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Chuffed to be in the top 50.
You came top 50 in an event that wasn't a race and everybody completed a different distance. You must be over the moon!
you know what I mean djg - I wasn't hours behind the first finishers, I didn't creep over the line at midnight etc. And yeah it's not a race, but no one tries going as slow as possible.
Schoner, thought I was dreaming when I saw the STW sign. Real nice touch! You may have seen a 29er complete with knobbly tires, Twas I!
I know, I did my first sportive 2 weeks ago and understand the competetive element all too well! But in this case its kind of ruined by the fact that you don't know if the fastest finishers did 80 or 100 miles.
Fortunately there are things called 'races'.Unfortunately you can't take off 15 minutes for a food break or 5 minutes for getting held up or 5 minutes waiting at the traffic lights.
Competitive sportivers boil my piss 😉
Fortunately there are things called 'races'.Unfortunately you can't take off 15 minutes for a food break or 5 minutes for getting held up or 5 minutes waiting at the traffic lights.
Yeah, but how many of these so called 'races' involve 100 mile circuits in amongst great scenery, over big/famous hills etc etc. Is there a 100 mile race over the Bealach na Ba and round the Sheildaig peninsula? Or starting and finishing at the Cairngorm Ski Centre with a 100 mile circuit through the cairngorm hills? Or perhaps a 65 mile circuit of the famous Inverpollaidh hills? Not that I've seen.
Some of us like to be competitive but not in the context of sitting in a tight bunch worrying about 100 different types of ettiquette while racing round a contrived 50 mile circuit in the city outskirts...
Schoner, thought I was dreaming when I saw the STW sign. Real nice touch! You may have seen a 29er complete with knobbly tires, Twas I!
Daisy - saw you on the road, thought you were mad until I saw some of the descents. A nice hydraulic brake and wider tyres would have been handy. My hands hurt at the end.
It’s the same event Daisy, you just need to take a few deep breaths.
The locals quite frankly where magic! One guy went to the trouble of dressing up in full dragon gear and chase after us tour de france style for goodness sake!!!
The bewildered lady driving down the Garth was a first warning sign that all might not be going to plan! “gosh, there are an awful lot of bikes out today! Ummmm”. It’s an October Sportif and much as I would have liked to gun it and come in with a knock out time, this was obviously not going to be the day for it.
Desipite the big problems a thank you is still in order to all involved! If these events are to catch on we’d better stick together and if you really think it’s that easy, why not volunteer to help with the next one? How about a spot of marshaling duty? There was a guy still marshaling riders home at the final corner at 5pm, still clapping! We all owe these guys a thank you!
The gilet? Would you really not have done the event if there was no gilet on offer? The Etape Caledonia gave us a few leaflets and a small packet of bird food this year just in case you where thinking of doing it!
Just out of curiosity did anyone come a cropper on the cattle grid with the broken bar? A cattle grid inspection seems like a good idea next time around.
Sounds like a disappointing day 🙁
Re: the organisation. Did it change organiser quite late on? I thought it was linked to the Etape Caledonia and Hibernia (and now Penines too) but it doesn't seem to be mentioned on their website? In terms of route, marshalling and road closure the Caledonia and Hibernia have been really goo - i dont think it would be possible to take a wrong turn on either. (there was of course the tack issue but i cant really blame them for that)
Re: the organisation. Did it change organiser quite late on? I thought it was linked to the Etape Caledonia and Hibernia (and now Penines too) but it doesn't seem to be mentioned on their website?
It was never linked to Etape Caledonia/Hibernia, that's organised by IMG. Etape Cymru was organised by a group called K-Extreme. The word Etape just means "stage", there's no copyright or trademark associated with it so anyone can use it for any Sportive title if they want.
^ However. It is pretty clear that they were attempting to gain publicity by association with the IMG events.
Their website lists no new events,they also states 2 councils a bus comapny and various other companies are supporting the Etape,and possibly none of them rode the route before hand and saw any pitfals, regarding closed roads and locals needing to go out, or visit family or freinds, then you have the visitors who like to spend an afternoon at worlds end or the panorama, or even at the Ponderossa,horseshoe pass.
The thing is with a real cycle race, like the tour of britain, ot the Tour Series, you have a dedicated motorcycle escort,Police out riders, limited numbers of riders, not 1600 riders of mixed ability as where on the Etape, and a huge circuitous course using small single track lanes,alongwith disgruntled locals.
They're already asking for registrations for next years event! Cheeky beggars.
Nice chaps on Bikeradar have stated that you have to register before the end of November to take advantage of 25% discount.
Due to the distance I had to travel to get there, as well as having to register on the saturday, I travelled up late on Friday, and only returned home today.
I put a lot of time and effort into training for this, but in the last few weeks I started to have some doubts, which were confirmed in the couple of days before the race.
The email re no gilets, was only sent about 36 hours before the race, when they must have known by then that they weren't going to be available. Also, I can't remember being asked what size Gilet I'd need, although as it would have been a while ago I might have simply forgotten. I also had an email the day before about the parking at the start; that sort of stuff should have been sorted months before,and any problems made clear then.
I'm a Police officer by profession, and I've done the Etape Du Tour a few times, as well as a few other sportives in this country, and I always like to know what I'm in for as best as I can, so after registering on Saturday, I went with my wife to have a look at some of the route.
To put it simply, we both felt it was unsafe with the amount of riders that were going to be using it; the roads I saw were too narrow, some of them were no more than farm tracks, and I could also see major problems in keeping cars off the course as there were too many junctions to close off, and the road closures weren't all day either, which was a recipe for disaster.
Any road closure points need to be manned by someone, a lot of people ignore the signs put out,and the person stood there also needs to be firm enough to tell people that they can't go through.
After seeing all that I saw on the Saturday, my wife was basically scared for my safety, I was in agreement with her, and on Sunday I had a lie in and had a look around Chester for the day, which on reflection was a good choice by all accounts.
As for 2012, I don't think I'll be signing up again, even with a 25% discount!
No free potatoes I'm afraid, it actually said "+potato to all STW forumites" (couldn't think of anything wittier sorry). 'fraid I missed you daisy, all the bikes became a blur after a while 🙂
Have to say it is a shame for Wales and the area.
Relax, Wales doesn't mind in the least.
It's a lot bigger than Denbighshire and, while the roads they chose are certainly scenic, this is not the only part of Wales where people can enjoy riding a bicycle in beautiful scenery.
No promised gilet, empty feed stops, poor signage, parking and timing issues... You'll pay a lot less than £65 for an audax and the organisers always choose interesting routes. So why the big lurve for sportives and disdain for audaxes?
Alternatively, why not have a few days there and ride a variety of routes? I promise you there's no shortage of possibilities.
Sorry to bring this back from the dead however I've just found out that one of the directors of K-Extreme, the company that 'organised' the Etape Cymru, is Mike Turner. He used to be a director of Wrexham FC and CEO of Crusaders RFL. See how highly regarded he is by Cru fans [url= http://www.redpassion.co.uk/forums/crusaders-rugby/79721-mike-turner.html ]here[/url]. Wrexham fans hold him on a much lower pedestal, the words piss up and brewery come to mind.