The High Moors Cycle Sportive

sportsunday
sportsunday Posts: 73
edited June 2012 in Sportives/audaxes/training rides
Those lovley people at [url][/url]http://www.bechallengedevents.co.uk have just announced a new sportive for 19 September 2010. Take the time to visit the website and see if you fancy it.

Comments

  • Brian B
    Brian B Posts: 2,071
    Looks good and going to enter - Thanks
    Brian B.
  • The-beast
    The-beast Posts: 140
    reviving an old thread... doing this sportive this year... how was it ?
  • Brian B
    Brian B Posts: 2,071
    I did not do it as the weather forecast was dire and decided to save £60 on petrol and stay dry for a change - did the route on my own though and it was great. Going to enter this year - 24th June
    Brian B.
  • The-beast
    The-beast Posts: 140
    Your a machine
  • wallace_and_gromit
    wallace_and_gromit Posts: 3,638
    I rode this event last June as my final Marmotte shake-down. B*gger me, was it a tough one! Far tougher than the Marmotte itself.

    The bare stats of 175k and 3100m ascent are bad enough, but on the day is rained continuously and was very windy at altitude. I've never seen 6kmh on my speedo for so long!

    The hills weren't overly steep, just long and numerous. Good road surfaces as well, or at least nothing bad enough to stick in the memory. Prevailing wind was such that the tailwinds were front loaded, so the second half waas very tough indeed.

    There was only around 40 finishers on the long route so we were all very spread out by the end in what is generally remote terrain. At one point near the middle, I went 30k where the only living creatures I saw had hooves!

    Best feedstations ever. A local lady had baked chocolate and caramel shortbread for several hundred, and I easily reached double figures, despite needing to get the feedstation folk to feed me by the end as my hands had gone numb.

    I would be back this year, but the White Rose Classic has been revived and is much closer to home.
  • andy_nD
    andy_nD Posts: 40
    I rode this on Sunday. Echoing the comments from other posters, it's a proper cracker of a course - 9 climbs, mostly long steady drags through some epic scenery, with long steady descents that aren't amazingly technical. Perfect terrain if you like climbing and/or descending, but probably not so great if you're the type that prefers hammering it along the flat. The weather mostly held out and I even managed to get a cheeky tan while the sun was out in the middle section, although some strong winds around the middle section made very it hard going for a spell.

    I think there were only about 100 riders this year, which is a real shame as it's a fabulous day out on an amazingly quiet route with good signage and really deserves to be more popular. As other posters have said, it's great preparation for an Etape type event as you're riding proper hills where you can really get settled into a nice rhythm.

    My only slight criticism would be with the placing of the feed stops. On the 170km route the first feed was just over 80km in, and another feed earlier on (around Middleton) would've been useful as I found I'd used all my water just after Stanhope with another 30-40 minutes still to ride.

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