Tour Ride Stoke on Trent

Wardster00

I am keen to do this ride this year, but they don't have the full route up on the website yet. As I would like to recce some of the climbs I've had a stab at plotting the route based on the small map on the website.

Please have a look at the link below and let me know if you think that this looks about right and any insight into the climbs would be useful too?

I was surprised that Gun Hill wasn't included.

Cheers

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/1386506

Cleat Eastwood

it did gun hill last year and according to the site its doing it again

"Cannock Chase, Blithfield Reservoir and the Staffordshire Moorlands, with the Pro Ride once again including the famous climb of Gun Hill"

Its a great ride - hope to doing again this year.

thistle_

I have the 2009 route map, but it's in paper form and don't have access to an A1 scanner.

The route was:

• Britannia Stadium
• M6 junction 15
• A515 to Swynnerton
• Eccleshall
• Stone
• Sandon
• Milwich
• Cross A50 near JCB
• Stramshall
• Rocester
• Ellaston

Pretty flat up to here, then the hills started:

• Wooton
• Ramshorn
• Cross A52
• Up to A523
• Out in the hills behind Leek
• Steep descent and hairpin at Thorncliffe
• Around the top of Tittersworth Reservoir followed by climb
• Loop around to A523
• Down to Leek
• A520 to Cheddleton with some more climbs
• Cross A52
• Brookhouse
• Cross A50 at Draycott in the Moors
• Fulford
• Tough? Heath (outskirts of Meir)
• Back to the Stadium via minor ish road.

Your GPX looks quite a bit different:
It heads further south to Stafford and Rugeley
Does a detour from Uttoxeter to Cheadle
Returns via Biddulph Moor and Endon rather than via Leek and Cheddleton.

The year I did it, the long Tour Ride was longer than the actual tour stage :roll:

Wardster00

I based the route on the google earth screen shot and also the not very detailed map that you can download as part of the media pack.

This map says that it comes back to stoke via Biddulph Moor and Endon. I must have missed off Gun Hill. it will be interesting to see how close I got to the route when they eventually publish the route.

Cleat Eastwood

heres last years .gpx i've uploaded

http://www.mediafire.com/?0bq16j0efplyfho

you can upload it to bikeroutetoaster etc to view it.

skyblueamateur

What kind of distance was the pro ride?

Cleat Eastwood

SkyBlueAmateur wrote:

What kind of distance was the pro ride?

if memory serves me it was 84 miles last year. (140k)

skyblueamateur

f memory serves me it was 84 miles last year. (140k)

Thanks. How testing would it be for a relative newbie? I've ridden a few sportives and audaxes of a similar length with not too many problems.

Cleat Eastwood

This years ride is meant to be flat for the first half and hilly for the latter but from what I saw last year i'd say you'd be fine - the only hills people seemed to have probs with were Gun Hill - its 25% for a very tiny section but you can zig zag up it or walk - it reall is short, and a nasty little hill that no one seemed to know the name of -the rest was flatish or lumpy. One good thing about it was that the feedstations were brilliantly placed every 25-30 miles and either right before or right after a climb so you stock up/recoup for what were basically small rides of 30 miles.


I saw all body types and shapes out doing the ride - and for those who found it tough/didnt like rain I saw a few bail out half way round to do the medium route.

Don't be put off by the 'Pro' tag - i imagine a 100+ mile audax would be much more taxing. Just get a few hill climbs in before hand - it is quite a way off yet. But i'd say give it a go.

skyblueamateur

Thanks a lot Mr Eastwood 8)

I've entered the pro ride from Birmingham as it's local and I know most of the route.

Was in two minds between the challenge and Pro for Stoke but think I'll go for the pro and push myself a bit.

syncro

I've never done a sportive of any kind before but all being well (weather!) I'm going to o the Cannock Chase 100 tomorrow, the Challenge ride (100km).
If that goes ok I think I might give this a go.
At least I've it plenty of time to prepare.

Wardster00

Syncro, how did you get on with the Cannock Chase 100? I rode most of the route on Saturday and there was some still some floods about and the signage didn't look too good?

syncro

As it was my first one I haven't really got anything to compare to but I really enjoyed it. The signs could possibly have done with being more regular and prominent. On a couple of occasions I thought I might have missed a sign but I hadn't and didn't go wrong anywhere so must have been ok.
The roads where mostly dry too.
All in all had a great day out.

prawny

This years tour ride is completely different to previous versions. I've ridden most of the climbs I think now and it's really backloaded, the last half is much worse than the first. I think, overall the first 30 odd miles should be pretty easy going, but the second half could be a killer. If you've ridden it before I reckon you've done the hardest parts, the only tough climb on cannock chase is a short section that gets up to about 15% but not for long.

My strava segments will be going down the pan, lucky they don't go up the only one I'm still KOM on!

Wardster00

The route is now up on the website for this and I wasn't far off.

Prawny, you're right about the chase section, I've ridden that part and it isn't too tough. I think that the worst climb looks like the one that comes up out of Oakamoor past Alton Towers. However, I haven't ridden Gun Hill and I've only ever come down the hill from Morridge to Warslow.The total distance is 105 miles as well so it could be you day out.