Riding Cycle Sportives
Cycle sportives are the new 'in-thing' in endurance cycling. Until a few years ago you had to hop across the channel to find one of these events, in recent years they have sprung up all over the UK. It's now possible to find one (or often more) pretty well every weekend throughout the season. But just what is the attraction?
Cycle sportive rides are not for the faint hearted. Typically a sportive ride will be between 60 and, possibly, over 100 miles, often with a fair degree of climbing involved just to add to the pain! No self-respecting cyclist is going to get out of bed these days for a ride under 50 miles and without at least 1000m of ascent. And basically, the more the merrier. Toughies like the Fred Whitton Challenge are well over 100 miles in length with approaching 4000m of climbing, and there is NO easy option! But, I hear you say again, just what is the attraction?
Well, sportive rides are personal challenges. A sportive is not a race (although watching some cyclists tear off into the distance from the start line you might be forgiven for thinking otherwise), it is about testing yourself against the (sporting) course in what (you hope) will be a respectable time. It is intended to be enjoyable (despite the pain) and the camaraderie of riding with several hundred like-minded cyclists can add to this sense of well-being. Make no mistake, they are not easy, but they are tremendously rewarding.
For my own part I have "competed" in a fair few sportives over the years (someone once described me as a serial sportive rider!) but in recent times I have entered fewer of these events as commercialism has rather taken the gloss off what used to be a great way of exploring new parts of the country (or indeed continent). It is still possible to find the odd gem sportive and I still enjoy the odd foray when something different crops up - such as the Ride to the Sun event a couple of years ago (not strictly a sportive, refer to my 2015 blog). Nevertheless, these events still clearly hold a lot of attraction and I certainly wouldn't discourage you from trying one out near you. Go on, have a go.
For a fairly comprehensive list of sportives you could do worse than check out the Cyclosport event list website