Pearson 150

matty boy 80

Anyone doing the ride this sunday,am looking foward to my first 100 mile of the year,hope the weather stays nice.

gbs

I will be there - for the shorter distance. :oops:

markp2

Me too. My first 100 miler ever. I wil be starting a bit early as I have signed on as part of the L2P training group.

bam49

I'm doing this one , it starts about 3 miles up the road from my house so it will be a real novelty... That will make 3 in 3 weeks for me , weather should be good too...

Pirahna

I think I've got right sportive but:

There is another one in the area on the same day and the routes cross each other several times (four?). Pay very close attention to the signs and if you're in a group make sure you're all doing the same ride.

markp2

Yes, Pearsons route crosses an Evans route 4 times. The Pearsons signs are blue, I believe.

J4zzDogg

markp2 wrote:

Me too. My first 100 miler ever. I wil be starting a bit early as I have signed on as part of the L2P training group.

I'm doing this as part of the L2P spring ride as well. Bit of an early start but looking forward to it. What group are you riding with?

bam49

great day out yesterday on the Pearsons sportive... Nice route that was shady in the lanes on the way back so was not too hot... I was on the red, white 'n black Felt F1 with the v noisy bottom bracket - had to listen to that thing all day pleased to get back with a time of 5:27 as I was mostly on my own on the return leg...

weapons

I rode it too in prep for Tour of Wessex next week - including the ride from home and back, did 110 miles all in.

A good route, struggled in the sun in the last hour or so. Poor guy who rode with me in a group of three came off about 2 miles from the finish, hitting a pothole reaching for his waterbottle. Got taken to the hospital and I hear he is ok though.

robbiedont

Oh but weren't the sign's s**t!!

No one warned me about that Beacon climb either!

dombo6

Well that was interesting. Did this as part of the L2P training and set off in Group 2 (Group 1 being reservd for ex-pros, elites etc and those with BC Race licences). Started just after 0730, ahead of the main ride and kept a good speed, even catching the first group at one point. Nice tight peloton until Ditchling where I thought we'd string out and little skinny blokes like me would reel the others in. Not a chance. I knew I was in trouble when I couldn't catch my mate Gilly, 6'5" and fifteen stone, until the summit, at which point he powered ahead to catch up with the pack. None of this regroup at the top nonsense! Average speed up to that point had been a respectable 18.5 mph and I got to the feed stop with a couple of other guys just as "my" group was leaving.
Let them go and awaited Group 3, abley led by L2P ride captains Rachel and another guy. Group dsicipline was good but had been a lot tighter in G2. All went well til about mile 65 when I started cramping and getting feeble. The other ride captain, Australian i think, sorry didn't catch his name, tried getting me back on the group but i faded and told him to go on. I knew the way home and there were plenty of riders behind.
Scarfed down some clifshots, apricots and salted cashews and let the group go. Various riders and bunches caught and passed me but I couldn't hold a wheel as by about mile 75 hot foot had started and got steadily worse til the 10km to go point where it kicked in badly.
Finally rolled to the finish at just over 6 hours, having added almost an hour to my first split. After some discussion with others and some self-diagnosis on the web it looks like i wore the wrong socks - thick toed DeFeets i generally use for mtbing instead of my usual ultra thin ones.
Looking back on it though, an enjoyable ride in glorious weather. Roll on the Dragon.

Brakeless

A good route that would have been alot better if it missed Brighton Town Centre, it felt like London Commuting not a sportive for that section. And the signage was shocking, one hard to see sign at junctions, no signs getting you ready as you approached junctions and nothing after them to let you know you had made the right turn. The feed stop was excellent and really well stocked but they didn't have any spare inner tubes which would have been a good idea, I'd had 2 punctures before Brighton and thought I'd be able to get a spare at the feedstop considering it was organised by a bike shop !

dhague

Hi bam49 - good time. I was the guy with the plain red Shutt jersey on the Specialized Roubaix - we rode together at various points on the course. I came in with 5:32 in the end, which I was quite pleased with.

The noise of your creaky BB will stay with me - I heard it coming from behind me on several climbs as you powered past...

The signage was truly shocking - I was really glad I loaded the route into my Garmin beforehand. It's the only thing that kept me on track on several occasions.

Adding the Brighton seafront to the route was definitely a mistake - mixing it with peak-time Sunday traffic and endless traffic lights was not fun. It was nice to see the sea, but that could have been done at a much quieter part of the coast.

The other niggle with the event was having only one feedstop - on a 150km course, I would have expected a couple of extra stops, even if they were unstaffed drinks stations. I had 3 bottles with me, and that was barely sufficient for each leg of the course.

On the whole a good event though, with a fantastic route outside of the Brighton bit.

Cheers,
Darren

bam49

^^^ hi Darren
sorry about the bb ! - I kept making apologies for it all day long so I might as well continue today.. it's in the lbs in beckenham getting looked at now... Shame we were not together much on the way back -and that the tall guy with yellow Assos top punctured at the sea front as we would have made good progress together again...
I agree the signage could have been a lot better - the signs did not ' leap out ' at you that's for sure... I was really glad I did not miss any - but certainly thought I did a few times...
I suppose feed & drink stops were the minimum you could get away with, but i would normally expect a bit more from a sportive ...

markp2

My first Sportive in the South-East. Rather different from Devon! Far too many traffic lights to make steady progress.
Ditchling wasn't as steep as I was expecting however if you normally ride in Norfolk it was proably a bit of a shock!
Apart from Brighton town and the start/finish sections , the route was nice and reasonably quiet. Signs were hard to see until you 'tuned in' to their likely location and colour.
Biggest grumble was the single stopping point on a 150km route on a hot day. I ran out of water with 30km left to go which was a bit worrying. It would have been useful to have a couple of plain water stops along the route - the Dartmoor Classic did this a couple of years ago.
Anyway, an enjoyable day. The furthest I have ridden in one go and first time riding in a group (Group 3) with more than about 2 other people.
Cheers all,
Mark