Do you carry maps on a Sportiff?

[Banjo]

I will be doing my first Sportiff this year,The Merlin in Carmarthenshire July 4th The route passes through some fairly remote areas.

Do riders normally carry maps or is it safe to assume that the signposting and marshalling will be good enough?


This is the route if anyones interested.http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-kingdom/camarthen/243126902883535647

 

[PpPete]

Never done a Sportive (or even a Sportiff )
but I'm damn sure that if I did I would carry, at the very least, a page torn from a road atlas, with the route highlighted.

It may be signposted adequately.... but what happens if some scallywag thinks it's amusing to remove or turn round an arrow?

 

[Tim Bennet.]

I always carry part of an OS 1: 250 000 map or page from a road atlas on both sportives and audax rides.

Not only does it give me a better idea of where I'm going and how I'm doing but it shows the options if you have to bail.

 

[Philip Whiteman]

After experiencing the Cheshire Cat's failure to remedy the replacement of lost waymark signs a couple of years ago, I always carry a map - usually a torn sheet from an old road atlas.

 

[dodgy]

Garmin Edge 705 with the route pre-programmed. I can't be arsed looking at paper maps everytime I'm not sure of the way - which will be at pretty much every junction

 

[HLaB]

I've never carried a map on a sportive, they are reasonably well sign posted and there's plenty of other riders to follow.

 

[jimboalee]

You draft some wannabees round all the way except for the last 50m.

 

[RedBike]

Sportives will have signs.

However, I would STRONGLY advise that if you don't have sufficient local knowledge to get back should you miss a sign that you carry a map with you.

The map can just be a A4 sheet printed out off Google maps or Streetmaps stuck in your back pocket. The chances are you wont need to look at it.

I've done a few sportives where sign posts have been deliberately removed or turned around. It's also amazingly easy to miss a sign. Once you've missed that sign (for whatever reason) then you'll be wishing you'd had that sheet of paper in your back pocket.

 

[andy_wrx]

I've never carried a map on a sportive, they are reasonably well sign posted and there's plenty of other riders to follow.

Well signposted until someone thinks it's a lark to remove the signs or turn them round

And plenty of other riders who equally don't know where they're going

Like the others, I think it's worth at least a rough map so you can find your way back to the start.

 

[ColinJ]

I've done a few sportives where sign posts have been deliberately removed or turned around. It's also amazingly easy to miss a sign. Once you've missed that sign (for whatever reason) then you'll be wishing you'd had that sheet of paper in your back pocket.

I agree.

I did the Shakespeare 100 (100 mile) event from Stratford-upon-Avon last year and encountered a group of riders doing the 100 km event coming towards me. They should have been doing the same route as me, but taking a shortcut later on to miss out some of the harder hills in the Cotswolds. In fact, they had missed a sign shortly after the start and had ended up accidentally taking a 30 km shortcut - that was a big chunk out of their 100 km target!

PS The Shakespeare 100 is a nice event and is well worth considering if you fancy a trip down to the Cotswolds and back. The organisers will be using clearer signs this year (they were a bit subtle last year!)

It's all in aid of a great cause:

Shakespeare 100 is organised by a team of volunteers for Macmillan Cancer Support - we keep our costs to an absolute minimum and all proceeds will go to Macmillan.

PPS The Manchester 100 normally has a marshal plus a sign at every junction but occasionally a junction isn't covered. I ended up doing 10 miles extra one year because of that which was a bit of a blow because I had been set to do a PB for the event.

 

[Banjo]

Thanks for the replies.I am hoping to tag along with a group if there are any going slow enough for me :-) will definitely take a map of some sort just in case.

 

[zacklaws]

Its all right tagging along with or behind someone, but what if they do not know the route themselves and take a wrong turning.

I watched a few riders in front of me on one sportive carry on straight past a junction, all following one another about 30 meters apart, but too far away for me to warn them, but maybe the route had changed so I was unsure myself?, if it was not for the fact that, I had studied the route, had it programmed into my Garmin and expected to turn at that point, and at the last moment in the grass noticed the arrow, I may have carried on myself past the junction thinking I had missed something and they was right.

The moral is, learn the route well and do not rely on others and if possible ride it before hand, then come the day you will not need the map at every doubtful moment slowing you down.

Looking at your route, there is plenty of scope to take a wrong turning on that sportive.

 

[ColinJ]

Its all right tagging along with or behind someone, but what if they do not know the route themselves and take a wrong turning.

I watched a few riders in front of me on one sportive carry on straight past a junction, all following one another about 30 meters apart, but too far away for me to warn them, but maybe the route had changed so I was unsure myself?, if it was not for the fact that, I had studied the route, had it programmed into my Garmin and expected to turn at that point, and at the last moment in the grass noticed the arrow, I may have carried on myself past the junction thinking I had missed something and they was right.

On the Shakespeare 100 event I mentioned earlier, I spent some time in a group of riders discussing the fact that I had the route on my GPS. We were coming up to a right turn off a busy road and I called it out to them but they ignored me and carried on. I whistled and the riders at the back of the group looked at me and I pointed up the lane on the right. They still ignored me and carried on in the wrong direction. Classic Herd mentality!

 

[lukesdad]

Knowing the route aspreviously mentioned is the important thing, I never carry a map. Any tricky bits I note down and stick it on the bike.

 

[zacklaws]

Any tricky bits I note down and stick it on the bike.

Thats something I have just started doing myself. Usually its my LTHR, and max Hr on the bars, in case I forget when the pains kicking in and can ease off a bit, but saddle measurements etc, also memo's for routes etc.

The best thing I have just found is to use a Dymo label writer, and use the colour tape to match the bars and top tube. At the moment, I'm using black tape (black bars) with white lettering and it blends in very unobtrusively and stays on in the rain and peels of when not needed.