Essex Castle ride on 17th July

[e-rider]

Start and finish in colchester - anyone doing it?

 

[Camgreen]

No, did it last year though.

 

[chigman]

Looked at this one but now doing the suffolk coast ride. Might fancy doing the castle next year.

Steve

 

[e-rider]

it's this weekend - I received a letter from bike-events (the organisers) saying that they had only 400 people enter - that's shocking. I'm not from Essex so I'm thinking that people don't like cycling much around these parts - is that correct?

anyone on CC doing it?

 

[ChrisKH]

I think there are plenty of people from Essex who enjoy cycling but it's slap bang in the middle of the holiday season and tbh there are just so many charity rides these days it's difficult to choose. London to Southend is the next day, so most people will opt for that. There are also a number of more 'local' Essex rides in September (Foulness, & Southend BHF) which people with kids and who want a slightly shorter ride will do in preference.

 

[e-rider]

but the essex castle ride has 25, 50 and 75 miles options - I still think it's a very poor turnout. The Norwich 50/100 organised by the same people had 2800 people enter

 

[Benthedoon]

Colchester are usually very good at advertising and promoting events but this is the first I've heard of it, admittedly I haven't been looking too hard as I don't feel ready for an organised ride, however, being from Colchester I would've thought I'd have seen or heard of it somewhere along the line.
Maybe this is partly to blame for the poor turnout.
I'll be keeping a look out for it next year, no 'newbie' excuse by then.

 

[e-rider]

no newbie excuse now really with 25 and 50 mile options - you can enter on the line so get down there and have a good time! Check out the Bike-Events website for more details.

 

[cmjones007]

no newbie excuse now really with 25 and 50 mile options - you can enter on the line so get down there and have a good time! Check out the Bike-Events website for more details.

I'm going for the 50 miles.........it's part of the training ahead of the Artemis Gold in Sep.

Recently bought a Boardman Team Hybrid and did 46 last week in 3hrs 11mins at 14.4mph avg - quite happy with that. Anyone confirm difficulty level of the route? Many hills etc?

 

[So Tyred]

I prefer the London to Southend. I dont understand why the organisers of Essex Castles always arrange it for the day before

 

[gmd06]

I'm going for the 50 miles.........it's part of the training ahead of the Artemis Gold in Sep.

Recently bought a Boardman Team Hybrid and did 46 last week in 3hrs 11mins at 14.4mph avg - quite happy with that. Anyone confirm difficulty level of the route? Many hills etc?

Are you using the Hybrid for the Artemis? I'm in training for it too and have been using a Specialzed Cross Bike and sticking mainly to roads. Not sure if will be able to handle the Gold Artemis route as there's some dodgy looking off-road sections. Toying with the front suspension MTB.

 

[cmjones007]

no, the company I work for are paying for the hire of MTB once up there in Sep.......the Hybrid was a purchase to get back into cycling after many years out the saddle.

was pleased with the ride yesterday around Colchester with some decent challenging climbs. Anyone confirm what gradient / level of climbs they were on the 50 mile circuit?

 

[e-rider]

well, as far as I could see from the map the 50 route didn't cover any ground that the 75 route didn't apart from about 1 mile so unless there was a huge climb there I thought the hills were all pretty small. As far as gradients I think nothing exceeeded 10%. Nice weather though; shame about the lack of riders. I got to the halfway point on the 75 and stopped at the official rest stop and I was the only person there. After about 10 minutes there were 4 riders - then I continued! Before re-joining the 50 route I'd say I only saw 10 other riders in total and that's after 50 miles of cycling.

No toilets at the start either - shameful organisation!