Verenti Dragon Ride - Are we up for it ?

ynyswen24

I'm doing the 130km and bricking it...

RichN95.

I'm ready. My first Sportif. Not going to decide which distance we're doing until the first feed stop - probably the 130 though.

IronHorse100

ketsbaia wrote:

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.

Not sure that's right. Seems to me to be (18-39 age):

Gold is <6.20
Silver is 6.20 - 6.55
Bronze is 6.55 - 7.30
Unclassified is >7.30

Is this right?

acidstrato

7hrs 20

thats after riding into the carpark before crossing the finish line and having to ride back around

lovelly weather

alp777

great route as always, signage was good and always good to see support riders out on the course as well as the mavic guys but and its a big BUT....the feedstations, what happened to the energy drink? Every feedstation had run out and i didn't see one energy bar or gel, pish poor! As for the goody bag, what a joke, will think twice about doing the dragon again.

IronHorse100

alp777 wrote:

great route as always, signage was good and always good to see support riders out on the course as well as the mavic guys but and its a big BUT....the feedstations, what happened to the energy drink? Every feedstation had run out and i didn't see one energy bar or gel, pish poor! As for the goody bag, what a joke, will think twice about doing the dragon again.

The first 4 plus points you make will keep me coming back for more. As for feedstations, I saw plenty of gels and couldn't give a stuff about the goodie bag.

wicked

alp777 wrote:

great route as always, signage was good and always good to see support riders out on the course as well as the mavic guys but and its a big BUT....the feedstations, what happened to the energy drink? Every feedstation had run out and i didn't see one energy bar or gel, pish poor! As for the goody bag, what a joke, will think twice about doing the dragon again.

Only the first feed seemed to be out of energy drink :evil: , the cimla feed had sachets of powder under the tables. Everyone was grabbing handfuls of em!
Great ride today, best memory was dropping David Harmon on Bwlch 2

acidstrato

loads of gels at every feed station when got to them, even the little kid saying 1 gel each at cimla cracked me up. however only got powders at the first stop and had to settle for just water after that. plenty of tarts, cakes, bananas. even big chocolate muffins at cimla! didnt fancy one though lol

bendertherobot

I was told, when I asked for High5 at Cimla that "they were out," and, this is a direct quote "you should have ridden here quicker."

Shocking.

Brewsterwmb

cracking ride, despite crossing wheels with someone else and coming of worse. Bandages ALL the way up my left side.. ouch!

Saw a guy who looked like he had been hit by a car, about 70 miles in. Hope he's OK?

Despite arriving at 7:15am there were still massive queues to get into the massive carpark, even coming in from the A road.

Didn't like the change to the DIY energy drinks. Would have thought that was a more costly option for them too? Otherwise the usually high standard, well signed. I dont ride 117 miles to receive a goodie bag, so nice to get one.

Thanks to the ladies at John's Ambulance near the finish for patching me up. Think I managed to miss out on a Gold by minutes. Hey ho, onwards and upwards!

ynyswen24

No complaints, the feed stations were well stocked. Okay the first one had water only when I got there but I'd still got one bottle full of my own SIS so that was fine. They were cutting the packs of powder open for everyone at Cimla so you didn't have to bother your own arse to do it and there was plenty of food at all of them, even some delcious and refreshing tiny roasty potatos sprinkled with salt at Cimla. The goody bag didn't have a personal message of congratulations from the king and queen of wales so I will be complaining to lou Lusardi about this.

Seriously, the only pisser was the family in their garden just after NantyMoel on the way back who thought it was good to throw gravel at the riders wheels. I may have told them what I thought of their familial heritage.

130km and about 14 1/4mph. 5hr 25ish riding time and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to all.

pauln99

Re: Chap hit by car. It was my teammate.

A landrover driver decided to aim directly for us on our side of the road - we kept thinking "he's going to pull over, he's going to pull over" but he didn't. My teammate was third wheel and when the first two riders in the line were forced to break and move into the gutter, he was obliged to move out a fraction to avoid collision at which point he was struck by the Land Rover's wing-mirror.

It was a "lucky" escape frankly.

On the plus side the xray showed that nothing is broken and he's OK.

silewis@blueyonder.co.uk

I hope you got the number and reported the stupid f***** t**** to the police; I saw a few other near misses with a white Fiesta thinking it was fun to get as close as possible to our wheels; still didn't stop it being a beautiful day....

MartinJ

Great day. Excellent route, really well organised and everyone very friendly. Even the rain kept off us. Came home to discover it has rained most of the day here.

I enjoy the Dragon (this was my 5th) because it is a contrast to other excellent events like Etape du Dales. Big hills but steady gradients - nothing horrendously steep. Hence the opportunity to ride much faster - though Gold is completely impossible for me! I was pleased to do the 190km in under 7 hours.

alp777

Brewsterwmb wrote:

Didn't like the change to the DIY energy drinks. Would have thought that was a more costly option for them too? Otherwise the usually high standard, well signed. I dont ride 117 miles to receive a goodie bag, so nice to get one.

I don't ride 117 miles to receive a goodie bag, have you looked at the contents? Why bother? Some decent grub would have been better.

For £29 i expect energy drink!

cwm

about 9 1/2 for 190km for team wheeze,shame i let the side down as struggled big time on the crai loop,
theres always next year though,glad i broug my own powders and gels though.


So why were people going through the timing point at penderyn on crai loop and then going back to do the 130km route?

Droops

Not bothered about the goody bag either, and I thought the feed stations were OK, but the best bit - and the organisers really need to be congratulated for this - was the stonking tailwind for the last few miles home. What a life saver!
Oh, and the medal really impressed my 9 year old. He thinks I'm the new Steve Redgrave!

softlad

ynyswen24 wrote:

The goody bag didn't have a personal message of congratulations from the king and queen of wales so I will be complaining to lou Lusardi about this.

didn't you hear..? Charlotte and Gavin have split up...

ynyswen24

softlad wrote:

ynyswen24 wrote:

The goody bag didn't have a personal message of congratulations from the king and queen of wales so I will be complaining to lou Lusardi about this.

didn't you hear..? Charlotte and Gavin have split up...

oh, I'll put bets on that one running and running - I was talking about Zeta Jones and Kirk Douglas...

saw the Team Wheeze riders at a lot of points on the ride, you all seemed to be going great guns to be honest. Good riding. As for the medal... its the first sporting award I've ever had so I'm happy as can be.

Can I take this opportunity to recommend the Merlin Ride next month, another good south Wales route (and the tiniest free water bottle it's possible to imagine - I thought it was a normal one just very far away)

clanton

Had a good day today, great weather and good atmosphere. Managed to beat my goal time which is what counts and thanks to an early start had no issues at the feed stations.

Shocked to hear about the chap knocked off. I saw him in the ambulance looking very sore. I REALLY hope they nail the bastard who did it.

Spatulala

Damn that was tough! My first sportive, finished the 190km in a shade under 8 1/2 hrs. My shoes killed me, I forgot my sun cream and felt the burn, was overtaken by about 10 x more people than I overtook, thought I'd made a terrible mistake about 10 miles after choosing the long route, but thankfully things improved and all in all had a really great day. Glad i brought all my own drinks and gels. The run from the top of Bwlch 2 all the way to the finish was epic fun.

greeny12

Had a pretty good day too - 7.31 for the long ride, which is bronze for my age group. Very, very pleased with that.

Blimey, there's a lot of people do this event though!! We had to wait ages to get through that silly barrier by the Premier Inn, but once on our way the large numbers proved to be a real boon - I've never ridden a sportive with so much company - they're usually like 80-mile TTs for me!!

Really enjoyed ridiing with all the folks who shared a mile or two with me today - I was the huge (6'6") bloke on the Colnago clx with the Colnago CSF Inox replica jersey for reference.

Just the small matter of the Magnificat next week....

RichN95.

Well I made it round - slowly. Only the 130km ride but that's the furthest I've ever cycled, and I probably spent less than 10km of that in anyone's wheel.

Great organization all round with two minor quibbles. 1) Was that (relatively) little climb after coming off the Bwlch the second time really necessary? That's a flatter way. 2) Having heard the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' four or five times at the start, it was in my head all the way round. I was even singing it out loud on the way down the big descents. Oh and 3) I completely missed where the routes split, but fortunately I was following my Garmin. Maybe I just wasn't really looking to hard.

If I do it again I'm getting a compact. 39x27 is a bit overgeared for a man of my limited talent.

ketsbaia

Ooooof. 7 hrs 55 minutes of sheer hell. Actually it wasn't that bad. Got in with a great group just after Coelbren all the way to Cimla (which I dropped on the hill - sorry about that), then blasted all the way back down the Bwlch in true Silly Commuting Racing stylee, spotting people 50 odd yards away and just having to overtake them.

First sportive ticked off the list, just about to have a long soak in the bath and the Magnificat next week to look forward to.

bendertherobot

RichN95 wrote:

. 1) Was that (relatively) little climb after coming off the Bwlch the second time really necessary?

As a local I'd say yes. Although you climb for 5 minutes it is, in my view, preferable to getting stuck at the lights at Blackmill and having to climb back up to Pencoed common. It's slightly longer but whenever I ride that way I always take that route. It's, oddly, easier.

RichN95.

bendertherobot wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

. 1) Was that (relatively) little climb after coming off the Bwlch the second time really necessary?

As a local I'd say yes. Although you climb for 5 minutes it is, in my view, preferable to getting stuck at the lights at Blackmill and having to climb back up to Pencoed common. It's slightly longer but whenever I ride that way I always take that route. It's, oddly, easier.

I dare say we may be from different ends of the talent spectrum. Traffic lights don't bother me in the slightest - hills, when I'm struggling, do. I'm reasonably local too and have been the other way before - I would have preferred that, but I'm probably in the minority, despite quite a few joking complaining on the way up.

Philby

Only decided to ride yesterday after suffering a partly dislocated shoulder 2 weeks ago after a mountain-bike crash. Had put the mudguards on after looking at the weather forecast - which fortunately was wrong again! Lovely weather apart from the headwinds. Managed to be exactly one minute (by my stop watch) over the time I did last year for the 190km - not sure whether to be pleased (i.e. wasn't going to do it until yesterday and hadn't ridden for 2 weeks) or disappointed (felt I was riding alot faster than last year as was familiar with the route).

Overall a great day and well-organised - big thanks to all the marshalls and other volunteers etc.! Only complaints were getting to the start - took about 20+ minutes to get through the motorbike gate onto the short cycle path - and the lack of energy drinks at any of the 3 feed stations, nor was there any mention of sachets as noted above.

bendertherobot

RichN95 wrote:

I dare say we may be from different ends of the talent spectrum. Traffic lights don't bother me in the slightest - hills, when I'm struggling, do. I'm reasonably local too and have been the other way before - I would have preferred that, but I'm probably in the minority, despite quite
a few joking complaining on the way up.

I doubt we're that far apart! Remember you have to go down the big dip, back up it. Then 1 1/2 miles of undulation and then a nasty climb. You'll probably find that the total ascent of that route is pretty similar to the other one.

bendertherobot

Philby wrote:

and the lack of energy drinks at any of the 3 feed stations, nor was there any mention of sachets as noted above.

I'm not sure what happened here. At Rhigos I asked the bloke with the jug "Is this High 5."

He said yes and I had no reason to doubt him. I thought it tasted weak, but then I add a High 5 salt tab so that meant it didn't taste like water. At Crai I added my own. At Cimla they admitted it was water and had run out of High 5. I was told I should have ridden quicker. That comment to me is a bit off.

I'm not sure why they used the sachet option.

haggisinlondon

It would have been better to pre-mix it I would have thought, restricts people taking handfuls of sachets.

Great day out though with superb organisation for an event of that size. Enjoyed the long stretch after the turn for the 130km route which was fast and flattish. I guess I enjoyed the climbs as you don't get those in Surrey, and the view from top and descents made up for the burning legs.

Will do this again definately.