Just finished my first Sportive today..

GBR1

So moved a month ago to the (what I call) country side, been into biking over the years but always mountain biking and had a few years off. The roads around here lend themselves to road biking (Bishops Waltham area) so sold one of my dust covered mountain bikes and got a roadie..

So after a few weeks of research went to the LBS, first question he asked was what was the intended use, any sportives etc etc (didn't know what one of these was then)?? No I said, just getting fit not too long a ride etc etc. He looked at me and laughed and said this is the one you want, so fine it was within budget etc..

Anyway, he said don't worry this will be fine when you start sportives, still not sure what he meant I walked out the shop with a shiny new bike..

Anyway 3 weeks later just done my first sportive

So I knew the course fairly well as it local and I chose the short course as I new I would finish, with the aim of getting around meeting a few people and generally seeing what its all about..

After about 3 min the "just" finishing went out the window to well lets see what time I could get..but of course not in a racing manor......

Anyway 2hr33min later and 44miles (scraping in at the 17mph average) I had a great time, meet some nice people and even had a "free" cup of tea, what more could you want on a sunny Sunday morning...

Signed up for one next Sunday as well now

So thanks to everyone at the Southern Sportive for giving a newbie a great first experience...

Mikey23

Good start, well done. They are rather addictive

alihisgreat

Did my first one today too-> I chose the 90 miles route (it was a very flat route though, only ~2500ft of climbing)


Had the same change of heart as you.. and tagged onto a fast group as soon as possible and got round with a very nice average for a Gold medal time.


Its given me delusions of grandeur and I can't wait to do a tougher one next season!

BlakeysFC

GBR1 wrote:

So moved a month ago to the (what I call) country side, been into biking over the years but always mountain biking and had a few years off. The roads around here lend themselves to road biking (Bishops Waltham area) so sold one of my dust covered mountain bikes and got a roadie..

So after a few weeks of research went to the LBS, first question he asked was what was the intended use, any sportives etc etc (didn't know what one of these was then)?? No I said, just getting fit not too long a ride etc etc. He looked at me and laughed and said this is the one you want, so fine it was within budget etc..

Anyway, he said don't worry this will be fine when you start sportives, still not sure what he meant I walked out the shop with a shiny new bike..

Anyway 3 weeks later just done my first sportive

So I knew the course fairly well as it local and I chose the short course as I new I would finish, with the aim of getting around meeting a few people and generally seeing what its all about..

After about 3 min the "just" finishing went out the window to well lets see what time I could get..but of course not in a racing manor......

Anyway 2hr33min later and 44miles (scraping in at the 17mph average) I had a great time, meet some nice people and even had a "free" cup of tea, what more could you want on a sunny Sunday morning...

Signed up for one next Sunday as well now

So thanks to everyone at the Southern Sportive for giving a newbie a great first experience...

Well done! You've done a hell of a lot better than me. I've got my first Sportive next week in the New Forest on a similar route to one I've done before on my own, very flat, only 522ft of climbing over the 21 miles I did there last time.

Got another booked for the 30th around Biggin Hill (including Titsey Hill etc.) and am absolutely dreading it, purely because there's a hell of alot of climbing involved and I don't know if my legs are up to it, done 26 miles 1200ft climbing today and I was absolutely knackered at the end

I've been riding regularly for 7 weeks, started off doing 9.5-10mph average, now doing 12.5-13.5mph average so I've definitely improved, hoping I'll get upto 14-16mph by Christmas!

GBR1

BlakeysFC wrote:

I've got my first Sportive next week in the New Forest....

Which one is that??

Cheers

GBR1

BlakeysFC

GBR1 wrote:

BlakeysFC wrote:

I've got my first Sportive next week in the New Forest....

Which one is that??

Cheers

GBR1

The Orchid Cancer Care Charity New Forest Sportive on the 16th (this Sunday). I'm doing the 31 mile 'Short' route

Mikey23

Love riding the new forest. did the rattler a couple of weeks ago which was awesome. Would like to come back for that but not possible. Enjoy

iampaulb

BlakeysFC wrote:

GBR1 wrote:

BlakeysFC wrote:

I've got my first Sportive next week in the New Forest....

Which one is that??

Cheers

GBR1

The Orchid Cancer Care Charity New Forest Sportive on the 16th (this Sunday). I'm doing the 31 mile 'Short' route

oh shit!! id meet up and do this one with your Tom. But im going to watch the final stage of TOB in guildford.
We will have to get your climbing legs sorted with a few trips to boxhill

BlakeysFC

iampaulb wrote:

BlakeysFC wrote:

GBR1 wrote:

BlakeysFC wrote:

I've got my first Sportive next week in the New Forest....

Which one is that??

Cheers

GBR1

The Orchid Cancer Care Charity New Forest Sportive on the 16th (this Sunday). I'm doing the 31 mile 'Short' route

oh shoot!! id meet up and do this one with your Tom. But im going to watch the final stage of TOB in guildford.
We will have to get your climbing legs sorted with a few trips to boxhill

No problems ,Yeh I'm definitely up for doing Box Hill sometime. Probably won't be able to keep up with you just yet though!

My sportive starts pretty early at 8-10AM so i'm hoping I'll be finished by Noon, (should take me about 3 hours) to get back up to Guildford for 1-1:30pm to catch a bit of the ToB myself.