross them in Cheshire..... some of us are city commuters too, so able to deal with this stuff.... roads the route were on were pretty quiet, and any main road use was kept to a minimum.....

I'd brought a fair amount of my own 'stuff' with me though....some folk had 'empty pockets'...not a good idea....

Good route, hills early on, shocking headwind, but a blast back for the last 20 miles...

Loads of punctures/mechanicals......

Oh...and why are carbon bikes so creaky, clunky...eh........ passed hundreds of clattering creaky carbon stuff.....on my steel custom bike - not a sound from my bike....and it's 19 years old.....and has the bomb proof Dura Ace on it..

JamieW

have to say i thought that cat this year was better than last. course was good, and agree with fossyant that around here you have to use sections of the main A roads to get between the smaller ones. the sections used were fairly minimal. i'm sure that they could have been reduced on places, but then i thought the route was fairly well spot on with distributon of hills to flat.

i was suprised at how long i seemed to be stopped at some of the checkpoints.

and btw - long lane had an even stronger head wind tonight with sleet... was more fun on sunday

ps. my carbon bike creeks from the bottom bracket - i'm putting that down to all the power i put through it. might be improved if i get ceramic bearings???

massiBoardman

Did anybody else notice the BBC Film crew buzzing around on a Motorbike filming in the afternoon - or was I hallucinating. I was riding the 67 miler

daverow

BBC Film crew definitely on route along the way. Saw them just before Mow Cop and tried to assume the most composed posture I could. Failed. Cleaned the 'Cop though.

massiBoardman

Also attempted a " I know what I'm doing" pose for the film crew, no doubt looked a mess.
I Set off with 2 major goals for the day, first one was to complete Mow Cop (no problems last year), however no luck this year and secondly was to do my first 100 - failed that also. So all in all not a good day in the saddle.......I have unfinished business with that bloody hill!!!!!!

yakubu22

This was my first ever sportive and it was brilliant. Can't really fault the organisers, everything went slick for me. Queue at the start was a bit much but I was nearish to the front, good job it didn't rain on everyone snaking round the carpark! I was down for the 100, but wimped out at start due to lack of winter training. Heared and spoke to a lot of riders who made the same descision either before or during (early hills swung the balance for a few me-thinks). Anyway, all in it was a good day and I was still knackered after the 67. Excel manipulation of the results says 488th out of the 700+ starters in the 67 mile group, so really chuffed. Back next year definitely.