Tour Ride in the South West
Comments
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I'm getting closer to deciding to have a go - I've discovered I've got a friend doing it already (though much more experienced than me at this sort of thing), so might look into the practicality of getting to the start with him.Edindevon wrote:It sounds to me like you'd be fine to do the ride. Your 71 miles is a good training run by any stretch of the imagination.
Edindevon
It would be quite an interesting first >100-miler if I did it!0 -
Right, getting very close to signing up, but wondering how to get to Minehead for the start with bike, as I'm gigging the night before in Exeter, and will need to leave my car in Teignmouth as I've got a gig there on the Sunday evening, straight after the ride. Is anyone going up from Exeter direction early on the Sunday morning?0
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Timing Chip arrived today looks new so hopefully less rattling all the way,0
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I seem to have signed up for this now, having sorted transport, I think, so there will be a few firsts for me. I'm looking forward to it. I'll be playing trumpet in AJ's Big Band in the evening on The Den at Teignmouth, if anyone is hanging round there after the ride.
PS - thanks for the encouragement, Edindevon!0 -
online registration is now closed for the South West Tour Ride however we will still be taking some entries for the Pro and Challenge ride -
Minehead and Honiton
Saturday between 2-8 Sunday 7-9
Family Ride is a chance for everyone to get a taste of the Tour of Britain and you can sign up for that on Sunday between 8-11.
Hope to see you down there
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Good luck to everyone riding on Sunday - weather is looking great and its raising a fantastic amount of money for a great cause - The Prostate Cancer Charity.
Thank you for all of your support from all of the Tour Ride team.
Enjoy it0 -
Did the 70km today. Great ride and a great day!
The whole thing was well organised and resourced...finishing at Teignmouth was superb and the goodie bag, free meal etc were well received.
The route itself was challenging but not too arduous....apart from Peak hill which was tough.
Thanks to the organisers and I hope the tour returns next year. Cheers!0 -
Did the 175km, which was overall a very nice course.
Some of the lanes coming down off Exmoor were a bit dodgy though, very narrow and lots of grit, went down one steep bend with a locked rear wheel and a turtle. Wonder how the peleton will cope going down them next week.
Didn't realise they were going to time the Peak Hill climb, great idea. When I rode up, probably 8/10 were off and pushing, and good top have a small crowd cheering us all on.
It was very well organised and the finish was brilliant, real sense of arriving. I tried to sprint, but didn't have much left in the legs.
Well done Tour Ride organisers!Weather info: http://www.staydry.me.uk0 -
Man that was tough.I can see why they reckon it's the hardest tour of britain stage for years.0
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Really enjoyed that. By far the best organised event I've done and a great course.
I managed to get around it all with a 39 chainring. Will be interesting to see the KOM times.0 -
Yes, I too thoroughly enjoyed the ride - I nice one for my first >100-mile ride. No records broken (8 hours), but happy to get round with juice to spare at the end. (Obviously I didn't work hard enough.) Superbly organised - I hope that The Prostate Cancer Charity make a large amount of money from it.
I just hope that I can move in the morning!!0 -
I only did the short ride from Honiton, but had a great time anyway. Good organisation, good ride and raised some money for an important charity.
The only downside (which won't happen next week when they close the roads) were the traffic bottlenecks on the ride down from Peak Hill to Otterton and in Starcross. It is always frustrating to have to stop and wait while two cars sort out who is going thrugh a gap first!
Well done to those who did the full ride from Minehead. The first chap arrived at the finish about 1.15 after leaving Minehead at 7.15. 175km in 6 hours = RESPECT!Genesis Croix de Fer - my new commuting mount
Saracen Hytrail - the workhorse - now pensioned off
Kinetic-One FK1 roadie - the fast one - hairy legs though!
Cannondale Jekyll Lefty MTB - the muddy one which keeps tipping me into gorse bushes!0 -
Knowing these roads well (and their regular hold-ups), I was amazed to be able to fly along the Peak Hill-Otterton section without any hold-ups - I only met one car coming in the opposite direction, which kindly waited for me pass! Even the section to Starcross wasn't too bad ... I guess I was very lucky.markp2 wrote:The only downside (which won't happen next week when they close the roads) were the traffic bottlenecks on the ride down from Peak Hill to Otterton and in Starcross. It is always frustrating to have to stop and wait while two cars sort out who is going thrugh a gap first!0 -
I live near the middle section of the route.
I was busy that day and saw a small group of Yogi riders in Hemyock who were going well
Reports have reached me of a lot of riders pushing up hills. It is supposed to be a ride y'know. Only kidding
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Congrats to all the people who did the Tour Ride yesterday
No just to watch the pros do it then I can have a go at the Stoke Tour Ride
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I did the ride and achieved all my goals, so I'm pleased with how it went.
I thought it was very well organised in terms of signage and food stations etc. For me, there could have been a bit more explicit administration at the start and finish. Particularly at the finish, I got no real sense of what I was supposed to do next. My priority was to get to the transfer point and the only people around to ask about this were the safety event riders. They pointed me the way to the coach park ('back up the steep hill you just came down'!), so I went straight there. At the coach park there was no sign at all of anyone in authority, so I didn't have anyone to hand my timing chip in to. It seemed like this was the case with a lot of the other riders, so it would be useful if a return address could be posted on here.
From the comments of other riders on the coach the consensus seemed to be that the route was a bit convoluted for the first 40km. Basically you left Minehead and climbed up to Exmoor, then you more or less returned to Minehead before going back up to Exmoor. Mind you, I can see that you have to have a certain amount of doubling back on yourself to make a 108km journey into a 175km ride.
Edindevon0 -
Does anyone know if the times/results will be published for the rides yesterday? I would be interested to know how slow my time up Peak Hill was compared to the pros next week.
The local lads do it in about 5 minutes when they hold a hillclimb. Mine felt more like 15!Genesis Croix de Fer - my new commuting mount
Saracen Hytrail - the workhorse - now pensioned off
Kinetic-One FK1 roadie - the fast one - hairy legs though!
Cannondale Jekyll Lefty MTB - the muddy one which keeps tipping me into gorse bushes!0 -
markp2 wrote:Does anyone know if the times/results will be published for the rides yesterday? I would be interested to know how slow my time up Peak Hill was compared to the pros next week.
The local lads do it in about 5 minutes when they hold a hillclimb. Mine felt more like 15!
The Tour Ride manual said 'Your times will be posted on the Tour Ride website on Monday 6 September'.
I've just checked and I can't see anything yet, but I guess they've working on it now. I'm genuinely interested, as I didn't get round to replacing the battery on my Ergobrain before the ride and consequently have no record of my time, speed etc.
Edindevon0 -
Agreed (though obviously the actual route was the choice of the Tour of Britain organisers) - but having seen that the route made no sense in getting-from-A-to-B terms, I did my best to ignore my knowledge of the map and enjoy the scenery and mixture of terrains and road types. In that I thought that the course worked quite well. It certainly wasn't boring!Edindevon wrote:From the comments of other riders on the coach the consensus seemed to be that the route was a bit convoluted for the first 40km. Basically you left Minehead and climbed up to Exmoor, then you more or less returned to Minehead before going back up to Exmoor. Mind you, I can see that you have to have a certain amount of doubling back on yourself to make a 108km journey into a 175km ride.0 -
Timings have now been published
Well done to everyone who completed the ride - feedback we have had so far has been great. Thanks for all your support.
http://www.tourride.co.uk/results.asp0 -
Just checked out the results for the pro ride and i noticed there's a lot of pro riders up the top of the list.
Probably a good training ride or recce for the tour of britain for them,hard grind for us mere mortals.
Feel quite chuffed to come 42nd(tho would have been a lot quicker if i hadn't got chatting to one of the lovely girls at the sweetstop
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Ooooo 45th.... thats much better than expected going by the way I felt at Dunkerswell!!0
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charlieonix wrote:Ooooo 45th.... thats much better than expected going by the way I felt at Dunkerswell!!
only 3 places behind me 0 -
certainly was!
I was a bit miffed that i ended up doing it 'solo' would have expected to get some good groups together with 800 riders in it!0 -
shakey88 wrote:charlieonix wrote:Ooooo 45th.... thats much better than expected going by the way I felt at Dunkerswell!!
only 3 places behind me
I see that the KOM results are also up now and your placings were reversed on this, so it's swings and roundabouts.
I did the climb a bit slower than you both with a time of 8:14, which I'm happy with, as not climbing off was my over-riding aim.
Edindevon0 -
Edindevon wrote:shakey88 wrote:charlieonix wrote:Ooooo 45th.... thats much better than expected going by the way I felt at Dunkerswell!!
only 3 places behind me
I see that the KOM results are also up now and your placings were reversed on this, so it's swings and roundabouts.
I did the climb a bit slower than you both with a time of 8:14, which I'm happy with, as not climbing off was my over-riding aim.
Edindevon
I was going for the GC rather than KOM 0 -
The official photos don't seem to be up yet, but there are a load here. None of me though.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclingmrso/sets/72157624766676767/
Definitely one of the great things about the ride was the support from people at the roadside. The best one for me was from the photographer on the killer bit of hill after Wellington - 'Good on you green man'.
Edindevon0 -
Tour Ride Steve wrote:Timings have now been published
Well done to everyone who completed the ride - feedback we have had so far has been great. Thanks for all your support.
http://www.tourride.co.uk/results.asp
When i looked at the times earlier they were in order of times.now they are in alphabetical order.
How come?0 -
vorsprung wrote:I live near the middle section of the route.
I was busy that day and saw a small group of Yogi riders in Hemyock who were going well
Reports have reached me of a lot of riders pushing up hills. It is supposed to be a ride y'know. Only kidding
The hill with the hairpin near there nearly got me, hurled some abuse at it and scraped over 0
