Shakespeare Sportive 100km or 100 miles

[Philip Whiteman]

Rob, Good luck with your event this weekend, it really looks great. I shall be thinking of you all whilst riding the Kiddie Killer. Hopefully I will make it for 2010.

 

[robgul]

Rob, Good luck with your event this weekend, it really looks great. I shall be thinking of you all whilst riding the Kiddie Killer. Hopefully I will make it for 2010.

Thanks - date for the diary is 12 September 2010 ... weather looks promising for a good day.

Rob

 

[nigelnorris]

Just on the off chance, if anyone is riding this event and like me navigates using TomTom Navigator on a mobile, I've converted the GPX to itinerary files to use with mine. I have it in three parts, Start to Control 1, C1 to C2, C2 to end. If you would like a copy message me with an email address and I'll send the files along to you.

 

[nigelnorris]

A good job with the weather Rob, nice work. I might be slow as slow going round, but at least I'll get chance to top up my tan

 

[TheKay]

I'm booked in for 63 mile route (or 50 miles if i decide I have had enough hehehe) this is only my second attempt at such a distance (i did the Birmingham to Cheltenham charity ride a few months ago which was 60ish miles in the pouring rain!!)

I'm looking forward to it, be interesting to see what time i do it in as i'll be on my own this time.

Next year I shall aim for the 100 miles.

 

[nigelnorris]

Well I enjoyed that. Nice and sunny most of the way, nowhere near as hilly as I was worried it might be, spectacular views from some of the peaks, and I lived to tell the tale. Really efficient organisation as far as I could see, really nice ladies on the cake stalls.

Downside was that I made a last minute decision to leave my GPS behind [OK I forgot it] and had the devil of a job making sense of the signs and directions, but what they hey I didn't lose any distance to getting lost and got to the finish without incident. Probably wouldn't have though had I not palled up with a local lad who guided me through the last ten miles. First 100 miler and my arse is on fire. Am contemplating jamming an ice pack way up there and constructing some kind of nappy device to keep it in place.

Saintbury is a 4 star torture device, had to stop and rest a couple of times and my heart rate was way above anything I've ever seen before, didn't know it could do that. The other big hill after control two wasn't so bad, loooooooong but very gentle.

Lovely day out, thanks Rob and the rest of your team

 

[robgul]

Well I enjoyed that. Nice and sunny most of the way, nowhere near as hilly as I was worried it might be, spectacular views from some of the peaks, and I lived to tell the tale. Really efficient organisation as far as I could see, really nice ladies on the cake stalls.

Downside was that I made a last minute decision to leave my GPS behind [OK I forgot it] and had the devil of a job making sense of the signs and directions, but what they hey I didn't lose any distance to getting lost and got to the finish without incident. Probably wouldn't have though had I not palled up with a local lad who guided me through the last ten miles. First 100 miler and my arse is on fire. Am contemplating jamming an ice pack way up there and constructing some kind of nappy device to keep it in place.

Saintbury is a 4 star torture device, had to stop and rest a couple of times and my heart rate was way above anything I've ever seen before, didn't know it could do that. The other big hill after control two wasn't so bad, loooooooong but very gentle.

Lovely day out, thanks Rob and the rest of your team

Glad you enjoyed - the signage is a perpetual issue - the logic of the arrows/colour is logical ... but only if the riders look at them! We already have plans for improved signage for next year - Diary note : Sunday 12 September 2010 ... but the one thing we can't legislate for the is the youths in some of the village either taking signage down, or worse still turning it the wrong way (despite the fact it was put up at the latest possible time before the event)

Feedback so far from returning riders was positive to about c95% so it must have been an OK day.

And as for the slope at Saintbury .... don't blame me, blame the route designer.

Rob

Rob

 

[nigelnorris]

Glad you enjoyed - the signage is a perpetual issue - the logic of the arrows/colour is logical ... but only if the riders look at them! We already have plans for improved signage for next year - Diary note : Sunday 12 September 2010 ... but the one thing we can't legislate for the is the youths in some of the village either taking signage down, or worse still turning it the wrong way (despite the fact it was put up at the latest possible time before the event)

Feedback so far from returning riders was positive to about c95% so it must have been an OK day.

And as for the slope at Saintbury .... don't blame me, blame the route designer.

Rob

Rob

When I said making sense of the signs and directions I was thinking more of my own ineptitude wrt navigation than any problem with the way it was set up.

The main thing worth pointing out [hopefully this is constructive criticism, echoed by those I was riding with], was that the yellow route arrows blended with the white backgrounds. Other green and red signs could be read from a way off, but we had to get real close to the yellow ones to make out the arrow. This was difficult when the arrow was the other side of a main road and occasionally led to some circling about while someone made the dash for a closer inspection. But as was made very clear to one and all, the route sheet is king, so no real excuses for me.

 

[fredflintstone]

Signage was way to SMALL ! and infrequent. tons of riders missing turns and having to turn round constnatly. Second half was a little better but the last few miles abismall.

Great route spoilt by really poor signage!

 

[TheKay]

I have to agree, coulda done with a lot more signage... i got lost twice along with a fair few others because of lack of it (think riders were mostly just following each other) it was annoying because we were going along at a nice pace.

Apart from that it was a fab route

 

[caz]

Well I did the 63 mile Macride (not the sportive) and my signage was ok. I only got lost once near Hidcote cos I couldn't tell which way the sign was pointing, but I soon got back on track! I had to use the signage around the Mickleton loop because I lost my route sheet somewhere. Having done the 50 mile route last year I remembered where I was going for most of it.

Well done Rob!

 

[ColinJ]

I'm just back from the midlands, having extended my stay to visit my family.

Nice to meet you at the finish Rob. My trusty Garmin Etrex guided me round the 105 mile 100 mile route successfully, though I did encounter a few people who had gone astray!

Just after the village hall at Great Alne, I met up with a Welsh father and son 'team' doing the 100 km route and they were so impressed with riding-by-GPS that they decided to come round the longer route with me instead. Huw and Hywel were good company and we all enjoyed the route (well, except for the last couple of headwindy miles into Stratford perhaps). Hywel had only done his first 80 mile ride the previous week, so congratulations to him for completing his first century.

The first tough hill was obvious (and a 'proper' hill even by Welsh and Yorkshire standards) , but we didn't notice the second one so either we are fitter than we think we are, or it wasn't as tough as advertised!

My sister was at the finish to pick me up and bumped into someone she used to work with in Luton 12 years ago and hadn't seen since. They live miles apart, and miles from Stratford - it's a small World, eh!

Talking of it being a small world... I was just taking my bike out of one bike compartment on the train into Leeds this afternoon when I spotted fellow CycleChat member Calum taking his bike out of the compartment opposite. Nice to see you again, Calum - I'll try and arrange a ride for the weekend after next!