The Black Rat Bristol

Yep, that was pretty poor tbh, as said above the times will be completely meaningless as I think we all did a different route.

I managed to negotiate some sort of route similar to the real one. When I checked my Garmin upload against their's, I did go off course a couple of times and doubled back a couple of times and somehow came up with 102 miles and 8400 feet of climbing - 1 mile less but 400 feet more climbing - in 5 hours 59 minutes.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/87469085

I know, I know, I should have uploaded the route to my Garmin to follow but my 305 doesn't seem to like the files - do they even work on an old 305?

The wind was pretty rough but not in the same league as the storm force gale which almost wrecked the Exmoor Beast in 2009.

I also rode the North Devon event which was great and I will ride again but I won't do this one again in a hurry.

I didn't get the email, what did it say?

vs wrote:

I didn't get the email, what did it say?

Here goes , see below . . .

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Well that was a day to remember!

Firstly we would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who took part in yesterday’s event and despite some problems and very testing conditions, did so for the most part with good humour and no small amount of determination. You helped make it a success, so well done!

Now we must make a couple of apologies. Despite spending 8 hours on Saturday putting out signage, we were unprepared for a storm of the ferocity that occurred on Saturday night, which ripped most of the signs down. We got a team of people out on the course early yesterday to put new signs in their place but the wind was so strong that even these were being torn down, resulting in some people missing turnings and going in the wrong direction. If you were affected, please accept our sincere apologies. It is a harsh lesson learned – but learn it we will!

We also apologise for the idiot in the red van who decided it would be fun to remove signs around the Chew Valley area (as if things weren’t difficult enough for everyone). When confronted by some riders he apparently drove his van at them, so if anyone managed to get his registration number, please forward it to us and we will inform the Police.

We would like to thank the team of helpers who worked tirelessly yesterday; helping riders and us to keep things moving. Special thanks should go to Anders of Chaos Cycles, who was fantastic again this year. He helped repair numerous punctures, gear problems, a shredded tyre and even lent his own bike to someone when theirs was beyond immediate repair. If you are in Bristol his shop is in St Nicholas Market, so please pay him a visit. Our feed station staff were also brilliant, standing around in the cold wind for hours, yet still able to smile and make riders feel welcome.

Classic Catering Company were very impressive, with some delicious food on offer at very reasonable prices. If you are holding an event you can see what they have to offer at www.classiccateringgroup.co.uk

The photographs from yesterday will be online later today. You might see one of yourself leaning over at 45 degrees whilst riding along! Please visit www.sportivephoto.com

The timings for everyone should also be online later today at www.stuweb.co.uk As 100 mile riders will know, the timing mat at the top of the Blagdon climb was flapping around like a flag in the wind yesterday and the timing guys have asked whether we could confirm to them the riders who completed the 100 mile ride so that they can collate results properly. We know that a lot of riders who entered the 100 mile ride decided to change to the 100km ride after experiencing the conditions early on, so if riders who did complete the 100 mile ride could drop us a line to confirm that they did the 100 mile ride, we would be very grateful.

Thanks again for taking part, we hope that your memories of the day will be good.

The Black Rat Team

Well the times are up. Just a list of people and times with no mention of which route they did - however most probably did neither route to be fair.

Not that it really matters but a bit annoying that after 6 hours of slog in that wind I'm down for a time of 6.42 when clearly (as posted earlier) my Garmin shows I was just under 6 hours for 102 miles.

Just about sums it up for me - one to forget in a hurry!

I hate to criticiise and do appreciate the organisers have recognised that things were not up to scratch but sorry to say that I have to agree with what others have said, and I too had really enjoyed last year's North Devon version.

I am local so the constant stopping, backtracking and conferriing with others was merely irritating more than anything else. But I spoke to 2 poor riders who were from another part of the UK - completely lost and flummoxed because they had no bearings and had it seemed not got anywhere near Cheddar despite being vaguely heading back towards Bristol..

From speaking to others at the finish I reckon that there would have been an almost infinite number of permutations of routes actually ridden so the timings are completely meaningless.

Felt more like an Audax really - but one where my route sheet had sailed away with the first gust of that wind!!! (I'll leave to others to point out any differences between Sportives and Audax)

think the wind was stronger than on Exmoor 2009,

No where near - remember they actually delayed the start for an hour and cancelled the 100 mile ride on Exmoor that day - there was never a thought that this event wouldn't happen. It was a strong breeze in comparison to a storm.

I was blown off my bike twice on the top of the moor on Exmoor and saw many others also come off - that was never going to occur yesterday.

I do think that given the fees paid there could have been some marshals and better signage.

It was my first sportive, but being very local managed to complete what I believe the route to have been for the 100km. My final distance was 64.4miles. My only issue on the route was the route from Nailsea to the finish which I ended up having to make assumptions about.

Clearly the lessons about the quality of signage have been identified and learnt by the organisers. Despite the windy conditions and route marking issues I was pleasantly surprised by the event and would do it again. I guess being local has allowed me to overlook what must have been very frustrating for those not familiar with the area.

The one observation I would make is that having recognised the need for two diversions it would have been useful to update the online route info and mapping. I am not a fan of SATNAV traces as it leads to blindly following a trace but in this case an updated trace or at least an updated online map would have allowed those bothered to read it chance to understand the changes and if necessary relate on the road to other riders.

Timing - I will leave to those who care/know much more about. My 'official' time was within 2 minutes of my personally tracked time although the official time added the 2 mins pushing me over the 4hr mark.

For what its worth I really enjoyed the Black Rat. Yes the organisers fell victim to the harsh weather conditions blowing signs away ! The signage let the event down cos there were a lot of good points that have been over shadowed :?

I got luck in 3 junctions but managed to complete the full route and my timing actually matched my Garmin, not that mattered

Being a new area for me to ride in I found the route interesting