can anyone give me a bit of an overview for Sunday’s Dartmoor Classic grande route? Mainly the toughest climbs and at what distance in they occur on the route, are some sections easier than others and if it’s correct that the last 20miles are pretty much downhill. anyt route info that I can use to help me plan my ride really.
10miles flat and fast to bovey tracey.
big climb up over hay tor, couple of steep sections in the beckaford climb, watch you don't get boxed in behind someone stalling and falling over.
straight back down again towards ashburton.
holne chase, steepest part of the course(1/4 ish for a short section), again, watch you don't get boxed in as lots of people stall and stop suddenly.
steady climb after that up onto holne moor and round the back of venford reservoir. undulating across to princetown. feed station at princetown at ~35 miles.
long drop from princetown to horrabridge. jordan lane out the back of horrabridge. long steady climb thats in the hedges and seems to go on forever.
across plasterdown and then drop into tavistock.~55 miles ish ride past my house. this is always my low point as i'm tempted to just stop.
short steepish climb out of tavistock and then long grinding climb out towards chillaton. fast drop into chillaton. long steady climb back up to lydford. water stop but no food.
downhill ish from lydford to harford bridge ~65 miles ish.
get your climbing legs on, uphill for the next 10 miles to princetown.
first is col du batterridge, short and steep through a rocky cutting. if your lucky there will be disco girls with water pistols at the top.
next is pork hill, not as steep but longer and no shade and sheltered from the wind so always cooking.always an ice cream van in the car park at the top.
quick drop into merrivale and then long grind up to the rundlestone. quick downhill run into princetown for another feed station at ~80 miles.
fast-ish run from princetown across to postbridge, get in a group if you can. short steel hill after postbridge and up to the warren house inn.
after the warren house inn, super fast rolllercoaster run down to moretonhampstead.
after moretonhampstead, last major hill is doccombe, again not steep but long and you can't see the top until your on it.
another long fast run down into the teign valley. best decent of the course.
turn right onto the teign valley and its a flat 10 miles into kingsteigton. being in a group makes a massive difference here.
then quick lap round the housing estates to get you to the finish.
have fun...
Jam bo covers it well....it's going to be a a scorcher, so make sure you pace yourself and take onboard lots of fluids. I'd recommend getting there early and getting away in the first or second wave. It'll be cooler that early in the day.
I'm not doing it this year, but last year was just as hot, and a lot of people were suffering. The last 10 miles or so are great fun, but the grind up to Princetown for the second time, and the bit bewteen P'town and M'hampstead are quite hard work, especially if you're not in a group.
It’ll be cooler that early in the day.
when i drove to work yesterday, it was 21deg at 7am at princetown...
although looks like you might get rain sunday morning.
thanks guys.
i'm driving up tomorrow night and sleeping in the van somewhere so fully intend to be at registration/sign in for 5am opening and straight to the 6am start queue... i hope!
The site is open for registration etc on the Saturday so you could probably get away with parking up on site.