Le Terrier (HC). A real classic sportive

[nickwill]

I've just published an account of one of the hardest and best sportives I've ever ridden.
http://lakescyclist.wordpress.com/2011/06/08/le-terrier-2011/

The raw figures don't do justice to the event. Quiet roads slick and friendly organisation and a route that is right up there with the Fred Whitton and the Etape du Dales in terms of difficulty.

 

[Ajay]

Great write up nickwill, and congrats for getting round in one piece!
I couldn't ride the event this time, but have riden all the route (just not all in one go tho!!). You're right, the last 10, especially after whats gone before are utterly brutal.
The event should be regarded as a classic, what with the constant droning we read on here that sportives are "rip-offs", this one, being organised by a local cycling club with profits going to local charities surely flies the flag what sportives should be all about.

 

[nickwill]

Great write up nickwill, and congrats for getting round in one piece!
I couldn't ride the event this time, but have riden all the route (just not all in one go tho!!). You're right, the last 10, especially after whats gone before are utterly brutal.
The event should be regarded as a classic, what with the constant droning we read on here that sportives are "rip-offs", this one, being organised by a local cycling club with profits going to local charities surely flies the flag what sportives should be all about.

I've done the Dragon ride for the last two years and I hear there have been real problems with queues and non functioning timing chips this year. Le Terrier constitutes the polar opposite and should be made a required event for many of the 'anti-sportive' cynics out there. Anybody who suggests that sportives are just for soft poseurs would soon have been disabused. The organisers are real cyclists who put the event on for love of the sport, to showcase an area that they are proud of and to raise money for charity. I rode Drumlanrig earlier in the year and the whole ethos of that event was extremely positive as well.
Anybody who missed 'Le Terrier' this year should give it a go next time.

 

[Cyclehopper]

Le Terrier HC was my first sportive, what a baptism of fire (doused by the rain).

I like the basic thinking behind the route which was "If you see a hill go over it"