Milton Keynes Sportive
Brakeless
Posts: 865
I rode the Milton Keynes 100 Mile Sportive today and it was not good.
Firstly queued for ages to sign on. 1 person checking people in.
The Route was fine and well signed however after 30 miles there should have been a feed stop. There was a sign for a feed stop but on turning off the road, nothing and I turned off with a bunch of MK riders who also saw nothing.
We then carried on assuming we'd make it to the second feed stop at 60 Miles. By this time I'd emptied my water bottles, however there was nothing to indicate a feed stop at all.
I ended up stopping at 80 miles at a shop to buy water.
When I finally got to the end the organiser on the finish line said someone had removed the sign for the second feed stop. When I asked about the first one he just shrugged his shoulders.
There was also not even a free cup of tea at the finish just a burger van where you had to pay.
Firstly queued for ages to sign on. 1 person checking people in.
The Route was fine and well signed however after 30 miles there should have been a feed stop. There was a sign for a feed stop but on turning off the road, nothing and I turned off with a bunch of MK riders who also saw nothing.
We then carried on assuming we'd make it to the second feed stop at 60 Miles. By this time I'd emptied my water bottles, however there was nothing to indicate a feed stop at all.
I ended up stopping at 80 miles at a shop to buy water.
When I finally got to the end the organiser on the finish line said someone had removed the sign for the second feed stop. When I asked about the first one he just shrugged his shoulders.
There was also not even a free cup of tea at the finish just a burger van where you had to pay.
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If it's their first year, some mistakes are inevitable... if it survives it will get better, although I very much doubt it will. Born out of desperation of a few riders that would go to any length to fit a timing device on their fork, it doesn't really make any sense at all in the amateur cycling panorama
There was a feedstation at 30 miles, and it was full of people. I dont know if you somehow missed it but it was packed and did a great job with free cheese/ham/jam rolls, energy bars, bananas, water etc etc and people were filling their faces left right and centre.
I agree with the queues at the start - the 100km queue was far longer and several people gave up after 15 mins waiting and just went off and rode it without picking up numbers and timing chips etc.
The route was OK, although I dont have any other sportives to benchmark it to. On the short route there were a few climbs although nothing killer, but it toured lots of villages and countryside with only a small amount of main roads. I had friends do the 100 mile route and said it was also OK.
Nothing at the end was a little poor and the goody bag of medal and MK branded buff was rather poor. I just headed out ASAP to get home for lunch.
Signage was very good compared with some Ive ridden.
the food stop was in a sports hall at 30 miles with loads of people there, free rolls and buzz bars, tea and coffee, again Ive seen worse,,,, jelly babies in a tent!
Im not a great climber so I though the route was a good early season starter
My only gripe was the start sign on and I got there at 8 still had a to queue but still made the start but I could see lots of frustrated riders as we started. More toilets at the start would have been better as well. Lots of space at the bowl so it wasnt down to shortage of space.