National Cyclo-Sportive (Pendle Pedal)

getprg

Anyone have any ideas when they are going to post times and photos from Saturday's ride? Have checked Pennine Events website but can't track down results.

Incidentally I thought the organisation was of a similar consistent standard to last year. Poor signage (at a 4 way junction before Low Bentham and after Chipping), no sports drink (and only a dribble of water from tap) at Crook o Lune ................... and late posting of times last year too as I recall.

Is it my imagination or do Pennine seem more interested in self promotion / making money without actually delivering the required high standard of service.

Having experienced the Brian Robinson, Etape du Dales and Roses Round this year the Pendle Pedal organisation needs to catch up.

Great route though as always - but maybe I should just ride the route for free - £27 is a lot to pay for a timing chip and some energy bars.

avoidingmyphd

results and some photos went up saturday evening: www.chiptimes.biz and www.sportsunday.co.uk. I can't see any links either - the results link was txted to me and the photographer told me the photos address.

Sudor

Did any other participant find, as I did, that on arriving at Slaidburn Village expecting a feed station that you were directed away from it by a Marshall standing in the middle of the junction actively directing the first wave of 150 Km riders along the route out of the village?

andy_nD

Sport Sunday photos are already up here.

Agree that signage was pretty poor - lots of signs hidden until the very last minute, and saw quite a few folks overshoot some junctions as a result.. Also, did anyone else notice that the route profile on the website was backwards?

My first year on this one - cracking course with great weather, and nice to see some spectators on the course, but seemed to be well short of 3500 metres climbing and would've expected more food choices for the money..

Dayvan Cowboy

Yes I did. I then realised that the first feed stop had been missed.

Luckily I had enough water on board to make it round to next feed stop. The feed stops were really not up to much though were they? I tried a horrible watered down milkshake thing. I think they could of done a bit more. The gatorade at the nexy one went down well though

getprg

avoidingmyphd - results and some photos went up saturday evening: www.chiptimes.biz and www.sportsunday.co.uk. I can't see any links either - the results link was txted to me and the photographer told me the photos address.

Thanks for the help - if you can link to it on here why can't they. Good luck with the phd!

BaildonBob

I thought the route was good and tough, and that the feeds very pretty good too. Plenty of marshalls on course, but they'd have been better off heading for the unsigned junctions. The event village at the end was good for anyone who'd come to collect a rider, and a nice touch with the commentator calling you over the line.

Overall, though, I was a bit disappointed. Pre ride info, both the website and the booklet, didn't add up to much. Signing for the car park was a bit confusing, the turn off the main road taking you straight in to a non event car park which gave rise to loads of people having a long uphill grind to where the real car park was, some of them being forced in to walking even at that stage!

To be left with no showers or free grub at the end topped off the thinking that this wasn't worth parting with the thick end of 30 notes for.

PennineEvents

Race Results are available from The news at http://www.pendlecyclefest.com

Photographs from the National Cyclo Sportive will be available very soon. We are busy going through over 5000 images from both the Sportive and the National Championships. Details of their availabilty will be posted on the http://www.pendlecyclefest.com website as soon as they are available.

Please be aware that sportsunday.co.uk have no link with the Pendle Bike Fest or the event organisers. They simply turned up on the day and took some photographs. Our photographs will have a lot of variety of locations including start, finish and numerous locations on the route.

We will also be offering the option to have the official Pendle Bike Fest logo on the photographs as a great memory of the event.

Stelvio_W

This is the third time that I had done this ride, so I new the pitfalls from the previous years. However its still no excuse for them to keep getting it wrong.

1. If you didnt know about it, you would miss the first feed station at Slaidburn because the marshall would send you left out of the village. IMO, it was too early anyway and I cracked on to the next one.

2. Great to be given a Garmin route to plug into the Edge.. but whoever mapped it put it the wrong way round. Thats such a schoolboy error its not funny, and yes the stated 3500m of climbing was well off. I recorded it as only 9000ft ~2700m

4. Crook O Loon Stop - "Where is the water?".. "In the toilets". ..WTF?. yes thats right, we had to fill our bottles using the taps in the gents.

5. When you came out of the Trough of Bowland there was a sign saying feed stop in 1K. Twenty minutes later I still hadnt got to the feed stop. Either I was very slow, or they were lying. The latter being the most likely. It turns out that the stop was at Chipping, but once again it was off the main route and if the steward waved you through you would easily miss it.

6. Signs were not good enough. With the Garmin I was ok however

7. Tannoy annoucer .. My name in Will not Willy. Go back to presenter your cheesy local radio show please.

8. Personally I think they should have added a few miles on the course somewhere to make it 100. I know its only a number, but a lot of folk want to hit the big 00.

On the plus side, they seemed generous with the bars and the goodies at the stops, and they chucked in a t shirt and a few bottles for good measure.

The course is a cracker. Aside from the odd sheep, the roads where pleasntly unoccupied and there are some great climbs in there. I grew up in that area, so its great to go back there (now in London). The heat was an added factor this year, by Pendle it was starting to get tough. Then the climb out of Sabden is crazy. The sign said 17%, the legs were saying no way, but a bit of cheeky travesrising across the road meant it was dispactched without too much trouble.

I managed a 5 hours 55 for the long ride, which got me in the top 20 so I am pleased with that. The group that I rode with broke up after 50 miles, so it was a bit lonely on the second half.

Did anyone else see Dave Lloyd's name on the finish sheet. Was he scoping out the competiton for his mega challenge ??

epicdaza

I must have been the most unlucky sod out there!

I was in the very first wave and when I got to the left/right junction sign before the food stop I went right. Now I didn't want to stop at 15 miles for food (I'm not that hungry!) so I gave the marshal a big thumbs up and he did the same to me. So I carried on unaware that this road I was on was taking me away from the course rather than simply passing the food stop.

Ended up riding up a big fkg fell (738ft of it!) before 6 miles up the road looking over my shoulder to see no one. What can I say, fkg gutted! I wasted approx 40 minutes of my life on that extra loop and as a result my time was just a waste of time.

No idea what he was thinking, maybe I was the first one through there (there had only been Graham Payne ahead of me at that point) and he got confused.

Not a happy chap. Also ditto about the water, plus the fact when I did finally make it back some 6h 24m later I was given a powdered recovery drink and no water. Ended up messing up my new carbon soled shoes on all that heavy stoned gravel just to fill it up in the gents. Other choice being use the tap for the dog bowl.

Real shame, this event could have been awesome if only someone like EpicEvents or Kilotogo run it. Seriously guys think about doing something with someone like them, bring in more sponsors, have a bigger arena, better marshals and make some money and headlines with 3000+ riders turning up to experience what is a brilliant route and awesome views and testing climbs.

Daza

Climber_Andy

Echoing these comments...

It does take just one misplaced or absent sign to turn a great sportive and day out into a tarnished nightmare. For me and my ride companion, there were two occasions when we were guessing the way, either following similarly-perplexed riders (the first time) or presuming the sportive would send us up Jeffrey Hill (the second time).

Luckily, we were right, but it could have been different.

Good views and some heavy roads. I didn't pace it great and the little climbs in the closing 4-odd miles after Nick O'Pendle saw my lights go out. Was completely cooked when I crossed the line

Euskaltel10

The photos are now available on www.myfrozenphoto.com
I would like to ask peoples comments on the pricing? I would have thought the organisers could have provided a discount code for a photo to those riding.......would rather have a discounted photo than the extra large t-shirt!
My experience of the event was mixed......missed the first feed zone, as did many, without realising then knowing that the second was coming drank nearly all my water and energy drink. I then found that there was only a protein shake on offer! Just what you need in stifling heat! I was expecting gatorade! And the energy bars on were as dry as ghandi's flip flop. I must have drank half a litre of water trying to get one down. Filled up with water from the dodgy looking sink next to the toilets but was a bit miffed. Cracked about an hour later and had to stop at an ice cream van for a can of coke! But they had run out so he offered me diet instead. Judging by the expression on my face he then offered me a sprite.
Then after one earlier near miss with a left turn unmarked or signed I took a four mile wrong turn after approaching a crossroads with no signs. I only realised my mistake when the road turned very busy and I couldnt see a cyclist for miles! I had my route map but to be honest the directions were poor and the map provided looked like it had been taken from space. Finally made it back to the route but was now not happy!
But despite all that, the route was a cracker and tough, the scenery fantastic and the later feed stops were good. The marshalls were not shy in handing stuff out and they were (now) well stocked. The start and finish area leant itself well to a feeling of occasion and all in all it was a good show. Its worth remembering that the marshall are volunteers and without them these events couldnt run.

andy_from_embsay

"Its worth remembering that the marshall are volunteers and without them these events couldnt run."

If it's the same as last year the marshalls aren't volunteers - they're a variety of casual workers earning a bit of pocket money.

It sounds like Pennine Events haven't learned anything from last year - the complaints sound very similar to last year. They didn't do a terribly good job at the Bradford 10m road race last year either.

DaveMoss

Sounds pretty poor. Seems that only a very few of the "professionally" organised sportives turn out to be what they should be. On the other hand most "amateur" events run for charitable purposes or for little to no profit seem to excel. Seems like there are some organisers who are simply out to make money who are professional in name only. (since I wasn't there, I don't know if this one was bad enough to fit that description)

Where did the claim to be the "national" sportive come from? It certainly does not appear to have lived up to the title.

oldnewbiker

DaveMoss wrote:

Where did the claim to be the "national" sportive come from? It certainly does not appear to have lived up to the title.

Its some self indulgent rubbish someone dreamt up ,I have done the Pendle Pedal 3 times and would have done it this year but the name put me off .The early PPs were well marshalled with good food stops ,the ride as an event seems to have lost its way .