Ride events/routes

Cycle4shay
Cycle4shay Posts: 15
edited July 2017 in Road beginners
Evening, signed up for the Ldn-Brighton in sept. Got a bug for it while training and wondered how I go about finding something similar to do before. Doesn't have to be for charity. Don't mind if it's friendly or serious. As long as being fat and slow isn't frowned upon. I'm in Hertfordshire and don't mind a little travel. Anything from 20-50 odd miles seems like good fun

Also....is there a place I can download/copy a Pre ridden route that's good for cyclists? Struggling finding places to ride as I don't really fancy lorrys and twats in bmw's smashing me into the Kurb

Comments

  • essexian
    essexian Posts: 187
    Hi

    Welcome to the world of cycling: I hope you enjoy it.

    I do think Google is your friend here: try entering the word: "Sportives" and several sites will appear which give details of rides in your area, for example, https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/sportives https://www.ukcyclingevents.co.uk/
    http://www.cyclosport.org/

    If you would prefer Charity Rides, then Bike Events run a number; as do individual charities such as BHF, Scope and loads of others.

    Lists of other rides can be found on the Audax UK website.

    More local rides? Well I can't help you there but your local cycling club will be able to. Again, Mr Google is your friend, as is the British Cycling website.

    Hope this helps and sorry if this comes over a bit grumpy.

    Enjoy.
  • Cycle4shay
    Cycle4shay Posts: 15
    Thanks for the reply, just asked on here as when I have previously you get a lot of opinion in the answer aswell which is always helpful. Iv just entered redbourne ride 2017 which is a sportive. Chose the 25m course to ease me in. Now I know what to google helps narrow it down. Actually found a few decent things locally.
  • dannbodge
    dannbodge Posts: 1,152
    There are routes available in Strava that are based on other people's GPS data
    So if you follow one of those, you know someone else has at least ridden it once before.
  • Bobbinogs
    Bobbinogs Posts: 4,841
    Just join a decent club, lot's out there. For less than £20 you can ride on nice routes for a whole year. There is nothing special about sportive routes, some are designed by people who don't even ride a bike.

    If you want to make something up yourself, just do it. RidewithGPS is good for routeplanning. Just open up a window with Google Streetmap and see what the roads are like. Doesn't take long to spot the dual carriageways or busy traffic routes, etc. Plan a route with a couple of cafes in case you need to stop...garage are good places for refilling water bottles.