I can’t recall being able to tell who was doing which distance at that stage. I also wasn’t trying to stay in the mix at that point - first year was trying to hang onto the back of the first or second group but even that was a harder start than was wise for me, so the second time I was just generally trying to stay in the front third of the mass start (just enough that I wouldn’t have to worry too much about traffic or dangerous/inexperienced riding)
Great write up. What were the complaints / issues on the day?
Nice write up and all, but you left off the burning question on everyone’s mind. Did you make it the whole ~10 hour race without taking a piss again this year?
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Jings that sounds fairly serious. I did think that it was pretty cheap for such a big event but it sounds like they’re overstretching themselves. I know this has been covered for other events on this forum but transparency about these things is always best, costs can be increased but explaining to people what they’re getting for their hard earned money is worthwhile. With inflation running like it is in the UK just now a price hike would be understandable.
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It wasn’t a mass start this year because of the start of the route heading out onto the public road. The first three years of the event had the same style of start with the last 3 having a mass start from the same location. It’s always been a bit of a tight squeeze at the start but now the numbers are much higher (1175 folk finished in 2022 and 1447 this year) it’s maybe getting a bit too much.
It would be better if the 200km folk got to head off first with the 130’s and the 65’s to follow. That would hopefully alleviate any problems with folk getting 30 minutes taken off the cut-off time.
I didn’t use any of the aid stations as I was going the 130 this year but I headed towards the first one to make sure there wasn’t a timing thing to go through and promptly headed back on course. It looked like total chaos.
Did you not appreciate the window sticker? Pretty pish I have to say.
Still had a great day out but number 7 might well be my last.
Mike
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Does anyone know where to get the photos that were taken of the event?
I will say it was amusing to see literally every youtube influencer (that I’ve seen post about it) doing the 200km drop to a shorter distance due to the weather.
It’s always going to put a bit of a dampener on the fun and hanging about socialising aspects of an event like this when the weather is that crappy. The we ride flanders sportive had near identical weather this year, but probably the best organised event I’ve ever done with out full-on road closures.
I have to say that while there’s something to doing an event with tons of other people with a party at the end, doing one that finishes in the middle of nowhere without decent accomodation is something I could happily do with a few friends in the actual summertime.
Yeah springtime does make the most sense. I always find that the best chance of dry weather is the second half of April and first half of May (in Scotland). Maybe not always warm, but really does seem to be consistently our lowest rainfall all year.
I know maybe the ‘18 or ‘19 Reiver started at like -5 degrees, but other than that I’m not aware of any other inclement weather hitting the event prior to this year. (I wasn’t aware of it in early days though so would be happy to be proven wrong).