What can I expect? Its the Cheddar Sportive, 160km but may bottle out and do the 100km on the day.
Is it going to be social or a full on, flies on the teeth, drafting style, sprint? eek..!
I've done a few 12 and 24 hrs races this year, so not too worried about the actual cycling, although I do find the continuous nature of road biking hard. ie no chatting at gates etc. oh and I'm doing on a cross bike with slicks, but it does the job.
Any thoughts, advice or random abuse welcome 🙂

Is it going to be social or a full on, flies on the teeth, drafting style, sprint? eek.

all of life will be there

good point, think I'll try not to go off too quickly and also pick a group with a manageable pace…oh and not imagine I'm one of the family Schleck…

It's not a race, just chill and enjoy it.

Only 100 miles. A 12 hour solo is way harder than 100 miles on a road bike, even in hills. If you're not in a hurry, just hang in behind a not too fast group and you'll get round in 6 or 7 hours without too much effort.

Joe

I like to hide in a fast bunch on a windy day and take it easy at the back. It's not cheating really, and it's where you find most banter 🙂

Sooner or later hills split the bunch and your out on your own.

Given the choice of two distances the moral victory goes to the longest option. Like I'll be reminding myself after 210km's at the Ullapool in a couple o'weeks 😐

My 100% foolproof guide to completeing a 100mile sportive……..

1) enter at the last minute, this is absolutely critical to success, foreward planning is your enemy.

2) enter under a psudonym, everyone will assume you are therefore pro.

3) go on a weeks training camp a couple of weeks before the ride, this is best done by selecting an ex who lives as close to some proper hills as possible. Enjoy copious ammounnts of guilt free sex and hopefully get a few miles done in the daylight hours.

4) get lost on the way to the ride, forget to re-set your oddometer, this way you will be convinced the ride is over 20 miles form the finnish, and you can sprint the last 20 in under an hour.

5) Swear profusely at the chain of roadies who wont leave your wheel for said last hour as they'r all dying.

6) as you arrived late you will have missed the last start time for the 100mile route, begging to be given the correct timing chip the steward will relent and say is only valid if you make it to the first feed station in under an hour and a half. Allow red mist to decent and get hammering!

7) Realise you've gone off way to quickly and take the middle tird easy. No ones watching anyway. This way you can tear the guys in pro-team kit a new proverbial in that last 20 mile sprint.

nice technique folks! I've done some sneaky riding with the road squadron of the LBS,so have a feel for lurking at the back out of the wind 😉 Think will potter away and then wind it up towards the end…although the longer option goes from the safety of the Somerset Levels and then launches itself up and down the Mendips. Bit of a sting in the tail that!

Yea sportive riders are split into two types.

Those who treat it as a team time trial.

Those who want to do 100miles (other distances are available) under their own steam.

But in general they don't seem too fit, like I said, I managed to catch the back of the faster/longer groups after starting 20 min behind, took the middle setction easy at their pace, then hammered the last 20 odd miles to the finnish.

There didn't seem to be much group riding (or etiquet) you just go at your own pace (theres hundreds of riders arroung you) and pick up a wheel as and when you fancy a break. Great for socialising, quite easy to have a conversation with 50-60 people on the way round.

I think you'll be fine – I've been riding on the road a year and entered the Wessex 100 last weekend as my first road event (the last mile is up Brass Knocker hill 😯 ), I started 30 mins down from the first starters but was one of the first to finish and I think I'm a fairly average mountain biker. I didn't manage to find any groups of similar pace so I just used them as targets to catch up to and stuck with them a mile or two before ploughing on.
I found 100 miles on the road was significantly easier than the 30 miles of the Brechfa Enduro.

By the way are you the Bruce that went on a night road ride with Hwe, John and myself last year and got a nightmare puncture going round Chew Lake? If so I'm a bit fitter now but you were much quicker than me (especially up Dundry) so you'll have no problem 🙂

Oh and there was some really expensive road kit on show that had absolutely no corulation to the ability of the rider 😉

Any thoughts, advice or random abuse welcome
1) have fun
2) there will be some fast folk, some slow folk, and some inbetween folk. Find a group your pace and enjoy working in a bunch
3) Don't call it darkside.

yea, very true that,

I was on my £300 cannondale R500/CAAD4 off ebay with soem £35 shimano R-550's (I'll admit both purchases were the bargains of the century). Next one I do I'm taking the old 12 speed 🙂

You get all sorts doing Sportives.

Proper roadies will swear they're only there "as a training ride". They will hammer it. There will be no mercy and not much banter.

Wannabe roadies will treat it as a race except with no concept of riding in a bunch, etiquette or gear choice. They can usually be spotted by the liberal amounts of expensive carbon on display but with riding skills that most 12 year olds would laugh at. Avoid at all costs.

The rest of the field will be made up of people who've not been on a bike in a while but fancied a challenge all the way through to folk for whom this is what cycling is – pay money to ride on roads without worrying about navigation or where to stop for food.. Some fast, some slow, most very pleasant and chatty.

My three thoughts are:

1/ Don't go off too hot, it's much better to realise you're 2/3s of the way round, behind schedule and feeling great than the other way around.

2/ If you find yourself riding in a group with the word "Triathlon" on their shirts, get away from them. It's just too frightening to ride with those guys.

3/ Don't just sit in groups without doing at least a bit of work.

BigDummy's advice is about all you need.

Agree with BigDummy's comments. I did my first two "proper" sportives this year and my advice would be:

1) Ride the bike a lot beforehand – if you want to just get round, get a few weeks in where your weekly total matches the distance of the ride, if you want to get a "time" you'll need more "training".

2) Use this time to get the bike set up right, get comfy shorts, experiment with chamois cream, try different energy gels/bars to see what upsets your stomach and learn to refuel whilst riding to keep your energy up.

3) Set off at a steady pace – the rides I did, loads of people tore past me in the first half of the ride, I began to catch a few of them up in the second half.

4) Ignore all the faster people – it's about enjoying and challenging yourself. Unless you are the fastest rider on the course and you set off first, at some point, you will be alongside people who will chat with you, and it will really help.

5) Think about sensible nutrition and riding the week before – back off to let your legs recover, eat a lot of carbs and drink a lot of water for 2-3 days before the ride – it will make a big difference on the day I found.

6) Study the route notes – if there is a feed station just before a big hill, put the food in your pockets, and not in your stomach. You will then be able to enjoy it at the top, not see it come back halfway up….

More top advice – ta muchly !

I think I'll treat like the Merida I did last year- Pleasant pootling start with some good chats, eat a muesli bar or gel at least every hour then gradually (try to) go quicker towards the end. Don't mind having a go on the front too.

I'll be interested to see if there is much group etiquette amongst strangers- the old hand signals do have their place.

cheers_drive- you've rumbled me! I still owe you and Hwe a tube each! very much hoping I don't have a puncture incident like that on Sunday(1 tube didn't fit, the next I ripped the valve off, the one after that had a puncture in it already….all attemptedly inflated up with a tiny pump. You could hear me swearing back in Bristol… Drop me an e-mail if you want to go for a spin sometime- the woods are dusty and dry at the moment! Yea!

crazy-legs – Member

Wannabe roadies will treat it as a race except with no concept of riding in a bunch, etiquette or gear choice. They can usually be spotted by the liberal amounts of expensive carbon on display but with riding skills that most 12 year olds would laugh at. Avoid at all costs.

😳

Bruce –

all attemptedly inflated up with a tiny pump

Since that evening I've always carry a CO2 canister as well as the mini pump 😉
I'd done one 100 mile ride and 2 100K rides before the Wessex 100 but it seamed much easier becaused of the signed route, distance markers and other people. As far as fuel is concerned: I used two bottles full of SIS GO, and bag of GO to refill plus a few cereal bars and a gel in case of emergencies.
I'm away a bit over the next few weeks but I'll drop you a mail if I'm out for a ride.

Good luck at the weekend

the aftermath….
no actually, it wasn't that bad, I live to tell the tale!
Hooked up with Rockfield and started at the front, as it was a staggered start, and then tried to pick up any of the faster groups that came past. Of which there were only 2, but blimey they were really flying.

It then degenerated into a full on road race for about 20km through the lanes of Somerset, with several desparate scrambles to close down breaks until we got dropped over a hill. No banter, just everyman for himself!

Then a more sensible pace with a slower group, which meant I could actually stop for more water and food, and stave off the oncoming cramp.

Finally, the last 5m were more on it again,with Rockfield zooming off Cavendish style towards at the finish, me trialing a few seconds behind…..result 18th out of 134 over 100km in just over 3 hrs 5mins.

Good fun if you like that sort of thing-I would it recommmend to anyone has every watched the TdF or similar and fancies a (very small)taste of what pack riding is all about….in a word, hard!

How must faster could I go if I got a proper road bike(not CX), shaved my legs and did some training 😉

BigDaddy – I agree with avioding the triathletes. At Windsor two people crashed head on going different ways round a round about.

Just have fun, don't fall off and sign up for another one.

wicked! sounds likey you enjoyed it anyway!
looking at a px ultegra carbon….

Bruce – Nice one, great result although of course it's not a race 🙂
You're still pretty rubbish though compared to those TDF riders posting in the mountain bikers with road bikes thread 😉

cheers, there are some hardcore athletes posing in baggies on here i tell you 🙂

Glad to hear it went OK! Coming out digging on Saturday was clearly all the training you needed. 🙂