i see that entries open tomorrow, i've never done a sportive, i've hardly ridden a bike at all for 3 or 4 years (took up running), although i've done long hours in the saddle mtb rides/3 peaks cross etc i've never even come close to 100miles. i've read some reviews and they say its painful and hard.
but i'm tempted to whack an entry in to see what its all about, and as i'm in ride london a month later.
I've done the long route twice and the shorter route 3 times now.
The short route is harder than the ride London.
The long route is a bastard.
I did the Kielder 100 a couple of times and it definitely needed decent preparation to ride 100 mile off road. I completed a reasonable number of road miles to get the base (not excessive though). I'd sign up for the shorter distance - you will probably enjoy it a bit more.
I'd sign up for the shorter distance - you will probably enjoy it a bit more.
thats not a bad idea, thanks, i'll give it some thought. i'd certainly feel less pressure knowing its only 67miles. kicking myself i did'nt consider that option now.
Meh, a single day road century isn't that hard, if you can train to ride 60mi you can get through the last 40mi on guts should you need to.
You can sign up for the longer one and drop to the shorter distance on the day. Doesn't cost anymore
At the first feed station at princetown you can turn left back towards the finish for the short route or turn right for an extra 40mile loop down into tavi, out round the back of Brentor and then an monster 10 miles of climbing to get back to princetown for another round at the feed station and the same route as the short one back to the finish.
Meh, a single day road century isn't that hard, if you can train to ride 60mi you can get through the last 40mi on guts should you need to.
It is with 10,000ft of climbing in it...
Not really, hills are overrated.
So are trolls.
A rather fine video of the 2016 Dartmoor Classic
Lol, not trolling, you just sit there and turn the pedals and get to the top. If you've got proper gearing its not even any harder than the flat, you just go slower.
To be fair any hill can be hard if you are knackered - even flat can be hard if you are all out - which can happen within 100 miles if you are not used to it or otherwise physiologically unsuited.
I did not realise that it was on the road. Will be easier than off road as you can get in a group and share the work. I trained for the K100 off roads by doing 100's on the road. On road 100's are much more feasible - I got up to speed quite quickly riding with a club.
Still nothing wrong with the shorter distance this year as a stepping stone to 100 the next.
all the hills round me (west cornwall) are short and steep, there is no flat, you are either up or down. i actually quite enjoy climbing hills, its one of my riding philosophies that a good hill is a challenge to be enjoyed, don't let the hill win and all that. the prob i found when i went and did things like exmoor explorer was that i was'nt at all used to climbing for so long.
Looks a great event and I love that video. Shows (been edited to show?) the best the sport can offer - a great event raising money for good causes and run by very organised and committed volunteers giving back to the sport and community.
If Carlsberg organised mass participation sporting events....
yep, great video, hadnt seen that. makes me want to pick up the challenge of the 100 ride now though!
yes I've done it, it's tough, but it's supposed to be tough, doing it quickly is tougher.
crack on OP, it'll give you a goal to work towards, it's a great ride, on a great route with lovely scenery, most of the others doing it will be pleasant and friendly and you'll feel good at the end, well, maybe a few hours after the end 😉
I entered the 100-mile a couple of years ago and found it hard going, ended up chickening out and doing the 70. I wasn't in the greatest shape, it has to be said but I'd racked up over 1000m climb in the first 50k IIRC.
As I remember it, you're either going uphill or downhill, not much chance to recover between climbs. I've done the Fred Whitton twice, and I found the Dartmoor ride harder because of this (let's just say I don't exactly have a racer's build
I'll be retired by the time of the event, so no excuse to not do for me. 😕
I found the Fred Whitton harder than the classic but they are pretty close.
Entries are open and going fast. Probably be sold out by the end of the day.
I'm not doing it this year. Wife and her friend have decided they want to do it so me and junior will be standing by the side of the road with a cowbell at various parts of the moor.
I'm not doing it this year. Wife and her friend have decided they want to do it so me and junior will be standing by the side of the road with a cowbell at various parts of the moor.
I'm in on a priority entrance from last year. Will try and use the hills of North Devon as proxy training.
Jambo - trying to get Knottie to enter so we'll look out for you and the young 'un.
Lol, not trolling, you just sit there and turn the pedals and get to the top. If you've got proper gearing its not even any harder than the flat, you just go slower.
so what gearing would you put on a road bike that would allow you to easily spin up 15-20% climbs ? I'd love to know what I've been doing wrong for 50yrs 😀
20%+ is always going to be hard without slapping on mtb gearing, however looking at the elevation profile of the course it looks to be mostly longer shallower climbs than repeated steep stuff.
I'd be happy with 34/32 to make 15% fairly comfortable.
There is plenty of steep stuff hiding in those nice shallow hills of dartmoor.
There is plenty of steep stuff hiding in those nice shallow hills of dartmoor.
+1 😯
Well I got my entry kit, but thought they were asking what size coffee I wanted upon arrival so I said grande. ; ) same price as media like jam bo posted so listening to the advice agreed I could always miss the extra loop if needed.
I googled gearing for it last night, I was thinking keeping my regular 52 and popping a 36 on, keeping 12-27 on rear, but saw a few folk saying 50/34 11-28. But I can worry about all that next year, for now i need to spend the winter rekindling my love of cycling with lots of slow and steady on quiet back lanes.
I've done the long route a couple of times, not for a few years though. It's tough, on a very hot day last time out that last drag back up to Princetown nearly finished me off! It's also the route where I've hit my top speed record. I found it harder than the Dragon Ride, with more shorter but steeper climbs- you can't just sit and spin your way round.
Good day out, I'm sure you'll enjoy it!
Steep stuff
Oh yes, not helped by Mrs M powering through us with a "faster rider coming through" that properly ruined us.
She was on her ebike at the time.
Signed up for the 100 as I'm co-incidentally down that way with work
Might see you gav - re gearing - I got a 50-34 compact with 28 on the back this year. It was a great deal and I thought I would change the compact to more 'manly gearing'. Funny thing is I've loved it. Perfect for this sort of event I would have thought. Otherwise just stick a 27 cassette on the back of what you have now.
Wouldn't be my choice for a first 100 miler, proper lumpy. Good luck if you do though.
Having watched the video , I clicked on Grande as well.
Done lots of 100's but none as hilly.. Usually around 6 1/2 - 7hrs all in , so will be interesting to see how long this takes.
Will be running a compact either way . Hed better not clash with 24/12 as Im s'posed to be doing that next year as well
Entered the 100. A nice trip home for me. Rather like the hills myself. It is never flat. Will be on semi-compact 52/36 with a 28 on the back. Bike and rider are 75 kilos all up and I've ridden those hills on bigger gears.
[img] 
?oh=866be752ce532f26b6f79098bccfcfe3&oe=5899B2DD[/img]
Wouldn't be my choice for a first 100 miler,
you are probably right, but after doing the 3 peaks on a cross bike that i later found out was heaps to big for me, wearing mtb clothing, weighing 5 stone more than now, its all relative and 10 years on i'm shed loads fitter and more clued up how to prepare.
but i also do listen to advice, so maybe this as a 60 mile warm up then...
http://www.edenproject.com/visit/whats-on/eden-classic-sportive-cycling-event
And it's 106 miles...
The hardest bit I find about the long one is riding past my front door at about 60 miles in.
The last 17 are pretty much downhill.
It was the one and only one of those rides I've ever done. Agreed to do it while a bit drunk with my bro who is a proper roadie. Didn't do much training as I don't like road riding but was fit from MTB. Not sure that helped! Really suffered last 30 miles. Got it done but everything hurt. For days afterwards. Riding flats on an MTB, just being clipped in for that long ruined me.
Lovely scenery tho. And fab organisation. We had a great day for it weather wise as well. When I recovered enough to operate a computer, I sold my road bike 🙂
YMMW etc 😉
Cheers for the heads up Op, always sold out before when I have tried to get a place. Just entered the 100, 16places left and 4 left for the 67miler so be quick if your considering it
one place left as of 30 secs ago!
Thanks for the reminder, I always come to sign up and it's full. Got in last night with 17 places left!
Now to start doing some road miles!
I couldn't even get on the website Saturday morning, when I entered on Saturday evening there were about 500 places left.
Just took the second-to-last place 🙂
Blimey, just downloaded the gpx file of the Grande course, and put it into Bikehike......10,730ft of climbing 😆 That's a fair old whack!
Just had a look at the 'medal' times. As I'm a Vet now, under 6:45 is the gold medal cutoff. So about a 16mph average. Sounds do-able!
I did the ride last year and it was great. Was my first 100 mile ride and so I took it very steady but it was ok. I've signed up again for next year and hope to complete the ride a bit quicker!
Suprised no one has mentioned the quality of the feed stations yet. Amazing. I probably ate £40 worth of decent food. Pie, cakes, drinks, energy bars etc made it worth cycling up to Princetown for (twice!)
As has been mentioned. The last bit is mostly all downhill, but worth keeping a bit in the tank so that you can really smash that decent and enjoy it!
Also worth noting that it's now sold out. I applied to go on the waiting list yesterday morning, but then got an email within the hour to say that a space had become available so all is not lost!
Lol, not trolling, you just sit there and turn the pedals and get to the top. If you've got proper gearing its not even any harder than the flat, you just go slower.
I fitted some lower gears for La Marmotte but still found it quite tough. When I say "quite tough" I mean "hardest day I've ever had on the bike". Obviously I need to MTFU.
None of the climbs are brutally steep...there are just lots of them. I rode it with a 34-28 bottom gear last year and that was sufficient for me. As with all these events there will be lots of people riding a lot slower and also a lot of people who are moving a lot faster than you!
I fitted some lower gears for La Marmotte but still found it quite tough. When I say "quite tough" I mean "hardest day I've ever had on the bike". Obviously I need to MTFU.
Well clearly 5000m climbing is a lot by anyone's standard, but those really are the definition of long steady climbs - if you've got the correct gearing to do so, there's no reason you cant climb them at bottom of zone3, then it just becomes about having the endurance to sit and pedal for ~10hrs.
What makes it hard is pushing for a gold standard and/or adverse (both hot and cold) weather conditions.
Well clearly 5000m climbing is a lot by anyone's standard, but those really are the definition of long steady climbs - if you've got the correct gearing to do so, there's no reason you cant climb them at bottom of zone3, then it just becomes about having the endurance to sit and pedal for ~10hrs.
If I'd done those climbs "at the bottom of zone 3" I'd still be there now!
None of the climbs are brutally steep
The climb out of Dartmeet is 20-25%, Tell me what passes for Brutally steep? It's not that long, though.
I recommend not taking a cake stop at Badger's Holt. You might see it again as you head up the hill! 😆
You don't do dartmeet on the classic though.
Holne chase and batteridge Hill are the two steep ones
As in?
https://www.strava.com/segments/1489902
https://www.strava.com/segments/11953804
If those are the steep ones its hardly worth fitting a low gear as it amounts to ~1mile of steepish incorporating ~0.2mi of proper steep.
It's getting boring now. When you come and do it let us know how awesome you were.
[url= https://www.strava.com/activities/621447388 ]Dartmoor Classic Grande[/url]
This was my Strava for the ride last year. I basically rode it solo after the first visit to Princetown as my buddy decided to drop to the Medio. There was nothing in there which I recall now as being too bad. (although my memory is somewhat efficient at glazing over the finer details if they were too unpleasant!)
I do agree that most of the climbs are long and medium in gradient and can be spun up with the right gearing. I was just under 9 hours on my first attempt with a few cramp problems and some leisurely food stops also doing it solo.
Last year I was about an hour quicker due to riding with a buddie being fitter and really pushing on a full gas for the last 3rd from Princetown back to the end.
I have entered again this year and would dearly love to try for a silver time which I think for my age group is 7:20 which is going to involve a good bit more speed and very fast food stops. We will see how the training goes.
I personally find the typical dartmoor classic climbs much easier than the short steep climbs that can really take it out of my legs and it is an exercise in eating and drinking enough. As well as enough training rides to be comfortable on the bike for that length of time.
You don't do Dartmeet on the classic though.
Ah missed that. Just looked at the large scale no roads map! Pity 🙁
I have entered again this year and would dearly love to try for a silver time which I think for my age group is 7:20 which is going to involve a good bit more speed and very fast food stops. We will see how the training goes.
I find that as you get quicker, it becomes a virtuous cycle in that you don't feel the need to stop as much, maybe because you spend less time in the saddle. I did a single 5 minute stop for Ride London, and kept a supply of food in a top tube bag for eating on the move.
It's getting boring now. When you come and do it let us know how awesome you were.
It's not about me being awesome - i'm not really even particularly fit.
Loads of people get themselves into a flap about climbs like they are something special, and the reality is often its no different to riding into a moderate headwind.
I think a lot of people (certainly a lot I've ridden with) tend to try to attack every single climb they come across, and then of course they are hard, but the vast majority of the time there's really no need, just sit and pedal.
There was nothing in there which I recall now as being too bad.
I personally find the typical dartmoor classic climbs much easier than the short steep climbs that can really take it out of my legs and it is an exercise in eating and drinking enough. As well as enough training rides to be comfortable on the bike for that length of time.
These guys seem to agree.