I thought the event worked pretty well. The off road sections were generally good – I guess being able to include lots of road miles meant they could cherry pick the better off road section. With a normal off-road ‘sportive’ you inevitably end up with some fairly tedious off road bits, put in to minimise the road riding.
I got one puncture. It happened after the 2nd proper downhill bridleway, a snakebite, but strangely it didn’t go down until I finished the descent and had been on the road for 100m or so?? Looked to be lots and lots of punctures, on every descent there were generally several people mending flats. Saw a few bikes being carried back to the start too.
I went around on a single speed CX bike, which was a bit spinney on the downhill road bits (especially the first 5 miles) but was ok on the climbs and off road. Although one of the road climbs near the end did seem to go on and on and on. A geared CX bike would have been better/easier.