Hampshire Hilly Hundred

twotyred

Did it for the second time this year. Good to see they've changed the sign on after the queues last year. Better weather too. Couldn't believe how many people punctured. Just about round every bend there was someone bent over a bike changing a tube. Had one myself which cost me a gold time Hope the guy who was lying in the road shortly after the start is OK.

speshsteve

I was gutted for a different reason, fell off my bike on Tuesday when training and trashed my right knee and shoulder!

Glad you had a good day, guess there is always next year

fridgeboy

A perfect puncture storm by all accounts - lots of rain to wash down all the Hampshire flints into the road, and enough dampness left on the roads to make them stick to your tyres. I considered myself very lucky to get all the way round the 100 miler without one. The last time I saw as many was Etape Caledonia 2009 after the carpet tack incident.

I think the best buy I ever made was my Conti 4 Seasons tyres - have done several similar events round back lanes of Kent, Sussex and Hants without a single puncture so far this year. Just put 100 psi in and they survive pretty much anything.

Thought the event as a whole was very good, although the road north from Popham airfield was pretty awful - one of the new bits this year. And I missed a turn just after the second feed and found myself on the main road to Basingstoke - don't know if the sign was there or had been nicked or I just missed it.

Paul32uk

I did this for the first time this year however I wasnt offically entered as it was sold out when I went to enter about a month ago. So a friend and I set off from Bishops Waltham at 8am and picked up the route a few miles from there.

On the way around we did find one sign that had been cut down but I had some PVC tape on me so I taped it to the road sign that was at the junction I think the fast boys had just about caught up with us by the second feed (not sure what time you started) but every other sign was there when we went past.

Had the joy of cycling up Whites hill after about 95 miles which I think would have been the first real climb you all did, that pretty much finished me off My friend punctured once but I was lucky and got through unscathed.

I enjoyed the route and the weather was great though the wind could have been a little kinder to us!!

Mr Smooth

My third attempt, and still couldn't quite get my Gold standards. I liked the count-down signs, but would have preferred if they were an accurate distance from the finish mat - I reckon they were at 11 and 6 miles. Other than that, a well organised event as usual and I'll be back again next year.

twotyred

Yeah my Garmin made it 163.32km so they should have called it the Hampshire Hilly Hundred and One.

FransJacques

speshsteve wrote:

I was gutted for a different reason, fell off my bike on Tuesday when training and trashed my right knee and shoulder!

Glad you had a good day, guess there is always next year

Sorry to hear that, heal well!

I'm also surprised at flats, I rode a 2 year old 4000s 23mm on the front and a 2 year old 4000 25mm on the back and rode through some shocking gravel and big flints w/o issue. Granted 80% of it is luck but some peeps must be either under-infalting and getting snake bites or over-infalting and not allowing the tyre to deform around objects.

I do make a point of calling out "are you all right" to the folks I do see on the side of the road in case they used their last tube. I saw no crashes which was good. 2 windymilla guys pulled out after 10kms b/c they had 3 flats between them.

I rode ~5:50 for a gold - I like this being 40 gig, cycling just got a lot eaier! :-)

twotyred

I was running almost new 23mm GP4000s at 110psi and had a flat. It was a thorn that got my front after 1h. Rest of the ride was OK despite doing plenty of MTBing through the flinty gravel.

FransJacques

The route for 2012 off the site doesn't work for me: http://www.hampshirehilly.moonfruit.com ... 4547516628

Does anyone else know how much of it has changed? Anyone have a file for the 2012 route?

Thanks in advance.

_andy

Works ok for me, the 100 miler link on the site takes me to the ride with gps page here http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1147978

twotyred

Works for me too.

They've changed the route round Watership Down. We'll descend to Kingsclere then climb back up to Watership Down on the road we used to descend on. This will avoid the gritty lanes through Watership Down. The other part is they've cut out is the hilly bit right at the end, although I never found the roads there to be particularly bad, and added a loop in just before.

Bikeroutetoaster says the new route is 1597m of ascent vs 1434m for the 2011 route so we're getting a bit more altitude this year.