oxfordsportive

Next sportive for me is the White Horse Challenge which is on 17 April this year, looking forward to this event which I’ve done each year since it started in 2007 – so this will be the fifth time around. The advantage of doing the same event each year is it gives you an indication of how fit you are. My personal best was in 2009 with just under 5 hours, last year in 2010 it was just over five hours.

The fastest time last year was 4:26 with an average speed of nearly 34kph which is pretty impressive given the climbing.

So  here is hoping 2011 will be a good year for all who are riding the WHC, all the profits go to WaterAid which is a very good cause, the total amount raised for WaterAid by WHC 2010 was £13,328.21 which is pretty fantastic!

The event filled up pretty quickly as it always does, however here are some places still available for those willing to do some fundraising:

Standard entry (450 places) has filled up. There are still some additional guaranteed entry places for those who commit to raise at least £100 sponsorship for WaterAid. Please e-mail us if you are interested and we will send you an application form.

The weather forecast for the Exmoor Beast 2010 was for showers or light rain with a easterly breeze, on the day it was pretty wet when arriving in Minehead for the start. I rode the inaugural edition of this sportive in 2007 and was back to try it again. The start venue had moved from Dunster Castle to Butlins which was a positive move as there was plenty of parking and other amenities at hand. This made up for the lack of Dunster’s undoubted attractiveness and old worldly beauty.

Exmoor Beast crossing the ford

The ride was wet to start off and very misty once the route turned off the main road and started the climb up to Exmoor. It then climbs steeply over to the top of Exmoor, one of the highlights being crossing the ford.

There are plenty of cattle grids on Exmoor, some of which felt pretty slippy in the wet. The ride then descends very steeply down Countesbury Hill to the port of Lynmouth in Devon, which is very pretty and has a water powered funicular railway. Then there is a long steady climb up the Gorge of the East Lynn river up Watersmeet Road back up to Exmoor again to the high point of Span Head before descending down to Dulverton on the Barle river.
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The Shakespeare 100 sportive took place on Sunday 11 September 2011 starting and finishing in Stratford-upon-Avon. This event is a charity ride in support of Macmillan Cancer Support so it is for a good cause. The actual start location was in the Stratford Park and Ride which is quite a good idea as there are obviously no problems finding a parking spot.

Registering was fast, this sportive does not use electronic timing but does have a brevet type card you can get stamped at the feed stations. I did the 100 miles route which has 1,700 odd metres of climbing although my Garmin claimed it was more like 1,200 metres which just goes to show how imprecise these figures can be.

The route is fairly flat for the first 80k until the first climb at Saintbury which was fairly demanding, then there is another series of climbs at the 100k point around Barton on the Heath.

There were one or two problems with the signs, even riding with the GPS route loaded it was quite hard to follow at times. The organisers have said they will drive around checking the signs ahead of the riders on the day for next year’s edition, sadly this has become a necessity lately because some morons find switching the signs around amusing.

The route is excellent except for the last section returning to Stratford that winds it’s way around an industrial estate, not quite what you’d expect. In fact the Shakespeare and Stratford connections are rather tenuous as you don’t actually get to see anything of the town centre, just the Park and Ride which was slightly disappointing.