• This topic has 51 replies, 22 voices, and was last updated 9 years ago by will.
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  • Sdw in a day – cx sportive
  • charliemort
    Full Member

    Thinking of having a crack at the “cx sportive” sdw in a day

    Will be on a Fargo . For the official “cx sportive” roll of honour max tyre size is 40mm, but generally I’d probably use 2.25 r Ralph’s

    What would it be like on 40 mm tyres – would my teeth all rattle out?

    aP
    Free Member

    It’ll be fine, I’ve done it on 28mm cross tyres back in the 90s. The worst bits are the shale/ gravel section later on. Oh, and the green chalk.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    40mm will be fine, that’s 1.6″, not that long ago 2.0″ MTB tyres were considdered big and for downhill only!

    Are you just turning up and riding it? I’m not wholy anti sportive, but the SDW is well signposted all year round and plenty of local shops to re-fuel at rather than pay £35.

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    wwaswas
    Full Member

    I got on the pre-register list for this and need to make a decision whether to ride it or not.

    It’s not the riding it that’s the problem for me – it’s getting to the start line.

    I’ve never done it but I think putting some 40mm wtb nano’s on my rigid ti 29er should be ok as long as I remember to hold back a bit on the descents.

    charliemort
    Full Member

    I kind if agree with you mr notaspoon

    I did it a couple of years back over a day and half or so leaving Winchester around midday. Does seem a bit daft to pay for the privilege, but there’s something about entering that a) makes me train a bit and b) bit of camaraderie I suppose

    Anonymous
    Free Member

    Check online to see it doesn’t clash with any walking, running etc events. Best bit of advice I ever had.

    Pros – company, motivation to train for a specific day etc

    Cons – locked into a date irrespective of weather/trail conditions.

    For me the con outweighs the pro plus I don’t think you get help with travel back to the start? Personally I’d not want to do it on narrow tyres – 2.25s weren’t exactly an armchair.

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    For me the con outweighs the pro plus

    Nothing outweighs pro plus for enduance events!

    singletracksurfer
    Full Member

    It’s not that well signposted (throughout the year) tbh so you have to slow down, look around or stop to check the signs and it’s bloody annoying making a wrong turn and dropping all the way down a hill you didn’t need to and having to climb back up when you’ve got a whole load more of them to do in 1 day 😳

    I’d personally want to do it with bigger tougher tyres due to the tyre splitting qualities of the trail and its fairly rough so you have to rein it in a bit on the downhills.

    ollybus
    Free Member

    BHF do a one-dayer for Mountain bikes. There are sections of the SDW which would be a dream on a cx, but i’d favour the pleasure of at least a front sus fork and some decent tyres.
    Seem to remember the CX sportive event requires drop bars, rigid forks and narrow tyres to be considered for the ‘roll of honour’

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    requires drop bars, rigid forks and narrow tyres to be considered for the ‘roll of honour’

    No suspension.
    40mm / 1.5 inch tyres maximum.
    Drop bars preferred; flat bars tolerated. No riser bars.

    I was hoping my rigid flat bar 29er with thin tyres and would qualify.

    ollybus
    Free Member

    wwaswas, you’ll probably be alright with flats, but my risers, chunky 2.2’s and sus fork probably wont!

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    flip them over so they become ‘lowers’?

    trailbreak-martin
    Free Member

    Hi – Happy to answer any questions here, as one of the organisers.

    No suspension.
    40mm / 1.5 inch tyres maximum.
    Drop bars preferred; flat bars tolerated. No riser bars.

    I was hoping my rigid flat bar 29er with thin tyres and would qualify.

    It would. As long as it meets those criteria, you’re good to go.

    trailbreak-martin
    Free Member

    flip them over so they become ‘lowers’?

    Do you know, I hadn’t thought of that! Pretty sure we’d have to allow that! 😉

    senorj
    Full Member

    I really fancied this ,sadly, doubt I’ll be fit enough. 🙁

    trailbreak-martin
    Free Member

    senor j – if fitness is the issue, we run a two day SDW trip via our MTB site in September. This will be it’s 20th year, and the last time we run it too. If you fancy doing the Way over a weekend with loads of support options, meals included and an overnight stop at the Truleigh Hill YHA, give it a look.

    senorj
    Full Member

    Cheers Martin.

    thomthumb
    Free Member

    The worst bits are the shale/ gravel section later on. Oh, and the green chalk.

    never ridden it on a cross bike but riding it on a rigid mtb, i found the worst bits the chalk that is churned up but baked hard.

    it’s as hard as concrete, the smooth bits are super quick but the rough bits are hell.

    nedrapier
    Full Member

    Last time I rode parts over in the west it was perfectly smooth, baked hard. Wonderful.

    Time before that, it was dry and hard, but with baked in hoof-prints. Awful!

    Some of the “smoother” road type sections aren’t really that smooth – flint cobbles and stones set into the chalk. It’s pretty fatiguing over 100 miles.

    Given I can get 2.1s in my cross type bike, I wouldn’t be rushing to ride with anything narrower!

    Do the “roll of honour” rules say anything about flexstems and thudbusters? 🙂

    MostlyBalanced
    Free Member

    I rode some of the SDW east of Brighton on my CX last summer when it was bone dry. After one long downhill I had to call into a cafe to wash the copious amounts of blood off my left hand where my watch had worn through the skin on my wrist.

    trailbreak-martin
    Free Member

    Do the “roll of honour” rules say anything about flexstems and thudbusters?

    Pretty sure that’d come under ‘suspension’. Do flexsems count as suspension? Or just an annoyance?

    OK, honest question, I’d be interested to know:

    The reason we’ve set these criteria is to keep it as a distinct challenge, not just a CX event in name that gets dominated by mountain bikes, which I’ve seen happen to other events. There have been MTB events on the SDW for years (we’ve been doing our own for 20), but I don’t know of another CX one like this. The fact that riding it on CX bike sounds a little bit insane is, we hope, part of the appeal. We wouldn’t be into this whole off road biking thing if we didn’t like a little bit of stupid every now and then, would we?

    So to get to the question – how important is it to you to meet those CX criteria if you plan to take part in the event? We have stated that we’ll let anyone ride on any bike. The only difference would be getting a finishers medal and your name published on the main list on the website. We’re getting a lot of questions and feedback about this (it seems to have sparked a conversation at least!) so I’m interested to hear what everyone thinks.

    howarthp
    Full Member

    could you post the link to the event?

    Thanks

    charliemort
    Full Member

    Google cx sportive

    I’m happy with the drop bar rigid thing – I did it on a Fargo and thought it was perfect – but I had 2.25 tyres on!

    So not sure I see the need for the 40 mm tyre limit

    I’m having a bash at the reading event on Sunday on 40mm tyres – but about half of that is on road. Will give me an idea though !

    charliemort
    Full Member

    Oh and ditto the signposting – I went wrong a few times when I did it – not least finding right route out of Winchester!!

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    I’ve done it 7 times since November and all on my CX’er and 32mm Griffos, except one of them when I stuck my 32mm Limus on.

    The Fargo will be a great choice, most of the ride is flowing, some steep bumpy bits but on the whole it drains quite well and by the time the Sportive comes around it’ll be dry no doubt.

    Your teeth will not fall out, if they start rattling let some psi out of your tyres.

    I too will fight for a decent start, being behind and getting stuck on the “Off” will be no fun what so ever.

    Enjoy it, see you there.

    8)

    zippykona
    Full Member

    Would the CX nazis let you do it on this?

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    Would the CX nazis

    possibly but the style police might not.

    I think the thing is that the event is organised for peopel who want to do the ride in a cx-style.

    It’s a public bridleway so you can do it how you want and when you want but for this event it’s not in the spirit.

    It’s like going to a wine tasting at an off licence and demanding that they let you try the lager?

    nedrapier
    Full Member

    bikebouy, you’ve ridden the 101 miles 7 times since nov? 😯 Impressive!

    trailbreak-martin
    Free Member

    @charliemort – We see this new form of CX (as opposed to traditional cyclocross) as an evolving thing, same with the bikes that are being made for it. So we’ll be open to tweaking the ‘rules’ as it develops. We do want it to be of it’s own identity though; an event for this newly developing side of the sport. The thinking behind 40mm was that that’s about 1.5in, which is about what I probably had on the MTB I first rode the SDW on, so that seemed like a good starting point. Totally agree that we need to be open minded about how we define the bikes in the future.

    I know what you mean about the signing; the SDW way is easy to follow, except in a few key places, where it’s easy to go completely the wrong way. We don’t skimp on marking the route. We take a belt and braces approach to that.

    I’ll be on the finish on Sunday, so say hi. You’ll enjoy the Woodcote route on the narrower tyres. It’s actually a really good route for the more pure crossers.

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    Yup, I’ve been very lucky and had the time to do it. Also I’m in training and it’s a great place to use as timed sections. No plans to do a double but I do want a crack at the “one way” later this year.

    8)

    trailbreak-martin
    Free Member

    It’s like going to a wine tasting at an off licence and demanding that they let you try the lager?

    😉

    charliemort
    Full Member

    so no fat bikes then?

    matts
    Free Member

    No, but on a Wiggle sportive, there’ll be plenty of fat blokes.

    alansd1980
    Full Member

    Just got my first CX bike so this sounds perfect. Will see if I can drum up some others!

    trailbreak-martin
    Free Member

    Thanks Alan! Make sure you get a lot of miles in on that new CX in preparation – CX Century is going to be hell of a big undertaking, so you want to go in ready. We have a few of our other CX Sportives between now and then if you want some build up events to prepare on:

    Home

    aP
    Free Member

    I might ride my CX bike on Sunday at Woodcote as its currently having new chainrings/ chain/ cassette/ jockey wheels/ cables today. Otherwise it’ll be the rigid 29er. We did the first one, and it was pretty cold at the start…

    Jason
    Free Member

    Martin, are you still sending out GPX of the routes before hand? I have only just got around to entering Sunday’s event and wasn’t sure if I had left it too late to get the route for my Garmin?

    Looking forward to it. I think I did it the first year you ran it and it was a good mix of terrain. On my newish CX bike this year.

    trailbreak-martin
    Free Member

    Hi Jason. Yes, most people got them earlier in the week, but there will be a final send of the information sheet after 4pm today, when online entries close. There is a download link for GPS in that.

    bikebouy
    Free Member

    ^^ Ohh good call, forgot about the Wildwood CX event was this weekend.. 😳

    Cheers.

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