Wiggle South Downs Sportive 100 - doing it or done it?

t5nel

Chaps,

I have been entered for this one and have little idea about the route or the climbs etc. Never really ridden much in this neck of the woods.

I quite fancy having a crack at the gold time (on paper 6h22 for 100 seems doable) but I realise the hills weather could make this a more challenging proposition.

Wondering if there is anyone reading on here with previous experience of the route and advice. Would also be interested if anyone else is looking at getting round in a similar time (and want to tow me round )

Tim

gavinash32

Hi Tim

I am also doing the 100 mile route, you will have to average about 16 mph to get gold. Im quite local and rode close by to the west area of the route the other day. The weather was horrible and there are quite a lot of hills. take a look at the hill chart on the joining instructions if not done already. I think it is doable but you will have to push it a bit and not spend too long at feeding stations.

Im doing the ride by myself and also aiming for gold. im doing it on a hybrid so im hoping my slicks come soon!!

gavinash100@hotmail.com

Gav

cal_stewart

I'm going see you bitches there. ^joining instructions love it.

Twelly

I'm in. Going for gold. The hills will be killers. A guy at my club who is one of the quicker guys said he rode it last year and only witnessed two riders make it up the last (biggest) climb without getting off and walking..

mgmidget1500

I am doing it (my first 100 miler), I think thanking god I have a triple is in order! Not yet had to get off and push up any hills (cycled up some big buggers in Luxemburg, Germany, Belgium and France a couple of weeks ago - very slowly I might add, but cycled up everyone of them) did a similar amount of climbing in 50 miles on one day of that ride, so hopefully (and I will regret saying this) I will make it up these hills (but who knows!).

t5nel

I'll put the 11-28 on then.

Should be OK - but not done a 100 miler for a couple of months. Just hope it is not raining - descents + wet leaves :!:

This will actually be my first organized UK sportive as I normally ride solo or with a small group.

BlakeysFC

I'm doing the 45 mile route, not quite ready to do 100 just yet.

SPOC

I'm doing the 100 with my mate.

I was working in Chichester a few weeks ago, rid the first 70 of the hundred, some of the hills were disgusting, short sharp ones, Bexley Hill I think it was and the climb out of Harting are pure leg breakers.

I only did 70 of it and I think I am right in saying Old Winchester Hill and Harvesting Lane are thrown in on the 30+ I didn't ride, for good measure. Will be a long, long day I think!

paulfarquharson

Yep... I'm familiar with the latter 30 more than the rest of it... Old Winchester isn't too bad, but Butser will be a killer on tired legs.

t5nel

Good luck then chaps, just got everything packed. Looks like the weather might hold out too

Looking forward to stories of scrums at the feedstations, lost riders and exhaustion.

rjsmith

I'm doing the 70. I'm in Winchester at present, not too far away from the ride and it's raining :-(

BlakeysFC

rjsmith wrote:

I'm doing the 70. I'm in Winchester at present, not too far away from the ride and it's raining :-(

Same here, the weather forecast is good for tomorrow morning though. 12-13 degrees and cloudy (no rain) at the moment anyway.

SPOC

Well that was my first ever Sportive, really enjoyed it.

Did the epic in 6hr 28mins, 15.9 mph average.

Bexley Hill was a disgrace, hated it, worst part of the whole ride.

t5nel

Good time SPOC - you should be pleased with that. I was hoping to do similar.

Filthy day for me I'm afraid.

Did the epic but not sure how long my time was in the end
Experienced 4 (1 front inc. nice gash in sidewall & 3 rear) full on blow out punctures and one slow puncture.
Most gutting of all was the puncture about 2km from the finish. I expect most of you will have got a high speed view of my (apparent lack of) repair skills. I was the one with the sense of humour failure in my white and blue smurf/zipvit kit.

Garmin Average is 26.3 (autopaused) I didn't even want to ask the ukcycling events people what my time was - just wanted to wash my hands and go home for some food and a bath

Oh well maybe next year

Tim

SPOC

4 flats, that's sickening. I lost about 10 mins at the last stop for matey to fix my gears which just randomly stopped working properly.

If anyone was riding, I was in an orange Euskadel kit, swearing and moaning a lot for the last 50!

I'm sure I'll do this one again next year, even if it was very hilly for my first Sportive.

WindyRob

Much respect to anyone that did the full 100; i did the standard and it seemed to go up or down until after Butser. It seemed a very hard ride, or perhaps i'm not as fit as i thought is was.

Glad i didn't do the 100 that Bexley hill near did me in on an evans sportive from liphook earlier in the year.

Knackered now!

BlakeysFC

I did the 46 mile 'Fun' route. It wasn't much fun for me today though unfortunately.

Pushed off to go to the start, couldn't get a rhythm going with my SPDs and fell off in the car park. Then later on in the ride I was descending after the 'big' climb of the day and a stick got stuck in between my brakes and fork which meant my bike came to a stop for no apparent reason. Thought I'd got a flat, so I slowed down, unclipped left foot, didn't have time to unclip right foot and down I went right onto my Elbow, it's all cut and bruised but luckily nothings broken. Was nice that a couple of riders and the car travelling opposite stopped to see if I was ok.

Managed to continue luckily and finish the route. Thought it was pretty reasonable on the toughness/difficulty scale, was all up hill coming out of Chichester and going up towards Lavant with 1/2 reasonably tough climbs, was a bit knackered at this point so the feed station was a welcome sight after 25 miles.

Stayed quite a while and had a flapjack, my banana and some energy drink in anticipation of the 723ft climb that was to follow shortly. Pretty damn tough this was I must say, don't know what the gradient was but it felt above 10% at the time, was a proper slog to the top of the hill, but once up there the view was spectacular across the South Downs.

Then the whole second half of the route was all downhill from East Meon to Chichester, had my first

Twelly

I completed the epic route but pretty disapointed with my time - 8:22.

It was going well up to the 45 mile mark - me and a mate from my club were averaging 17-18mph and well on course for gold but I completely lost my legs after that, any slight incline and I would grind to a halt, no power whatsoever. I think it's what's known in the trade as a 'bonk'. My bike computer gave me a ride time of just under 7 hours but my official time was almost 8 and a half because I had to spend so long at the fuel stops gorging on gels and flapjacks.

Brutal course, the hills were epic. One was so steep I was wheel spinning at the rear trying to get up it.

I noticed on the results sheet that one guy finished the epic course in under 5 hours - obviously Bradley Wiggins was visiting Sussex on Sunday....

mustgettaller

t5nel - sorry to hear about your flats - that's a real bummer.

If I'd spotted your original post in time, I'd have definitely recommended (if others haven't) puncture-resistant tyres. The lanes on this route have a lot of flint chips on them - especially after the recent rain, which tends to wash gravel onto the road.

SPOC - good time!

As others have commented, this is quite a tough ride, with quite a lot of short steepish climbs and then The Big Ones - Bexley (the one North of Midhurst), Turkey Island (the one just after Harting), Old Winchester, Butser. Yes, Bexley had my rear wheel spinning - even on 'dry' days, this hill is often greasy.

We managed 6:14 and am pretty pleased with that.

Previous times I've had to stop on Old Winchester Hill, but yesterday managed all the hills. Especially pleased as riding my new (to me) Tarmac Comp (yum!), with only a standard chainset on it. I do have the advantage of being local, so I knew what I was in for. Although I'm not sure about the 8 mile ride to the event start! Strangely, I got a lift home afterwards.

Yes, some of the 'top' times must be from people who started on the Epic and then switched to the Standard without telling the organisers.

So - well done to those who completed the Epic. Actually, well done to everyone - road conditions were challenging and I think even the shorter rides would have had their moments!

t5nel

TwellySmat wrote:

Brutal course, the hills were epic. One was so steep I was wheel spinning at the rear trying to get up it.
.

I think that was Bexley Hill? I was wheel spinning too. Just checked my time - got 7:27 so allowing for fixing 4 punctures wasn't too bad. With the exception of that climb I found everything else tough but manageable. In fact I actually enjoyed Winchester Hill.

Always next year

SPOC

Yeah my wheel was spinning up Bexley too, quite a lot just got off and walked, can't blame them. I didn't mind Old Winchester Hill much, but I've done that on training rides quite a few times.

A bit disappointing to have missed out on gold time having just checked my official time, although being my first organised ride I was just out to have a good time and certainly did I have a feeling these organised rides I'm guessing might be a bit more fun in the summer months?!

Also, is it always like that for drinks? At the 2nd stop the queue was massive, which was a bit of a bummer, that and having to stop to fix my gears cost me 20 mins overall.

jamlala

I liked the route to be honest, many a hill on the standard route as you've all alluded to. My hired Garmin twice told me that I was on a section that was 30% and there was plenty in the 20%+ area! I'll admit to walking up the last biggy, before a good last 10 miles or so heading back. 5 hrs 31 mins I was happy with - missing out on silver by 6 mins, damn those queues for water!!
It was substantially more difficult than my other fav sportive the Dartmoor Classic, in my opinion. For those that say they 'bonked' above I'd have to say I think its more likely that your legs just ran out of steam as those hills were either steep, long or both. 76 miles is no walk in the park so for me the answer is just more hill training!! I'll be there next year though.

mustgettaller

SPOC wrote:

Yeah my wheel was spinning up Bexley too, quite a lot just got off and walked, can't blame them. I didn't mind Old Winchester Hill much, but I've done that on training rides quite a few times.

A bit disappointing to have missed out on gold time having just checked my official time, although being my first organised ride I was just out to have a good time and certainly did I have a feeling these organised rides I'm guessing might be a bit more fun in the summer months?!

Also, is it always like that for drinks? At the 2nd stop the queue was massive, which was a bit of a bummer, that and having to stop to fix my gears cost me 20 mins overall.

Queues for drinks - I've done this event a couple of times and a lot of other Wiggle events, and this is the first time I've seen queues like this. We stopped at the 48 mile station which was fine, and the 76 mile one which had a long queue for energy drink (but not for water). Strange as it was pretty cool so no need for massive fluid intake. Thinking about it, maybe they only put on one barrel of energy drink at each stop, having used this logic. Clearly backfired - a pity for those who had to queue (I just topped up with water instead).