Couldn't agree more with either of the above posts. However I would like to point out that the negative stuff appears to be from a previous version of the event, not that which took place last Sunday.
http://www.cyclosport.org/event/21-...per-sportive---little-big-dipper/ratings.html
Having done the ride last weekend. I would like to add my opinions of the event. As with everything there is a 'back story'. Last autumn I had a bad fall, most would say it was my fault, and to some extent they would be right, but it left me with a broken shoulder. having spent the winter toiling away in the garage on the turbo I promised myself a spring sportive to mark the end of that rather painful chapter.
The weather on the ride was superb. Hitting the first descent on the A4155 back towards Reading at 30+ mph was the high point. It went downhill, or precisely up and downhill from there. The first real descent was by Henley Golf Club down to Harpsden Bottom. By this time the fifteen or so I'd set of with were pretty much gone up the road. The road surface was poor and I knew it was a steep drop; it was here for the first time I found my nerve had really been blown away by my accident.
The climb up Gillotts Lane followed giving us the hors d'oeuvre before the main course. It was here I tested the new 12-27 cassette. I've been up steeper and longer using a 34-25, 23 or 21, but having got it, and forked out over £100 for the pleasure I wanted to be sure it worked. Now maybe it's got that Campag 'needs to be run in ' thing going on, but it was noisy and strangely unsatisfying to be in that gear.
By now I was very much on my own, and reaching the ten mile mark was already questioning the wisdom of carrying on. I was seriously under prepared. The last sportive I'd done two years previously had been the culmination of many months of training. Commuting and weekend rides then had led to months where I routinely exceeded 600 miles and a couple of times went over 800.
At Highmoor Cross a sharp descent then led to the climb up Witheridge Hill to Checkendon. In a past life Over 20 years ago, I had run my fastest half-marathon time on a course with Witheridge Hill as part of it, narrowly failing to breach the 90 minute mark, so it was place I had good sporting memories of. Two decades on, on two wheels, not on two legs I probably went up slower. Funny thing was I just couldn't get going. A few miles further on towards Stoke Row was another reminder of my reticence over descending. The road was absolute pants. Broken, potholed steep and gravel strewn. A few lunatics went past me dropping like stones while I descended like a timid seven year old. After an hour or so I felt no better.
I've done a fair few endurance activities in my 55 years and I've never given up. Whilst I might not be very good, I like to think I possess a good level of mental resilience which on all occasions has got me round whatever it I was, I was undertaking. Only on one occasion did I have to stop. A foot injury in the 1993 Reading Half Marathon after about 7 miles just made it physically impossible to carry on. Now I wasn't injured, I was just struggling and even though a little voice was telling me to head back to the start while I was still close enough to do so I pressed on climbing up the first real lump through Swyncombe. Before half way we descended into the Assendon Valley via Maidensgrove and Russells Water. Having ridden up Pishill and the surrounds on numerous occasions I knew the descent would be steep, but in my opinion it was downright dangerous. Part way down there was water on the road where a spring had emerged nearby. It was gravelly all the way down probably brought down by the spring. At Stonor we turned right to Turville Heath up Balham's Lane with the food stop at the top. After a brief stop it was a short distance to the descent on Dolesden Lane. I've done this many times, and know the road well and the surface although potholed in places is pretty good. As steep as other drops I'd been down, I descended at twice the speed confident in the surface.What goes down has to go up, and so it was. After a very short climb towards Fingest the little and big dippers separated, taking us up the road to Ibstone and the Windmill climb.
If anyone out there is remotely interested I will post the second part soon.
