Tour of the Peaks

McNulty

anyone got experience of this they care to share? It will be my second sportive after the cheshire cat, which by profile comparison looks easy (and the weather was brilliant) - should I be scared :shock:

rodgers73

I did the Action Medical Research Peak 100 last year and that was good. I signed up for this one on the back of that. I know the Peaks quite well and apart from Winnats Pass there aren't any real horror story climbs, so you should be fine.

I am the god of hell fire

The Cat and Fiddle and Holme Moss are nice flowing climbs where you can get a good rhythm going

Winnats is just nasty but is do-able on a compact with 25T rear, although theres another less celebrated beasty over Strines Moor just as you get to Langsett to which Id actually give more respect

Its a good route
Im lucky enough to have it on the doorstep

Cheers!

MancMissile

Your in the same boat as me mate I did the Cheshire Cat 100 which was my first ever sportive as well. I signed up to the 97 route for the tour of the peaks but havn't been out on my bike much recently as i've been training for the Manchester 10k run this weekend so may drop down to the 60 route. Looking at the profile and speaking to people who know the route this is going to be a very hard ride with lots of hills.. good luck

McNulty

i dont live too far so away from holmfirth so went out towards Holme Moss for a look - its a brutal hill... (i went up from Holmfirth. The distance countdown markings on the road made be laugh/swear. When I got up I thought I'd carry on and see where the road goes - only to find a huge descent (which I embraced) so I had another (not quite so brutal) climb back up :x ) ....I think the TotP is going to be an extremely tough day...which direction is the loop btw...do you go up Holmes Moss towards or away from Holmfirth

galatzo

May well be in for this too, just waiting to check weather on Sunday for the week ahead as I wouldn't fancy it at all if it's wet.
Like most I've not been out much during the biblical flood month of April but trying to make up for it now.
Any loners fancy meeting up at the start for a few miles let me know.

Wardster00

I'm doing the 65 mile route and just looked at a long range weather forecast showing light cloud and 17 degrees with little wind. Let's hope that it stays like that.

Galazato - The entries are now closed as they have reached their 1200 rider limit.

I am fully expecting to walk some of Winnats Pass so if I don't that will be a bonus.

galatzo

Bugger

McNulty

next sunday isnt loaded on xcweather yet but here is next Saturday in Holmfirth

http://www.xcweather.co.uk/forecast/holmfirth

the wind

willy b

Really looking forward to this, after living in Sheffield for 4 years this will be using lots of my old routes. Not riden up there for a year or so now!

WorcsPhil

Entered this a while ago as all of these hills (apart from Holme Moss) will be new to me, and really looking forward to it. I see that they now have a riders manual on the website, and I think the organisers need to check their maths. It says that the start is between 9 and 10, and riders will go off in groups of 30 every 3 minutes...er that means with 1200 riders, it'll take 2 hours.

The second issue is that there is a cut-off at 12 noon at the top of Winnats Pass. This is 42 miles from the start, and hence everybody starting beyond about 09:30 will fail to get there in time (about 50% of riders at least), and will have to ride unsupported....whatever that means... do they remove signs, or are there just no motorbikes following, or are your times not counted?

If there's someone from Kilotogo reading this, please review your arrangements. At the moment, they do not appear thought out at all. It seems a great route, don't spoil it by falling into Dragonride or Cheshire Cat type mistakes....and all the negative posts that will inevitably follow. A simple solution...start at 07:30am!

CliveWG

WorcsPhil, yes I must admit, I wondered about the start times and cutoff as well, hmmmmmm.
I owe this one as I last did it 2 years ago (in October?) and felt absolutely knackered not getting enough training in due to injury, story of my life, injury magnet heh heh.
The only thing I found difficult about Winnats was the skill required to stay on bike and keep going when having traffic weaving in and out and stopping etc etc ..... argghhhhhhhhhh
On a mission to beat my 8.27 from that time a few years ago, I will do it, bring it on!

willy b

Very interesting point Phil.... Guess it means you just have to ride quicker

McNulty

I read the pack this morning and noticed the timing issue too, I hope its not a mess as the route looks very hard and it would be shame to have it spoilt by poor organisation.........

dakkar

Anybody able to work out what the total amount of climbing involved is?

I am the god of hell fire wrote:

Winnats is just nasty but is do-able on a compact with 25T rear, although theres another less celebrated beasty over Strines Moor just as you get to Langsett to which Id actually give more respect

Its a good route

+1 re strines moor, did it the other week it's a bugger.

murf1480

The second issue is that there is a cut-off at 12 noon at the top of Winnats Pass. This is 42 miles from the start, and hence everybody starting beyond about 09:30 will fail to get there in time (about 50% of riders at least), and will have to ride unsupported....whatever that means... do they remove signs, or are there just no motorbikes following, or are your times not counted?

Reading the manual it sounds like there will be no motorbike support after that time so your basically on your own


But I have been known to read things wrong in the past :roll:

john46

Surely there is some mistake with the timings, I have done the event for the last 3 years and the
cut off was no where near as tight as this.

Even if you managed to get started at exactly 9.00 you would still need to average 14mph, late starters need to be doing around 20mph to make the cut off, and its a really tough course.

McNulty

If conditions are OK (and weatherman says they are going to be v.good) we relax things somewhat. We just don't want to see riders out on Holme Moss late in the day in wind and rain.

Thats from their facebook page in response to the time query - methinks the times in the guide are to encourage you to not hang about......I also suspect that the start times will be a good way either side of the advertised set off window.... :?

willy b

So what time do we get there then I might just rock up on the start line at 6am just in case.

rodgers73

I'm pretty sure its a typo and they meant 30 riders every 30 seconds. Why you'd need to wait 3 mins between groups I don't know.

willy b

So last rider through about 9:30am?

rodgers73

Maybe!

john46

Last year the start was from 7am, maybe this year the organisers want
a lie in.

john46

Just been on Kilo to go's facebook page and it looks like the cut off will now be extended to 1pm.
Start time is still from 9am with no preference for longer route riders.

CliveWG

Thx for that info, not very professional I thought. Folk from KtG need their heads knocking together for this stupid lack of maths ability perhaps, or should I assume that everyone can average 14mph+.
D'oh

Wardster00

I e-mailed KTG about this and they have admitted that the maths don't add up and say that they did say approx 30 people every 3 minutes. They have said that they will make a call on the morning as to how many people they send away in each group but they are confident that they will get everyone away by 10am.

They did give a top tip that if you get to the start line after 9.30am there will be no queue.

rdt

Warm work on Winnats today...

And I hope the folk(s) the air ambulance attended on the Jenkin Chapel descent are OK.

willy b

What a great day! Some brilliant climbs too! How did everybody do?

CliveWG

What a great day cycling around some of the country's most awesome scenery.
I managed about 7.30? and thought that this was a very tough day at the office. I found it far more difficult that Etape Du Dales last weekend, perhaps it was the heat? I do love the heat and awesome wether tho, easily my favourite;-)
Where I'd normally make up time descending like a looney, I seemed to have managed to get behind doddering jittery cars for much of the day grrrrrrrrr.
Winnatts was nice tho, no burned out clutch action, and no cars getting in the way phew!
Not the world's fastest I realise, but I'm very happy with that as I only managed about 8.27 a couple of years ago and felt 5hit and tired and knackered for most of the day that time.
At least I only feel tired and knackered now I'm refuelling with a bottle of Leffe Blonde, yum yum.
Well done all, and thanks to the Kilo team and all the helpers, much appreciated.

McNulty

The climbing was relentless, i got my chain stuck behind the rear cassette on winnats and had two punctures earlier in the day so blew any chance of a decent time but Im glad i got round!
Only disappointment was Winnats pass, mechanical issues apart there was no way I could have gotten up due to the volume of traffic (and an ambulance ) - it was a shame, maybe if we started earlier it could be put earler in the ride to avoid the cars....other than that bloody hard and Im glad its over!

kayo74

Enjoyed the day although it wasn't the easiest, I done the 65 in 5 hours which i was pleased with. Winnats pass was rubbish as to much traffic stopped. Great work by Kilo to Go again.