liverpool chester 'sportive' debacle

jmeadows

dun the 90 mile option yesterday, had done 58 mile in training taking in parbold, bank top, ashurst, stoney lane, bank top & farleys lane. so was unsure how i would be after 90.
route was redirected after countess of chester by a worky as roadworks had a road closed, so some guy had a garmin thankfully and eventually got us back on route.
delamere i heard was a little tough, wrong, nothing but rolling terrain, left delamere & plodded on, following signs & marshalls. dejavu started & ended up back at delamere!!!!! 70 mile up to this point! anyway ended up doing 111mile when finished.
on one hand made up to complete the 90 with relative ease, completed my century aim, & including riding to and from home completd 125 mile. 90 mile time @ 4hr35, 100 @5hr11 & 111 @5hr45. onthe other hand think the event could & needs to be run better, could have run out of fuel, run out of legs, factor 50 could have worn off my fair skin! think i will set my aims a little higher for the next one, anyone else have a bad experience or was it just me!!!!!?

Cleat Eastwood

ha ha deja vu. that happened to me last year. said I wouldnt do it again then read they'd changed the route to include the 13%er from 2009 so gave it a go.

Was fine apart from there being no signs at a junction of god knows where which sent about 30 of us in the wrong direction, some girl in a cervelo kit not being any use as she didnt have her garmin with her

there was an announcement about the gasleak over the PA but I was still sent the wrong way by that fella in the workys top just after countess chester, I got to the end of the lane realised something was up and rode back to him only to be told he didnt direct cyclist he was directing traffic down there. Grrr.

Funny bit though just after about 6 miles of cycling in th ewrong direction one fella rode up to the marshall and was just about to boot of with "hey mate theres no signs up there", to which the marshall replied " thats because you're meant to coming in from up there", pointing in the opposite direction.

The thing that gets me about the ride is how few the marshalls are up by the delamere part especially near the windy twisty little country lanes.

Was a good ride though, a great day and good seeing a micro star in an 11year old who's 14th in the country ride in liverpool century kit with his mum and dad.

jmeadows

dear me so we (i) werent alone then!? every cloud has a silver lining then eh!? was perfect weather for sure & generally a good atmos.
dont tell me there was a 13% yesterday? i never got off my 53tooth through the whole ride! its give me the belief that with better training i am capable of doing some of tyhe more difficult sportives.

supergrass

I did the 54 mile ride and that want much better!!!...twice went wrong... firsty went left at a junction following the signs and marshall even though we supposed to cross the road... then later near the end there was a very confusing sign so i asked the marshall who said go left 10 mins later realised we were back on the road to chester, so we stopped and asked another marshall and he said "he doesnt know hes just here to point" !!!.... ended up doing 60 miles rather than the 54..... Could be a very good event just need marshalls who understand what is going on...well done for doing 111 btw

jmeadows

after 70 i said to a marshall outside delamere,' whats going on i have been sent here twice, how long left?' she replyed, ' dunno, i just tell people to go this way or that'
thanks for that!
cheers supergrass, just shows you if you train around hills & do repeats that you will be able to ride a lot longer on a near flat/rolling route.
when i am paying to do a ride, a long way from home the least i expect is competent marshalling, oh welll whats done is done!

John Moore

I did the the 50+ miler with some roadie mates on my tank as training, non of this skinny road tyres like my mates had I used my tank averaging just under 17mph


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John Moore

double click, sorry

jmeadows

credit to you, those are biga*s tyres, dear me

John Moore

jmeadows wrote:

credit to you, those are biga*s tyres, dear me

They were a little draggy especially at 10psi, at least i had a comfortable ride

djconrad

This was my first sportive, did the 90 miles and pretty much echo what others have written here. Got sent the wrong way just before delamere but luckily was with a group and one of the lads knew how to get there without going all the way back.
And like someone else said this has made me think I can do bigger tests as I didn't find this too gruelling. Enjoyed the weather and the atmosphere.
Oh and which was the 13% climb?

kev77

That last picture is quality!

John Moore

kev77 wrote:

That last picture is quality!

I hope you noticed that the roadie was in the big ring when I went past.

jmeadows

so there was a few that got the runaround then!? will email organisers but dont think it will get anywhere, main prob i had was that our group was 1st off, most lads went the cafe at the T junction at delamere, me & one other guy carried on but he came to a halt on a little slope few mile later. marshall then told me there was only people ahead of me, then next marshall sent me back in, found out where i went wrong on second time round, but he was gone by then, crank. the lads in front of me may have known the route, this however was my 1st & i didnt know route, so was just following signs & those lovely marshalls :twisted: