Jurassic Beast

TheDrunkMonk

Hi Guys

Anyone do this yesterday? What are your thoughts?

I've decided that any sportive with the word 'Beast' in the title, just means the weather will be awful.

In hindsight, from the comfort of my home, I concede the weather could've been much, much worse. Nothing the organisers could do about that though, so chapeau to those guys and gals, a well organised event I thought.

Flambes

It was OK. I did the Epic, which was a nice course apart from the small dodgy roads after Ulwell.
Signage was good.
Only one loo for the whole event caused a lot of hanging around at the start :shock:

I had 3 punctures which knocked the chance of gold on the head for me, but hey ho.
The wind made the last few miles tick over veeery slowly.
And to the bloke who kept giving me hassles - there's nothing wrong with yellow tyres!

Et Tu Titus

I thought it was OK although the hail stones were an interesting and unexpected addition, especially as we were descending off Whiteways at the time !!

I hate to think what the roads around the back of Swanage were like later on as they were covered in mud / crap when we went through early on so must have been terrible after several hundred riders had gone through. My only other comment would be that there were several areas (Kimmeridge & Worth) where it would have been very easy for people to miss out the loops that came back up to the main road, and therefore gaining significant chunks of time. I didnt see anyone doing this but would have liked to have seen someone at these locations stopping any potential cheating

All in all, a very enjoyable ride and well organised

robmccreedie

I did the standard route and was my first major road ride (got the road bike about 6 weeks ago). Really enjoyed it and came in definitely bronze

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=600351

Turbo Man

I did the Epic ride and thought it was a tough route. I was away in the first wave at 0800 and finished in about 6 hours 10 or so (have to wait for the official times - my bike computer showed 5 hours 58 mins of actual riding time). I thought the course was well signed although there was 1 roundabout where the signs had gone missing (the roundabout over the A35).

I certainly didn't experience any hailstones; that must have been horrible. I did record a max speed of 69.4kmh - that was good fun!

Overall another (painfully) enjoyable route and well organised by the Wiggle team.

AlainR

We were supposed to do the Epic route but managed to miss the sign for the split and didn't realise until about 15 miles too late, so didn't turn around!

The weather was pretty shocking at times, but the course was good. Given good weather and the route would have been fantastic.

TheDrunkMonk

I can't remember following a sign marked "STANDARD" the whole way round, but I still seemed to have ended up doing a touch over 66 miles as advertised. Did I go the wrong way or something?

robmccreedie

there were no signs for standard. The only point was when the route split.

Just had my results email and I actually managed a silver on the standard!! happy days

Turbo Man

The route split was after about 5 miles; the Epic route turned right whilst the Standard route went straight on.

fridgeboy

Did the Standard course yesterday and found it a bit of a Beast (should have read the label!). After a very gentle first 25 or so miles - all the way up to Corfe Castle I guess - I found it all very enjoyable, but the next 20, the loop round Studland, Swanage and back to Corfe Castle was VERY HARD. Constantly rolling roads, and some pretty awful road surfaces out the back of Swanage - oh and plus the hail-stones. Fortunately, once you'd climbed the last real hill, the run in to the finish put the smile back on your face with some long downhill sections and generally good road surfaces.

Good signage throughout - def better than the New Forest event. The little bits of hanging tape on trees/hedges AFTER the turn are a must for event organisers wanting cyclists to return again next year.

The feed stations were well stocked with stuff when I went through, also with a bit of variety.

As someone already mentioned, it was a bit tragic that one of only two toilets available broke down. I gave up waiting in the end and went round with fluff blowing out of the hoover bag !

All in all, a good day out and a tough workout in prepartion for the Caledonian in a fortnight.

TheDrunkMonk

I'm guessing you are Rob McCreedie. Congrats! Beat my time by nearly an hour.

Must get round to losing this 3 stone I've been avoiding losing for 4 years and get within half an hour of you next year.... might not do it with a hangover again. That sucked a little, but then I am the Drunk Monk, and that wind and rain was nice and refreshing.

AlainR

Turbo Man wrote:

The route split was after about 5 miles; the Epic route turned right whilst the Standard route went straight on.

Yeah - I was obviously not paying attention!

I'd definitely like to give the Epic route a bash as most of the climbs were great, even in the terrible weather!

robmccreedie

TheDrunkMonk wrote:

I'm guessing you are Rob McCreedie. Congrats! Beat my time by nearly an hour.

cheers quite chuffed with it myself, I put it all down to a chicken jalfrezi and peshwari nan the night before