so what are the better sportives in this area then?
and what makes them better?
And how many are in March/April ?
I'll agree that the Cheshire Cat is not the best sportive in the world.
It's popular because it's hyped in Cycling Weekly, Cycling Plus and on Cyclosport website.
It's a competent sportive and it's a very newbie-friendly.
On KiloToGo's website they say they are
the UK's foremost cyclosportive organiser, we can get you on your bike in an unparalleled range of challenging cyclosportive rides in beautiful places around Britain.
No, sorry, that's just hyperbole.
KiltoToGo are not dreadful, are not a fly-by-night rip-off, but they're just not as brilliant as that.
My gripe was that the foodstops on the Cheshire Cat the last two years were very poor (Tesco Value apple pie, sausage rolls and doughnuts !) and there was no food available at the finish (did manage to get a cup of tea this year).
A friend however had his rear mech shear off and he was very pleased with the mobile mechanic trying to fix his bike into a single-speed, then when it was taking too long giving him a lift back to the start in his van.
To me, the Cheshire Cat 'old' route which they did the first two years made sense as a start-of-season warm-up event.
Not the hardest sportive, but it was in March and we have been know to have snow then even in Cheshire.
It allowed for the weather, allowed for people being undertrained through Winter, allowed for relative newbies out for their first sportive.
This year they ramped the route up to be a much harder event, I thought it perhaps too much if we'd had a blizzard and people were up in Macc Forest or Lamaload.
Looks like they have decided now to switch to Crewe rather than Knutsford Leisure Centre (hopefully Crewe will have better facilities, like food at the finish) and have made it a relatively-easy event again.
For a 'hardened sportiver', I agree it might be seen as 'too easy', but for anyone relatively new, to do a Century in March (rather than in August when they've had a Summer of training) will be an achievemnt to be proud of.
I'll be doing it because there are a group of people from my club who are keen, I'll either go round with them or storm round for a fast time.