Surrey 100 Sportive on Sunday 13th July - ActionMR

CXrider

http://www.action.org.uk/surrey_100

Anybody taking part on this?

I am in the Champion route and am looking to practice the first half (by far the hilliest and most challenging half) tomorrow (Wednesday 9th) and Friday 11th.

Does anybody want to meet up and ride with me? I will be looking to maintain about a 15 to 16 MPH average and will be starting off from Albury Village thereby missing out the boring start. It's about 40 to 50 miles and I have the route downloaded to my Garmin.

Other than that, good luck! I hope the weather is conducive.

drlodge

A few of us are going to be that way viewtopic.php?f=40012&t=12972190&start=60 be sure to wave if you see a motly bunch!

CXrider

drlodge wrote:

A few of us are going to be that way viewtopic.php?f=40012&t=12972190&start=60 be sure to wave if you see a motly bunch!

I'll wave if I am flying downhill as you go uphill!

If you fly past me going up the darn hill then you can do one!

Like your hilly route on the thread you pointed out. I will give that a crack midweek next week.
Rather it was 50 - 60 as 80ish gets painful on the ol' ass.

drlodge

CXrider wrote:

Like your hilly route on the thread you pointed out. I will give that a crack midweek next week.
Rather it was 50 - 60 as 80ish gets painful on the ol' ass.

When I tried it, I got to Peaslake and had enough so went home - missed out Barhatch, Combe and Newlands that are all in the latter part of the route. Hence if want to do less miles but keep Barhatch, may be miss out some middle section.

I think your legs will give up before your ass does

CXrider

If the weather changes I will try your route tomorrow.
I did go out yesterday in an attempt to do just the hills in the first half of the Surrey100 Champion ride but I came across a road closure nearish to Abinger and gave up on the route but would you believe it, I came across Whitedown Lane and decided to take it on. It was a nice hill, got up okay but it was a struggle in a couple of places and I had to stand up a lot. I thought it was rather easy until I spotted the 18% sign
It is actually on the 100 mile route but we will be going down it! I think i would rather go up it as the descent will be bloody lethal.

drlodge

Descending Whitedown is indeed tricky. You really have to go slowly otherwise you'll be too fast to slow down for the hair pin and over you'll go. Its the one and only place my brakes have really squealed from heat build up.

CXrider

I guess they have to get down at some point but it seems a strange choice.
Thankfully, it looks to well into the sportive route so there will only be a few riders on it at any one time. Imagine if there were a couple of dozen... plus, this Sunday is looking wet.. This could get really ugly.
My brakes are crap on the road bike. The discs on my Boardman CX team are awesome but its a LOT heavier and I wouldn't really want to use it over 100 miles. Still, safety first I guess. I might even cut down to the 60 miler if it's really hideous weather.

ugo.santalucia

I really don't get why organisers insist on fitting in tricky descents, when it is obvious someone will crash and possibly get hurt. There are less dangerous descents and those steep, narrow lanes should be used to go up, instead of down... it seems a no brainer, but I suspect organisers have no brain... :shock:

CXrider

I was on the brakes all the way down.
Incredibly, we didnt get rained on once but we did come across very wet roads once or twice so just missed it.
We did indeed go DOWN Whitedown lane but it was dry mostly. I didn't see any dramas.
Great food and good organisation by Action.org.uk though there could have been move advanced warnings of sharp turns when you are descending.

Cartebleu

I rode in this as well and did the Classic route (69 miles). Wet downhills were a bit hairy at times especially as my brakes weren't at their best following an earlier accident (argument with a pothole).

CXrider

Cartebleu wrote:

I rode in this as well and did the Classic route (69 miles). Wet downhills were a bit hairy at times especially as my brakes weren't at their best following an earlier accident (argument with a pothole).

Absolutely, especially going DOWN Whitedown lane... I would rather have cycled up it.
My mate is an agressive skier and at one point he just rushed past and bonzied it down just like he does on the snow slopes. Bloody idiot.

Amazing how we all missed the rain.

I was rding a dark grey Boardman with an orange and white checquered Woking CC jersey on if that rings any bells.
I did the same route with my mate and one lady who was very good.

Cartebleu

CXrider wrote:

Cartebleu wrote:

I rode in this as well and did the Classic route (69 miles). Wet downhills were a bit hairy at times especially as my brakes weren't at their best following an earlier accident (argument with a pothole).

Absolutely, especially going DOWN Whitedown lane... I would rather have cycled up it.
My mate is an agressive skier and at one point he just rushed past and bonzied it down just like he does on the snow slopes. Bloody idiot.

Amazing how we all missed the rain.

I was rding a dark grey Boardman with an orange and white checquered Woking CC jersey on if that rings any bells.
I did the same route with my mate and one lady who was very good.

I missed everyone as I was near the back as it took about half an hour to get my bike going again. A big thanks to the support van who wasn't far behind me. I would never have got going without his help, although it did involve buying a new front tyre off him.
In retrospect, I was lucky I didn't get hurt more. Just a few minor grazes, although I did make things worse by doing a 'fall of shame' by failing to unclip at a junction near the end.
I wasn't so lucky with the rain. It poured down when I got to the top of Leith Hill.

CXrider

Ah, shame, that delay caused you to hit the rain.
Yep, it was good organisation as usual with Action.org.uk events.
The food layout was impressive.. nice for a picnic but too much for the middle of a long cycle ride.

drlodge

Charlie and I got caught in the rain just having descended Leith Hill heading towards Peaslake, the rain seemd to come from no where - sun before and sun after.