Wye Valley Warrior - Wiggle Sportive 2014
May 4th 2014
For me this sportive was sandwiched in between a couple of days of camping and hiking. A possibly crazy bit of planning, it being early May in the UK, but for once Mother nature produced a top performance, providing good temperatures, low winds and not a spot of rain all weekend. Amazing.
It was in fairly high spirits therefore that we set off for the sportive. I was entering with a group of six friends and so we ended up driving with four cars to the site. The car park was for the racecourse and was particularly gravelly and rough (my bike wasn't going to be ridden on it). However, registration was only a short walk away and once registered (and having dropped our High5 freebies back at the car) we pushed our bike towards the start.
The start was a very well managed rolling-stock type start. Low stress. Onto the course, it was straight up a medium climb, something that, apart from my legs being a little sleepy, didn't really bother me. Next came a quick and flat 10 miles, winding along a well surfaced road around the river valley.
14 miles brought the first climb - which was probably the least pleasant of them all. A small flat a third of the way up provided respite for the masses, but I'm of the 'I can't stop on a hill or else I'll never get going again' variety so I ploughed on to the top. Unhelpful signs such as 'Pain is weakness leaving the body' provided more of a distraction for me than encouragement, but I finally reached the summit and awaited my group to join me.
Setting off down hill was soon interrupted by the first of many annoying incidents for me, involving my chain falling off. About a month previous to the sportive I'd readjusted my front dérailleur, and it had up until this point been behaving perfectly well. Unfortunately it now seemed to decided to ignore any limitations that might have previously been enforced by the limit screws, and swipe my chain right off the chainset into either my foot or the bottom bracket. I decided not to try and fix the problem there and then as the bike was still ride-able and I didn't want to have to retire if I managed to make it worse so here started a day of black hands, down-hills in 'little cog' and up-hills in 'big cog' as I tried to minimise changes....
The next few climbs were less difficult and provided fabulous scenery. Coming into Monmouth was slightly gut-busting, with the fear of the final 52-mile in large climb to go. Monmouth itself had some unfortunately placed temporary traffic lights which caused quite a bottle neck, and the road we embarked on the final climb on was rather busy, especially with unsympathetic (and frankly quite rude) motorcyclists.
This is a rare, rare statement for me, but I actually quite enjoyed the last climb. The gradient was small enough that after the initial shock, my legs could spin round at a steady pace without my usual jealousy of triple chainsets and their associated 'Granny gears'. It was a long climb yet I was still surprised by the 'You've made it sign' which was *almost* at the top, and I was entertained by the couple of guitarists and solemnly clapping lady near the top too.
Over this final large peak was a very welcome feeding station. I have to say, I was extremely impressed by the Wiggle feeding stations. There was a selection of food such as Jaffa cakes, jelly beans, flapjacks, banana, Oreos plus energy gels, energy drinks, electrolyte tablets and water. I know from experience that everyone is very picky about eating during a race/ride - I for instance prefer easily chewable foods such as jelly beans and bananas, rather than drier, oatier foods, and I don't like to use caffeine if I can help it - so it was great that they catered for almost everyone's tastes. I also got some sort of secret smug feeling seeing (for once) the men waiting in long queues for toilets, whereas the women's queue was limited or non-existent.
Fed and watered, we pushed on through the final and surprisingly undulating 10 miles or so, to be greeted by a nasty short hill at the finish (especially when you've opted for and hence are stuck in 'big cog' at that particular time) and the more welcome finish line.
The medal and t-shirt we were presented with were both pretty horrible, cheap looking and non-race specific, which is a shame. However, this would probably be my only major grip with the entire event, so I can't really complain. I'd definitely enter another Wiggle Sportive based on this experience.
Times
Total time: 06:24:32
Av. moving speed: 13.7 mph
For me this sportive was sandwiched in between a couple of days of camping and hiking. A possibly crazy bit of planning, it being early May in the UK, but for once Mother nature produced a top performance, providing good temperatures, low winds and not a spot of rain all weekend. Amazing.
It was in fairly high spirits therefore that we set off for the sportive. I was entering with a group of six friends and so we ended up driving with four cars to the site. The car park was for the racecourse and was particularly gravelly and rough (my bike wasn't going to be ridden on it). However, registration was only a short walk away and once registered (and having dropped our High5 freebies back at the car) we pushed our bike towards the start.
The start was a very well managed rolling-stock type start. Low stress. Onto the course, it was straight up a medium climb, something that, apart from my legs being a little sleepy, didn't really bother me. Next came a quick and flat 10 miles, winding along a well surfaced road around the river valley.
14 miles brought the first climb - which was probably the least pleasant of them all. A small flat a third of the way up provided respite for the masses, but I'm of the 'I can't stop on a hill or else I'll never get going again' variety so I ploughed on to the top. Unhelpful signs such as 'Pain is weakness leaving the body' provided more of a distraction for me than encouragement, but I finally reached the summit and awaited my group to join me.
Setting off down hill was soon interrupted by the first of many annoying incidents for me, involving my chain falling off. About a month previous to the sportive I'd readjusted my front dérailleur, and it had up until this point been behaving perfectly well. Unfortunately it now seemed to decided to ignore any limitations that might have previously been enforced by the limit screws, and swipe my chain right off the chainset into either my foot or the bottom bracket. I decided not to try and fix the problem there and then as the bike was still ride-able and I didn't want to have to retire if I managed to make it worse so here started a day of black hands, down-hills in 'little cog' and up-hills in 'big cog' as I tried to minimise changes....
The next few climbs were less difficult and provided fabulous scenery. Coming into Monmouth was slightly gut-busting, with the fear of the final 52-mile in large climb to go. Monmouth itself had some unfortunately placed temporary traffic lights which caused quite a bottle neck, and the road we embarked on the final climb on was rather busy, especially with unsympathetic (and frankly quite rude) motorcyclists.
This is a rare, rare statement for me, but I actually quite enjoyed the last climb. The gradient was small enough that after the initial shock, my legs could spin round at a steady pace without my usual jealousy of triple chainsets and their associated 'Granny gears'. It was a long climb yet I was still surprised by the 'You've made it sign' which was *almost* at the top, and I was entertained by the couple of guitarists and solemnly clapping lady near the top too.
Over this final large peak was a very welcome feeding station. I have to say, I was extremely impressed by the Wiggle feeding stations. There was a selection of food such as Jaffa cakes, jelly beans, flapjacks, banana, Oreos plus energy gels, energy drinks, electrolyte tablets and water. I know from experience that everyone is very picky about eating during a race/ride - I for instance prefer easily chewable foods such as jelly beans and bananas, rather than drier, oatier foods, and I don't like to use caffeine if I can help it - so it was great that they catered for almost everyone's tastes. I also got some sort of secret smug feeling seeing (for once) the men waiting in long queues for toilets, whereas the women's queue was limited or non-existent.
Fed and watered, we pushed on through the final and surprisingly undulating 10 miles or so, to be greeted by a nasty short hill at the finish (especially when you've opted for and hence are stuck in 'big cog' at that particular time) and the more welcome finish line.
The medal and t-shirt we were presented with were both pretty horrible, cheap looking and non-race specific, which is a shame. However, this would probably be my only major grip with the entire event, so I can't really complain. I'd definitely enter another Wiggle Sportive based on this experience.
Times
Total time: 06:24:32
Av. moving speed: 13.7 mph
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