pendle predator

The-beast

anybody completed the pendle predator on here today, 110 miles 3587m climbing over 13 climbs, definatly not for the faint hearted, utterly goosed now, fred whitton next

rolf_f

The-beast wrote:

anybody completed the pendle predator on here today, 110 miles 3587m climbing over 13 climbs, definatly not for the faint hearted, utterly goosed now, fred whitton next

Pendle B******d is what it should be called. It was relentless. I did the Fred this year and I'm not sure I didn't find this harder. At least with the Fred I knew most of the route and I knew when all the hard bits were due. With this one they just came all the time!

Apparently this year is the first time it has thrown in the climb back over the North edge of Pendle Hill (and the following climb) - last year it just followed the valley back to Barnoldswick. I should have done it last year Andy why oh why didn't I do the Ryedale Rumble instead

This is what it looks like......(blue is my speed and red my heart!!)

Cleat Eastwood

wow, i was down to do this but got a bad chest last week. thank you mr virus where ever you are, seems a real killer. What was the weather like?

rolf_f

Hit by a fairly heavy shower on a descent during the first hour - after that, cloudy with sunny intervals - got steadily better as the day went on and the afternoon was very pleasant. Bit of a Westerly though.

On the few moments which weren't sould destroying climbs or white knuckle descents, it was quite pleasant

The final climb over Pendle was the worst - I'm glad I didn't know that the route was going to do that!. Only about 400 feet but soul destroyingly straight and with only 11 miles to go, hardly fair!

The-beast

yeah we were team newton with scales, your talking about the decent down waddington fell when it p!ssed down, after nick o pendle we hit that 25% ramp- awful. then all that extra climbing over barley fell, lot of people walking up that, said on website it was 3122 m of climbing , my garmin worked it out at 3524m of climbing, definatly hardest sportive ive ever done, well run event i found tho.

rolf_f

The-beast wrote:

yeah we were team newton with scales, your talking about the decent down waddington fell when it p!ssed down, after nick o pendle we hit that 25% ramp- awful. then all that extra climbing over barley fell, lot of people walking up that, said on website it was 3122 m of climbing , my garmin worked it out at 3524m of climbing, definatly hardest sportive ive ever done, well run event i found tho.

Nobody walking up when I was there - nobody to be seen at all! I was on my own for ages after having been dropped by a couple of the Hope crowd (one on a company Green Fondo!) - 60 somethings both of them!

One complaint was it was pretty crappily route marked. One arrow isn't really enough. Particularly if a car is parked infront of it

Incidentally, my GPS worked the climb out as 12,311 feet but no idea how accurate that is. Really need to check the route on a plotting website but I think 3122 might be last years climb.

Dan Ingram

Where do you guys find out about these sportives. I wouldn't mind doing some more but can't find any fairly local.

rolf_f

Google!! There are websites that list them and they often get mentioned here.

Re Pendle vs Fred. Bearing in mind that the the Fred this year was slow due to the poor weather conditions, I managed to complete the Predator at an average speed 0.2 mph faster than the Fred

avoidingmyphd

Dan Ingram wrote:

Where do you guys find out about these sportives. I wouldn't mind doing some more but can't find any fairly local.

Start at www.cyclosport.org
Look in this section of the forum as people often discuss events well in advance.

Maurice Thepity

Yes, did the Pendle Predator yesterday.
My legs are aching today; wish I could've just gone back to bed this morning.
We missed a turn because the wind had blown the arrow edge on. Thanks to the rider ahead of us who turned us back so we only did about a mile off course. Otherwise no problems with signage.
Scenery was great.

Brian B

I did the Le terrier Sportive around this area and I reckoned it was as hard as the Fred(which I have done 5 times). What were the road surfaces like on this route as some on the Le Terrier were a bit suspect?

Totally enjoyed the Terrier though despite the horrendous weather and thought the area was stunning and had lots of 'enjoyable' climbs

The-beast

Yeah I've do le terrier too, but found this tougher, they were taking up the road in areas in-between slaidburn and cross of greets so plenty of ramps

moolarb

I was expecting a tough day in the saddle but that was taking the p***

I've done a few hilly sportives in the peaks before, but none was a hard as that. I should have done my homework really - I saw the profile and knew it would be hilly but wasn't expecting so many tough climbs one after another, especially with a few nasty ones towards the end. Quads were cramping up big style but managed to stay on the bike.

I could've sworn that was hailstones on the top of Waddington Fell, or maybe it was just very hard, cold rain.

Was hoping for under 6.5 hours but took me just under 8!

The-beast

Well u did better than me mate I was just under 9 hours, to be fair quite a few didn't finish, with as many hill as that I was just spinning up the climbs no heroics, prob is rarely was there a flat it was either up or down !

keyser__soze

Glad to see a thread on this! I did it with my girlfriend who unfortunately had a few mechanical issues with her new Ribble. First the cables had stretched and we needed to reindex the rear mech, then she slipped over on standing water at the first feedstop and bent the rear mech hanger and dropped the chain into the block at the start of the climb out of Slaidburn. Unfortunately I'd gone much further up the hill, mistaking someone else in a yellow top for her behind me, and had to come back down the hill to find her. Many thanks to the two guys who tried to help her with the limit screws.

We limped back to the feed station and waited about half an hour for the mechanic. He played with the limit screws some more and we got back underway, having lost just over an hour. Unfortunately K's bottom gear kept on skipping, though she manned up and we reeled in a handful of guys in on the climb over Cross o Greet (what a great climb). Then it was pretty much just the two of us (plus another couple of dropped chains for K) to the second feed stop, where the mechanic had another long play with the bike and got it running a lot smoother, but we lost even more time. Onwards through the Trough to the feed stop at Chipping (and more time lost due to a long bathroom break) and we still hadn't passed anyone else, then over Longridge Fell (another killer climb) and on the descent to Whalley we were caught up by the truck pulling in the road signs. We explained our mechanical issues and the guy kindly said he'd wait for us to get through before pulling any more signs. Not sure what happened to the group of seven or eight we passed at the Cross.

On through Whalley and just past the final feed stop we finally began to reel people in, which was a great motivator. I'd heard the climb out of Sabden was seriously steep so rode tempo up the Nick'o'Pendle, which was considerably easier than I thought it would be, then suffered up out of Sabden, a climb that made White Down (my local steep hill in Surrey) look billiard-table flat. Anyone know just how steep this was? Unfortunately I'd heard that the Nick and Sabden were the final two climbs and told K this, only to find several more little (and not so little) bumps back to base. Sadly one of them came with one moronic driver who clipped me with his wing mirror then jumped out of his car to have a go when I complained at the next junction and did the usual "I'm gonna smash you up, only I'm not going to come within five feet of you cos I'm all mouth and no trousers" that's so typical of idiot car drivers.

With my computer showing 118 miles (thanks to the detours) we finally arrived back at base for a well deserved drink. Not many riders rolled in in the half an hour or so we sat there after we'd finished so I don't know if people were sent on shorter routes back or whether they were sag-waggoned. A pretty tough day, certainly not helped by the mechanical issues. Fortunately I'd booked yesterday off work and didn't have to drive down to London straight after, which is just as well as I was pretty tired. Glad to see some people found it comparable in difficulty to the Fred/Terrier - was certainly much more difficult than the previous toughest route we'd done (Wiggle Ups and Downs in the Surrey Hills).

rolf_f

Keyser__Soze wrote:

....then suffered up out of Sabden, a climb that made White Down (my local steep hill in Surrey) look billiard-table flat. Anyone know just how steep this was? Unfortunately I'd heard that the Nick and Sabden were the final two climbs and told K this, only to find several more little (and not so little) bumps back to base.

The road sign said 17% for half a mile.....

I came in at 8:02.

BTW - nice report but how did you manage 6 miles of detours?

avoidingmyphd

Rolf F wrote:

Keyser__Soze wrote:

....then suffered up out of Sabden, a climb that made White Down (my local steep hill in Surrey) look billiard-table flat. Anyone know just how steep this was? Unfortunately I'd heard that the Nick and Sabden were the final two climbs and told K this, only to find several more little (and not so little) bumps back to base.

The road sign said 17% for half a mile.....

I came in at 8:02.

It's 1km at an average of 8.5%.
The middle 500m average 11.5%

It's a horrible climb at that point in the ride.

keyser__soze

Rolf F, good question Probably ended up counting the car park there and back plus I had to come back down from halfway up the hill after Slaidburn back to the feed station to rescue K so ended up doing that section twice up and once down.

avoidingmyphd, thanks. I wonder what the max gradient was. White Down maxes out at 18% and I'm sure this was steeper.

thetrotter

Keyser__Soze wrote:

Glad to see a thread on this! I did it with my girlfriend who unfortunately had a few mechanical issues with her new Ribble. ...... Many thanks to the two guys who tried to help her with the limit screws.
.

I was one of the riders who stopped. Didn't realise that the gear hanger had already got bent. I couldn't get the hang of the SRAM shifters when we were trying to sort it out :? . All credit to your girlfriend for finishing the long route, particularly with the gear problems. That climb out of Sabden is certainly tough (I would guess around 20% at the bottom and just before the top) and those two little ones afterwards are even harder (closer to 25%). Tried to get a walker to give me a push up the first one but he claimed that it would have been cheating :shock:

keyser__soze

thetrotter, thanks, we owe both of you a beer next time we see you! We didn't know the hanger was bent either, only found that out when we got the mechanic to take a look at it, and I'm not sure if it was the slip in the car park that caused it or whether it was out to begin with as she's had several issues with the indexing since it arrived. We took it in to Ribble yesterday and the mechanic there straightened the hanger and re-did the indexing/stop screws so hopefully all will be well from now on.

rolf_f

thetrotter wrote:

...... and those two little ones afterwards are even harder (closer to 25%). Tried to get a walker to give me a push up the first one but he claimed that it would have been cheating :shock:

Was that the one where you saw a road going past a farm high on the hillside and thought "the route had better bloody not be going up that".........

Did get cheered on by an oldish chap there which was nice!

Don't recall a second mini killer though.

thetrotter

Rolf F wrote:

thetrotter wrote:

...... and those two little ones afterwards are even harder (closer to 25%). Tried to get a walker to give me a push up the first one but he claimed that it would have been cheating :shock:

Was that the one where you saw a road going past a farm high on the hillside and thought "the route had better bloody not be going up that".........

Did get cheered on by an oldish chap there which was nice!

Don't recall a second mini killer though.

That's the one. Did the chap have a dog? If so, he was the one who declined to push me! He did call be "lad" though which was probably worth more at my age. Always nice when people offer encouragement. The next sharp climb was the one just after when you came to the junction, turned left and it ramped up between the houses. Perhaps I was just hallucinating by that stage :oops:

Results are here:

http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/index.php

Keyser__Soze. Don't mention it. Always stop to ask people if they need help. More than once I've been stood by the roadside with a mechanical (broken chain, broken pump, no more inner tubes etc) and have been grateful for assistance. That's what makes cycling special.

rolf_f

thetrotter wrote:

That's the one. Did the chap have a dog? If so, he was the one who declined to push me! He did call be "lad" though which was probably worth more at my age. Always nice when people offer encouragement. The next sharp climb was the one just after when you came to the junction, turned left and it ramped up between the houses. Perhaps I was just hallucinating by that stage :oops:

I think he did have a dog. He was obviously there for the suffering!

I do remember one climb around there between houses (Newchurch in Pendle). I turned a corner and it seemed to shoot up like a cliff. I was thinking along the lines of "you cannot be serious" in a John McEnroe kind of voice until I spotted the right turn to sanity!

As it happens, that is about the one kind turn on the whole route as they could have sent us up that road as a steep shortcut. Still, something to add in for next year.......

The-beast

thetrotter wrote:

Keyser__Soze wrote:

Glad to see a thread on this! I did it with my girlfriend who unfortunately had a few mechanical issues with her new Ribble. ...... Many thanks to the two guys who tried to help her with the limit screws.
.

I was one of the riders who stopped. Didn't realise that the gear hanger had already got bent. I couldn't get the hang of the SRAM shifters when we were trying to sort it out :? . All credit to your girlfriend for finishing the long route, particularly with the gear problems. That climb out of Sabden is certainly tough (I would guess around 20% at the bottom and just before the top) and those two little ones afterwards are even harder (closer to 25%). Tried to get a walker to give me a push up the first one but he claimed that it would have been cheating :shock:

Hi mate yeah we saw that happen at the slaidburn feed stop ur missus went side ways over on what I can remember was a ribble stealth and landed on side, defo what bent rear hanger, done it myself once ! We went past her on a small hill not far from there where I told u about her chain coming off and was wedged in-between her spokes and
her block.

Was that climb directly after nick o Pendle black hill? It was mean, and yes that climb that went skyward next to the farm was awful

Maurice Thepity

I was the other rider who stopped and extricated K’s chain with a tyre lever. I saw you both later on in the day so knew you completed the course. Glad to hear you’ve got the hanger straightened.

thetrotter

Maurice Thepity wrote:

I was the other rider who stopped and extricated K’s chain with a tyre lever. I saw you both later on in the day so knew you completed the course. Glad to hear you’ve got the hanger straightened.

Power of the internet.... Assume that you caught up with your mate on Tatham Fell? Thanks for the company. At one point all I could see were miles of miles of road in the distance with no sign of life.

Kate1

Bit of a late response to this thread, sorry! But big a thankyou to the guys who stopped to help me save my chain from between the casette and spokes, it was really appreciated. Luckily the mechanic managed to sort it to some extent, although I had to anticipate any hills as changing down gears wasn't possible once there was any decent incline! We took the bike to Ribble the next days and its been behaving ever since, so hopefully no more issues like that! Was a great ride anyhoe, albeit slightly further and with slightly more climbing than I had anticipated!