PLEASE NOTE – GPX files and results can be downloaded from the following blog entry – Liphook Ride It
Over the last two days we’ve been preparing for this weekend’s Liphook Ride It event, riding the courses and putting out all the course markers. If you’re joining us on the weekend here’s what to expect.
Saturday MTB
After the torrential rain yesterday afternoon I wasn’t really looking forward to marking out the mountain bike course today as was expecting it to be a bit of a mud fest. Waking up to clear skies and sunshine this morning made things seem a bit better and once on the route I was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn’t really that muddy at all.
There are obviously some muddy sections and some puddles but other parts of the course where it’s quite sandy seemed almost completely dry as you can see in the picture below. I only rode the short loop and haven’t spoke to Tony yet who was doing the rest of the course so not sure what he encountered.
Here’s the link to my garmin activity file that will allow you to see the course map and profile for the short loop that I rode -
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/107705135
Sunday Sportive
We were out on the road loop on Thursday and had a bit of a wet and miserable day, luckily we finished before the worst of the rain but still managed to get plenty wet enough in the morning. I was marking the short loop and decided to ride my singlespeed due to the bad weather and thinking it’d be pretty flat. I guess it is flat compared to the Lakes last weekend but there’s lots of rolling countryside and a few short hills that I found quite a challenge on the singlespeed so it’s certainly not easy.
Despite the rain the roads seemed to be in reasonably good condition. On Thursday they were a bit greasy in places with the damp weather but riding some the same roads today as we linked together the mountain bike course they seem to be drying out quite quickly. The weather forecast is a bit mixed for the weekend and changes each time I check it so we’ll have to wait and see.
Here’s the link to my garmin activity file that will allow you to see the course map and profile for the short loop that I rode -
Just taken a look at the Sportive short route. The B3006 from Greatham to just short of Selborne is not a nice road to cycle on, narrow in places and it’s really an A road by another name with fairly high traffic volumes and speeds.
Hi there,
I am doing the Sunday sportive ride (long route) – do you know when the route for that ride will be posted (if at all)?
It’d be helpful to know where I am going to be going!
Cheers,
C.
Christopher
GPX files can be found on the other Liphook post.
Jeremy
It’s a fairly short piece of road and we are going down the hill. The alternatives are even narrower roads.
Ta
Dean
Thanks for the help guys, appreciated.
See you tomorrow!
Nice MTB route yesterday (another good day) – due to the ‘boggy’ conditions in quite a few areas, unfortunately it meant the day didn’t quite ‘flow’ as nice as some of your other events, but hey you can’t control the weather. It’s sometimes nice being forced into muddy situations, that perhaps I would normally shy away from – never thought I’d be happy to actually look forward to a bit of sand! to ride on.
Lovely route through the forest’s, with some technical/narrow descents, coupled with vantage viewing areas – all-in-all – good route choices.
My only criticism would be the placement of the last drink station. I clocked it at about 17 miles, which if you’re completing the long ride, meant I had a further 17 miles to go without a re-fuel. I ran out of fluid with 4 miles to finish, and I had been managing it. Even an unmanned one would have been great just after the long split on the bridge over the A3.
Good day, see you at Epping Forest.
jj
Hi Jason.
. But as you say, that’s one thing we can’t control. At least the weather on Saturday was pretty good, with that single downpour about 1pm, and you got to see some views.
The wet, muddy conditions might have had something to do with the British summer weather we had on Thursday – torrential rain
Point taken about the drink station. It was one of those 50/50 decisions, and I did think about putting one exactly where you mention. Then I though that the last drink station was a good way around the course so decided against it. We try not to leave barrels unattended if possible, for no other reason than they get stolen! This weekend we were 4 of our usual staff down so I was a bit short on people to man the stations which again influenced my decision. Back up to a full crew for Epping
Cheers
Dean
All in all a great day out. 2nd time I have done the Liphook ride and I also agree with the muddy/boggy conditions. This realy saps the energy, but as Dean mentioned it probably had something to do with the rain on Thursday before the event, saying that though I dont think it EVER gets try in some parts of the forest and valleys down there!! Point taken about the drinks station but last year there was a unmanned drinks station at the medium/long split which was helpfull. Look forward to the next event which for me will be the Brighton ride. Also look forward to Biggins Hill and Dorking (hopefully the snow does not affect the event like last year!!) Well done EVANS on putting up a great days Riding!
That was a well organised ride with a good variety of terrain. Some of the mud was tricky but that’s the rain for you.
Keep up the good work.
One more thing – I had to go to my Mac as the blog can not be updated on an iPad. Guys- – what gives?
Hi Charl and Alistair.
Thanks very much for the comments, let’s hope next year we have a heat wave!!
I’ll ask the guys about the ipad question.
Cheers
Dean