Fred Whitton - entry lottery

Spatulala

A group of us were talking about challenges for next year, and one event we'd love to travel up to is the Fred. Looking at the site it seems to be a lottery, and my question is if there is any way you can enter as a group, so that either we all get in or we all miss out?

Jim C

Yes. Enter as a group of up to 4 I seem to remember. That's how we got in last year

durhamwasp

You could also ride it as a group any weekend of the year with their brevet system

Spatulala

Ok thanks, there are 6 of us, so not sure how that might work, if the other 1 or 2 get places but the 4 don't, I'm guessing you can give places back?

nammynake

Good luck. It is always oversubscribed but I've been lucky to get entry for the last 2 years. Bloody tough, as I'm sure you know, but get plenty of training in unless you want to suffer for 8+ hours.

Spatulala

I will be training, but still expect to suffer for 8+ hours, at least if this year's La Marmotte was anything to go by! Looking at the Profile of the Fred, it seems like it's half way between the Dartmoor Classic and La Marmotte in terms of vertical ascent, but with steep gradients more akin to Devon than the Alps.

Brian B

Spatulala - I have done the Fred 6 times and the Marmotte and the Fred is no way as tough as the Marmotte if you were pushing for good times on both events. 8:21 best time for Marmotte and 7:28 for the Fred. Sting in the tail though is Hardknott pass - the Hardest climb in the UK IMO which comes at 100miles and only the fittest get up without walking.

To the OP - If you really want to get in then all 6 can raise money for charity with the forms downloaded from the website and then you can secure a place for the whole team or email the organisers and ask if you can strike a deal and raise money between the 6 of you.

DeVlaeminck

I agree Marmotte is harder, hard to quantify how much, I was <20 minutes faster on the Fred than the Marmotte this year but the weather must have cost me that much again.

overlord2

Personally I would enter individually as you probably have more chance of getting in. The Fred isn't that hard, no harder than the other tough UK sportives. It's the last 20 miles that test you as a rider the weather included. Last year men were in tears at Calder Bridge. Train hard in winter and you should be fine.

styxd

I've never done the marmotte, but have ridden a fair few french cols, and I can't see how the Fred would be as tough as that. The climbs are only short (althoguh steep) and you get plenty of time to recover in between them. Grinding up a mountain fo over an hour in the heat is a completely different kettle of fish.

One tip I would give you is practice (unless you're already good at it) climbing for long periods out of the saddle. Makes all the climbs much more straight forward and you'll pass loads of people sat down, slowly grinding away.

DeVlaeminck

Think I was just inside 7.15 in the Fred and just outside 7.30 in the Marmotte so there's your difference give or take.

The weather was worse in the Fred but I think I cracked mentally a bit in the cold between Cold Fell and Hardknott so you could argue I took it easier than I did on the Marmotte, once over Hardknott I got a bit of a boost by managing to ride all the way up and felt strong after. My legs actually felt worse after the Fred, almost like I'd played football or something, but you go deeper on the sustained climbs of the Marmotte. In short yes the Marmotte is harder but anyone that can do the Fred can get round the Marmotte.

Ultimately a massive part of how hard any ride is is how hard you ride it. If you are "racing" the Fred then you need to dig deep at times to stay with faster groups on the lumpy terrain - there's an element of hard effort followed by recovery - in the Marmotte you ride the climbs at your own pace and it's more about 4 blocks of extended but consistent effort with perhaps less hard bits (though you can suffer in that valley before the Telegraph) in between.