Verenti Dragon Ride - Are we up for it ?

ketsbaia

Metcheck says max temperature 19, cloudy, sunny spells, not much wind.

Get in.

bendertherobot

Aye, whilst the forecast could vary I think it's pretty much locked in now. This is my 3rd year. All have been great. We have been very very lucky!

greeny12

Accuweather - which I personally prefer to Metcheck - has improved to "a couple of showers" from "rain" over the last 24 hours...

More hopeful now. BBC forecast should start to include Sunday from tomorrow too....

ketsbaia

Joe Bastardi's waaaay too pessimistic for my liking.

bendertherobot

greeny12 wrote:

Accuweather - which I personally prefer to Metcheck - has improved to "a couple of showers" from "rain" over the last 24 hours...

More hopeful now. BBC forecast should start to include Sunday from tomorrow too....

Both BBC weather and Met Office show as dry all day.

sampras38

bendertherobot wrote:

sampras38 wrote:

Anyone got a decent GPX or TCX file of this year or last year's route?

Bikely seems to keep crashing (again)

;-)

Dragon main site claims to have an updated version.

I think it's only for Mapsource customers.

prb007

ketsbaia wrote:

Cubic wrote:

Anyone know what the ride's like after Bwlch 2? Can I relax and cruise to the finish or are there still some cheeky climbs to go?

You can relax. There's a little hump to get over, but you can mostly do that on the momentum from the preceding downslope. Otherwise, it's head down and blast for home.

Don't want to put a damper on things, BUT, I was convinced it would be downhill all the way after Bwlch2 last year, but it most certainly is not! There's a stretch over the downs at Nantymoel, I think which had more lumps than I bargained for, and the last 5 miles thru the lanes had an incline or two, as well, then a fairly flat final 2 or 3 when you can give it your best Mark Cavendish against any Thor Hushovd who fancies a dabble!

Weather looking settled, fingers crossed.............
http://magicseaweed.com/Porthcawl-Surf-Report/29/

Porthcawl on the coast, nearby, for you non-locals...........

juggler

just checked the website and it says on the front page - Gold/Silver/Bronze standard times to be revealed soon'... leaving it a bit late! No time to amned my training schedule for that elusive Gold

galatzo

I need a route itinerary, something that says what climb comes at what distance and how long that climb is and also including feed stations.
The stuff on the website doesn't really cut it in my opinion, just not that clear.
Anyone know of any links to something like this ?
Suppose what I ideally want is to have ridden the route before but then that'd take the excitement out of it a bit.

Thanks

galatzo

Practical joke by BBC Weather ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/ ... a=Bridgend

Spatulala

juggler wrote:

just checked the website and it says on the front page - Gold/Silver/Bronze standard times to be revealed soon'... leaving it a bit late! No time to amned my training schedule for that elusive Gold

They had the medal times on an earlier post:

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16174424

My personal gold is to get home before the broom wagon having completed the Gran Fondo!

Abdoujaparov

Yep, well looking forward to this, but think I might hold a little back so I can get some good Marmotte training in next week.

Hmmm...I'll see how I feel on the day...

haggisinlondon

Weather looking good, food stops sound good, cannot wait for this. Is there plenty parking at the start?

bendertherobot

haggisinlondon wrote:

Weather looking good, food stops sound good, cannot wait for this. Is there plenty parking at the start?

More than enough, but it can get a little congested.

You might want to consider:

http://www.bocampark.com/location.htm

Never cars there on a Sunday, but I can't vouch for whether there are any clamping signs or the like there.

sampras38

juggler wrote:

just checked the website and it says on the front page - Gold/Silver/Bronze standard times to be revealed soon'... leaving it a bit late! No time to amned my training schedule for that elusive Gold

Gold is 6.20!!!!!
Silver is 7.30

flix23

I think the only amend I could make in time to my training to do it in 6.20, would involve bags of EPP-rich blood, and a motor in the seat tube!

rusty nuts

Gold Silver and Bronze standards now on event website. This is the first time the Dragon Ride has issued these.

ketsbaia

sampras38 wrote:

juggler wrote:

just checked the website and it says on the front page - Gold/Silver/Bronze standard times to be revealed soon'... leaving it a bit late! No time to amned my training schedule for that elusive Gold

Gold is 6.20!!!!!
Silver is 7.30

Heh. Bronze it is, then.

nickwill

Its good to see that they've got age related standards!. They are quite tough though!
I did 7 hours 28 on the Etape du Dales . They didn't have age related standards but I was still over half an hour inside the all age silver time. I did the Dragon last year in about 7 hours 15, 50 - 59 standard is 7.05 for silver this year. I don't think I'm going to get half an hour inside of that!

jackfeeder

So for my age group 40-49 the following would apply?
You beat 6.25 get gold, beat 7.00 you get silver and if you don't beat 7.40 for bronze you get f*** all?
Or is it between 6.25-7.00 is gold, 7.00-7.40 is silver and over 7.40 is bronze?
I do hope it's the latter.

narbs

jackfeeder wrote:

So for my age group 40-49 the following would apply?
You beat 6.25 get gold, beat 7.00 you get silver and if you don't beat 7.40 for bronze you get f*** all?
Or is it between 6.25-7.00 is gold, 7.00-7.40 is silver and over 7.40 is bronze?
I do hope it's the latter.

Reads to me like the former unfortunately. They're very tough times.

About half the finishers last year were outside the bronze cut off.

ketsbaia

Ah. Zilch it is, then.

greeny12

F*ck me they're tight - if you are a 59 year-old geezer you get a whole 5 minutes more to achieve a bronze on the gran fondo compared with a 40-year-old...!

Mind you, I'm 42 and I've got no chance!

ketsbaia

Maybe they just haven't ordered enough medals.

greeny12

ketsbaia wrote:

Maybe they just haven't ordered enough medals.

First 3,000 home get a medal whatever - the times are for "guidance" only apparently...

bendertherobot

I thought there were only 2700 starters?

bendertherobot

Bloody hell! Just checked. Field has grown a bit.

Philby

Managed to partly dislocate my shoulder a couple of weeks ago in an over-the-handlebars mountain bike accident, and am undecided as to whether it is sensible to attempt the Dragon Ride despite some easing of the pain Will be gutted if I don't make it as apart from shoulder I am the fittest I have been for years with 2 road and 1 off-road sportive already done in the last 7 weeks, and was feeling confident of smashing my last year's time for the Gran Fondo.

galatzo

Ohh noooo

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/ ... a=Bridgend

Looking at today it doesn't seem possible.

Casbar

An the weather in the Brecon's looks even worse

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/2123

Specially unfair as I have been sitting in the office all week , while the weather has been perfect outside :evil: