Ride report - Tour de Vale

secretsam

Just completed the Tour de Vale, a charity ride run by the Wheelpower organisation who promote sport for the disabled, who are based near to me (I'm in Aylesbury). As usual, really great event - it's a shame more people don't know about it!

Anyway, a few thoughts which I'll also feed back to them:
- New route - I did the 100km 'long' ride, which had a new route this year, which was a big improvement over the already good route; a few stretches of A road but mostly quiet lanes...but
- Organisation - excellent. Lots of marshalls, faultless signposting. But the event needs a 'nutrition partner' to sort out the feed stations!
- Roads - Condition of the roads in some places was appalling. I think that Wheelpower should make a formal complaint to the Council, on behalf of their ride (which has been going for more than 10 years and is a big local event) - in some places the roads were shocking, and not just on minor routes! To their credit, Wheelpower did warn riders about the conditions
- Riders - the usual mix - die hard roadies, nutters on MTBs (seriously - 100km on road on knobblies????), MAMILs (me included) and Help for Heroes/Sky Wannabe/other general wobblers. Good to see so many age groups and lots of female riders: but - seriously - please all learn some roadcraft! Indicate potholes, don't pull out without looking, don't ride 2 abreast on A roads and finally, particularly downhill, be aware of other riders who may be doing double your speed!

Finally, although mostly a wonderful day and perfect weather, was disappointed at the number of gel packets strewn around, plus at least one inner tube left on the side of the road. Really poor behaviour.

But on the whole, a wonderful event. Needs to be more widely publicised, 'cos the route's excellent (there are shorter ones as well) and it's all really friendly.

See you all in 2016!!!!

defride

Passed a load of families out riding this, loads of really young kids was nice to see though I'm not sure I'd be keen to have mine riding the Ford Rd with cars going past at 50.

Well done to all those who rode.

SteveDoe

SecretSam wrote:

Just completed the Tour de Vale, a charity ride run by the Wheelpower organisation who promote sport for the disabled, who are based near to me (I'm in Aylesbury). As usual, really great event - it's a shame more people don't know about it!

Anyway, a few thoughts which I'll also feed back to them:
- New route - I did the 100km 'long' ride, which had a new route this year, which was a big improvement over the already good route; a few stretches of A road but mostly quiet lanes...but
- Organisation - excellent. Lots of marshalls, faultless signposting. But the event needs a 'nutrition partner' to sort out the feed stations!
- Roads - Condition of the roads in some places was appalling. I think that Wheelpower should make a formal complaint to the Council, on behalf of their ride (which has been going for more than 10 years and is a big local event) - in some places the roads were shocking, and not just on minor routes! To their credit, Wheelpower did warn riders about the conditions
- Riders - the usual mix - die hard roadies, nutters on MTBs (seriously - 100km on road on knobblies????), MAMILs (me included) and Help for Heroes/Sky Wannabe/other general wobblers. Good to see so many age groups and lots of female riders: but - seriously - please all learn some roadcraft! Indicate potholes, don't pull out without looking, don't ride 2 abreast on A roads and finally, particularly downhill, be aware of other riders who may be doing double your speed!

Finally, although mostly a wonderful day and perfect weather, was disappointed at the number of gel packets strewn around, plus at least one inner tube left on the side of the road. Really poor behaviour.

But on the whole, a wonderful event. Needs to be more widely publicised, 'cos the route's excellent (there are shorter ones as well) and it's all really friendly.

See you all in 2016!!!!

I also enjoyed it, but not sure there needs to be more awareness - 2,000+ riders on the road caused carnage, especially once the two bigger rides merged. Car drivers were getting angry and doing silly overtakes, just to get held up 50 yards further down the route.

Really enjoyed the new route, although as you said the road surfaces weren't great in places, but the scenery is cracking, and although I do a lot of local miles, there were some 'new to me' roads yesterday.

Would also like to second what you said about the marshals and signposting - really good throughout. One minor gripe was that they wouldn't shout 'Clear' at a junction as you approached, but probably under instruction not to in case they get it wrong ...

secretsam

SteveDoe wrote:

although I do a lot of local miles, there were some 'new to me' roads yesterday.

Likewise - shame there's not a downloaded route as I'll never remember all the 'new' roads it took!

Giraffoto

defride wrote:

Passed a load of families out riding this, loads of really young kids was nice to see though I'm not sure I'd be keen to have mine riding the Ford Rd with cars going past at 50.

Well done to all those who rode.

It wasn't too bad - a couple of sessions on the quiet residential roads to learn what a road is all about and the six-year-old was fine with it. He wants to do the 60k route next year!

SecretSam wrote:

Likewise - shame there's not a downloaded route as I'll never remember all the 'new' roads it took!

The routes are available online as ordinary maps with orange highlighter painted in - just copy it to a paper OS map, and either ride or drive around it with your GPS switched on: