Wiggle South Downs 2013

tomhowells

So I just got back from my longest ride to date - the Wiggle South Downs sportive, Standard 73 mile version. My previous longest was the London to Brighton in June.

It was really well organised, signposted, marshalled - the feed points were fantastic & I met some really nice people along the way (Army guys, I'm looking at you!)
As mentioned, my only previous experience of a 'sportive' was L2B - this Wiggle event is so far removed from what that was, I am definitely going to sign up for more!

Things I have learned are: Get Chamois cream. Apply Chamois Cream. If you bring a waterproof, use it! Don't fettle with your bike the night before & ride it for the first time on event day!

Despite the torrential rain & hail, it was the best ride I have taken part in to date - 'Big Hat' to all who completed it!

topcattim

I did this with a few friends, and had a good day. We had debated pulling out due to the weather forecast, but made the right decision. There was a torrential thunderstorm at about 0800 from which I sheltered in the car, and it was tipping it down when I drove back home, but otherwise, thankfully, the weather was fairly kind.

The route was beautiful, as expected. The first part, over Goodwood and the related Downs, was particularly lovely, and the route seemed to avoid just throwing you up the most ridiculously steep and narrow hills it could find. That said, no ride in the area would have been complete without Harting Hill (steep and dodgy road surface) and the back of Butser Hill too. There was also a rather lovely climb after about ?40? miles on the standard route with a sharp left hand hairpin and then again a right hander, with gradient ramps at each hairpin. That was, ahem, fun too.

I found the ride a bit less sociable than many other Wiggle rides, but perhaps this was because people had their heads down and were fighting the wettish weather. Certainly there seemed a fair bit of camaraderie on the nice 10 mile flattish drag into the finish.

All in all, a good day, and a nice end to the Sportive season. Just the winter of grinding away on the turbo in the garage to look forward to!

tomhowells

It was a lovely route, wasn't it? I know what you mean about that hill 40 miles in, Turkey Island? I think it was called. It very nearly beat me, had to keep tapping away at that one!

As you say, a great end to the season - looking forward to starting afresh next year now! Good luck on the turbo ;-)

Donkeywings

I did the 73 mile standard as well - really nice ride with some killer hills. Was much harder than the Wiggle New Forest 70 a couple of weeks before.

I was wondering if anyone had any GoPro/video of the storm that came in around 14:30? The last 20 miles of this ride I did in pouring rain - but the last 5 miles into Chichester, OMG I have never seen anything like it. What seemed like a gale-force wind came in from nowhere, and you could barely see through the sideways rain. Trees branches were coming down too. Was pretty scary.