Dragon Ride – Anyone done it?

Hey y’all,

My chum has signed up to the Dragon Ride in 2025, doing the Gran Fondo route (215km) and he is trying to convince me to join in.

With a bit of training i am confident i could do the distance (but maybe not the climbing!). Although I do need to borrow or buy a road bike… a good excuse for N+1.

Has anyone else done it? Is it a fun big day out? Or is it a trip to hell and back?!

Any experience or feedback is appreciated!

Iv just been signed up to do the Medio fondo so a mere 157km….. I definitely couldn’t do either the distance or the climbing right now so will need to get some training in!

From speaking to a few guys I know the big route is amazing but absolutely brutal, especially if the weather is remotely Welsh on you.

Yeah, as above, it’s a really tough route, in terms of climbing, conditions and distance. Stunning in places, though I know people who’ve done it in near complete cloud cover and seen nothing.

I’d say it’s not something to be undertaken lightly, you’ll need to do a lot of training and spend a lot of time on the road bike. I’m not sure I’d be borrowing a bike for that kind of distance, I’d want to know my position was dialled and that I was 100% comfortable on it, you can only know that my spending a lot of time on your own bike.

Only you can decide if that’s something you want to do.

I did the 100 mile loop in 2013, it was a lot easier than I expected (I’d been a bit nervous).

There’s a fair bit more ascent on the 215km, but I found it was the distance that was harder than the climbs for me – as my knee injury resurfaced about 60 miles in and I had to soft pedal the remainder.

You say you don’t have a road bike at the mo, do you do proper big days on MTB or gravel though?

The Dragon Ride was the first sportive I ever rode, the ~190km back in 2010, a couple of months after getting a road bike having only ridden MTB for the decade before. It was a long, long day out, and I was woefully underprepared for it but completed it just fine. IMO, if you’ve a reasonable level of cycling fitness, take it properly steady, go easy on the descents, and keep yourself fuelled, you’ll be grand.
As @lunge says, definitely make sure you’re comfortable on whatever bike you’re gonna be using though.

Not come across this before and need some goals for 2025.

How does it compare to the Fred Whitton?

I’d say the Fred is tougher than the Gran Fondo distance Dragon, partially by nature of Hardknott vs The Bwlch as the closing act.

https://www.etapedudales.org/ would make for a good goal too. There’s a fair few choosing that over the Fred these days.

Cheers @ped

**** me… having seen this thread i’ve just taken a punt and entered the Biiiig distance! 4400m of climbing!

better get training!

drP

Did the 200k this year. I liked it, it’s a good event.  Third one I’ve done and by far the easiest but did a lot of training this year; dragon ride was our etape du tour practice ride. Climbs are long (for uk) but steady so easy to stay out of the red. Scenery is great. Lot’s of support in some of the towns.

Did it 10 years ago on no training and 1/2 bottle of wine the night before. It was a horrible slog. Lesson is do some sort of prep unless you regularly do something approaching that distance/elevation.

I did the 215 last year, and was down to do it again this year. In the end i did the 157, just wasn’t in the mood on the day.

The route does get changed year to year, the climbs are gentle but fairly long, this is the UK not the alps. Organisation is good, food stops ok. the run out and in through the streets isn’t great.

I did the Dragon Devil, all 180 miles and 4800m of climbing the year before COVID, its a big day out and thankfully bar the Devils Elbow, none of the climbs are really steep, they just go on. Well organised and really good, but after a day like that, got back to friend having left lights on and having to wait for AA!

I did it ages ago, after I’d done the Whitton the same year. I remember it as being really good fun, though I can imagine if you don’t like climbing or the weather was bad it would be less enjoyable. The Devil’s Elbow was steep, I maybe underestimated it after all the Hardknott stuff, but the rest seemed reasonable enough. I think it’s one of those classic things that’s great if you commit to the training, but would be horrible if you didn’t.

Did the 190km (or whatever it was) in 2009 as my first road sportive, then the 300km Devil the first year they ran that. Good event back then, the 300 was quite a long ride but definitely worth doing for the experience. It did get pretty quiet when it split from the 220km one, suddenly you were with just one or two others until it rejoined the main route.

Oh, salted roasted new potatoes at the feed stop were very welcome.