Ride the Route

With Cyclo Sportives becoming more and more popular this event following a Stage of the Tour of Britain promised to be a good one.  Along with David Davies of VC Norwich I went to check it out.

Ride the Route

In 2006 I rode l'Etape du Tour and loved it.  It was both the best days cycling and the hardest days cycling of my life. 8,500 cyclists on closed roads covering exactly the same route that the pro peleton would race over a week later as a stage of le Tour de France. I'd have liked to have ridden it again this year, but with other focuses (an Ironman) I decided to give it a miss.  I also missed out on l'Etape du Grand Depart which was a sportive covering Stage 1 of this years Tour from London to Canterbury. 

Having missed these two events I was thrilled to see a sportive appear in the cycling press that was going to cover a stage of the Tour of Britain. Only 1,000 places were going to be available.  Better get my application in quick.

Perhaps it was due to short notice.  Perhaps it was due to poor publicity.  Perhaps it was due to a poor summer.  Perhaps it was due to picking the August Bank Holiday weekend.  Whatever the reason, the uptake of the event was very low.  Very low indeed.  I was race number 97.  David Davies who only decided to enter two days before hand was number 132. The number of entrants was disappointing.  I felt sorry for the organisers.  Afterwards I was to feel sorry for all the other cyclists out there that didn't come out to play, as the organisers had excelled themselves and those of us who turned out were given a real treat.

The event had cost £27.50 to enter of which £5 went to charity with the British Heart Foundation benefiting.  The goodie bag was a proper little shoe bag with reflective strip and within it there were two (yes, two) 750ml quality water bottles, a ToB visitors pass, official ToB programme, a pen, local cycle maps to Worcester and Worcestershire, a sticker, a High5 energy gel, a reflective wrist band and an inner tube.  The goodie bag and it's contents must have been worth £15.

There was then water and food stations at the start, 25 miles, 50 miles, 75 miles and at the finish serving water, high5 energy drink, bananas and cereal bars.

On top of that there was an electronic timing system recording your departure and your arrival.  There was clearly a lot of sponsorship behind the event because there was no way the entry fee of £27.50 could have covered all that.  Oh, and I've not mentioned the faultless signage, marshalling and motorcycle backup we had as well.

The Route

The 104 mile route started from the Worcester Race Course.  Took us through the city centre and south level with Malvern before turning west into Malvern for our first climb of the day. 

David and I had missed the mass start at 8.30am.  We'd been a little slack in getting ready - mainly my fault by removing tri-bars at the last minute.  This was probably a blessing.  It meant that we hadn't started with the fast boys, so we hadn't tried to stay with the fast boys.  So it was on the ascent through Malvern that we started to pick off riders who had started before us.

We were then taken North for more undulations before an incredibly steep ascent of Ankardine Hill the second Cat 1 climb of the stage and we were only a third of the way into the day.

From there the route continued to wiggle further northwards past Kidderminster and Stourport towards Telford before turning east for an ascent of Sutton Bank which was the third and final categorised climb of the stage.

I'd like to be able to report that from there it was a steady run into the finish upon the velodrome in Wolverhampton, but that would be misleading.  There was hardly more than a mile flat anywhere along the route.  Riding steady and well paced was definitely the order of the day.  Whilst there are undoubtedly harder rides out there, this was still not a ride for a fast time.

Finishing on the outdoor velodrome in Wolverhampton was both exciting and scary.  Scary because they do bank quite steeply I'd opted for the wide, high line and surely I wasn't going fast enough to be putting any centrifugal force into the track so I must have just been reliant on the traction of the side wall of my tyres.  Exciting because it was the finish and as much as I wanted to finish level with my riding partner I certainly wasn't going to let him or the others arriving at the with us get the edge at the line. 

All that was left was to enjoy the Sun, hospitality of our organisers, grab and shower and wait for the coach back to our cars at the start.

Details

Official website: www.ridetheroute.net

Results

A further 3 riders were unable to finish before the cut off time of 5pm.

Official results

Pro Results - Tour of Britain Stage 3 - Sept 12th

Pos	#	Nat	Name	Team	Time
1	3	AUS	Goss, Matthew	CSC	3h48'41"
2	125	FRA	Bichot, Freddy	Agritubel	3h48'41"
3	163	GBR	Hammond, Roger	T-Mobile	3h48'14"

Full Tour of Britain Stage 3 results - though due to the removal of a diversion and a neutral zone at the start the pro's raced only 94miles compared to our 104.

Questions and Answers

What is a Cyclo Sportive?

A cyclo-sportive is a cross between a road race, a time trial and a charity ride.  It's not really a race, though clearly there is satisfaction for the first rider home in being the fastest.  The challenge is in completing the course and in completing it as best you can on the day.  But so long as you complete within any imposed cut off times you are free to take it at what ever pace you like.  In essence they are challenging, satisfying and fun.

What is the Tour of Britain?

Is the UK's premier cycle race involving some of the worlds top teams and top riders. The race attracts teams such as T-Mobile, CSC and Quickstep and riders such as Tom Boonen who won the final stage in London in 2006 whilst wearing the World Champion's jersey.

Now in it's four year the 2007 Tour of Britain starts with a prologue on Sunday 9th September in the grounds of Crystal palace over 1 lap of the 9 lap course used by the Crystal Palace Triathlon.  The Tour of Britain then covers a further 6 stages before finishing in Glasgow on Saturday 15th September.  The stage that "Ride the Route" covered is stage 3 that will take place on Wednesday 12th September.

More details at: www.tourofbritain.com

Article by Rob Lines
Page created: 7th September 2007. Last updated: 12th September 2007