Shakespeare 100 sportive

[Wilf]

Hi All,

I have just signed up for my first century sportive in september,and was wondering should i use just bottles for drink or is it worth using my mtb camelbak , any advice on nutrition what to take, gels etc would also be very welcome.

many thanks
Wilf

 

[ColinJ]

Hi All,

I have just signed up for my first century sportive in september,and was wondering should i use just bottles for drink or is it worth using my mtb camelbak , any advice on nutrition what to take, gels etc would also be very welcome.

many thanks
Wilf

Hi Wilf.


I rode the Shakespeare 100 in 2009 - it was fun! That was the 100 mile version. I'm doing it again this year, but only the 100 km version because I'll be escorting a novice cyclist.

I own a Camelbak but I never use it on road rides. I can't see the point in carrying lots of extra liquid unless you are going somewhere where you can't refill bottles. I have 2 bottle cages on my road bikes and use 800 mL SiS bottles. That's enough to see me through 50 miles so I only need to refill once on a 100 mile ride.

There are several feed stations on the route where you can get sandwiches, cake, bananas, biscuits etc. so I wouldn't worry too much about carrying lots of stuff with you other than enough drinks to last you 2 or 3 hours on your bike.

It is quite handy to carry a gel or two for emergency use should you need a boost in the late stages of the event. We were out on a forum ride on Sunday and one of the riders ran out of energy, but knocking back a gel gave him enough oomph to get to our cafe stop.

I use Maltodextrin powder to make my own carbo-drinks. If you want details of how, see this post.

 

[mitch]

hi wilf ,ive done this event the past 2 years its a good route ,not to difficult but being a charity event you do have to pay for cakes and things at feed stops ,only bananas and drink is free at the stops .and it might be called the shakespeare 100 but its more like 105 miles !!!!i may be there this year dewpends on the weather

 

[ColinJ]

it might be called the shakespeare 100 but its more like 105 miles !!!!

Ha ha - that caught me out when I did it! It seemed like the end would never come ...

 

[Wilf]

Thanks everybody for your valued input, i will certainly take the nutrition advice on board, on another note how long and what gradient is Larkstokehill ? I have just been reading how hard it is and thought i had better start incorporating more hills in to my training, trouble is around the welland valley the hills are relatively short. what would be the best way to prepare for Larkstoke hill?


cheers
Wilf

 

[ColinJ]

Thanks everybody for your valued input, i will certainly take the nutrition advice on board, on another note how long and what gradient is Larkstokehill ? I have just been reading how hard it is and thought i had better start incorporating more hills in to my training, trouble is around the welland valley the hills are relatively short. what would be the best way to prepare for Larkstoke hill?

Hang on Wilf, we've got a mix-up here unless the Shakespeare 100 route has been changed from the one I did in 2009!

There are two different 'Shakespeare' 100 mile events - The Great Shakespeare Ride on August 7th and The Shakespeare 100 on September 11th!

The Lark Stoke climb is included in the former event, but we have been writing about the latter one.

According to the Shakespeare 100 website, the route is broadly the same as that of 2009, in which case the toughest climb is the one at Saintbury, just before Chipping Camden. This is what I wrote about it in my blog ...

Shortly after Mickleton we came to Saintbury and a ‘proper’ hill. It climbed nearly 620 ft in about 1.25 miles (190 m in 2 km) – an average of 9.5%, with a short, steep ramp in the middle section.

That's a fairly tough hill by most standards. My advice if you struggle on hills is to get as much weight as you can off by September (within sensible limits of course) and make sure that your lowest gear is low enough. You have time to get pretty fit by the event so you ought to be okay if you get the miles in.

 

[Wilf]

Apologies colin, yes totally mixed up my events and web pages, so once again thanks for the info.

cheers
wilf

 

[ColinJ]

Apologies colin, yes totally mixed up my events and web pages, so once again thanks for the info.

cheers
wilf

So ... which one are you actually doing?

 

[Wilf]

Hi Colin

I am defo doing the Shakespeare 100 sportive on september the 11th.


thanks
wilf

 

[Bodie]

Hi

I’m doing the Shakespeare 100 on the 11 Sept (just to avoid confusion!) and it will be my first 100.

I have done a fair bit of prep, longest ride so far has been 76 and I have done 2,300 miles so far this year...however living in Hall Green I do most of my cycling around Knowle/Tanworth/Studley/Claverdon which although hardly flat certainly isn’t the Cotswolds. Yesterday I did the Blenheim Palace 60 mile sportive and coped pretty well (time was 4:07 including stops for food, drink and going back for the bottle I dropped while going down one of the hills, covering me and the bike in sticky orage Gatorade. Ugh.) and I was wondering if anyone has done both and could give me an idea of the relative difficulty?

Obviously the Shakespeare is 40 miles longer and that will have an effect as fatigue sets in, but the start and finish of the 100 don’t seem too bad, just the middle bit starting at Saintsbury is a cause for concern.

I thought that yesterday was brilliant btw, the scenery was spectacular and the finish as you ride into Blenheim was stunning. I’ll defiantly do it again next year.

Oh, and I’m 51 and have been cycling for about 5 years....

 

[robgul]

Rob here, the Shakespeare 100 organiser ....

I was at Blenheim yesterday - promoting the events and watching the Brompton fruit cakes - but didn't ride. The chap who designed the Shakespeare 100 (100 mile version) course rode the Blenheim 100 miler ... I'll ask him for a view/comparison and post it here when I hear from him.

The feedback we have had from the past 2 years of Shakespeare 100 is that they like the "sequence of hills" along the route ... that's a flattish start and then a few nips around Claverdon before an undulating stretch to Saintbury followed in the middle by undulations and a few long-drag hills to about Whichford with more pleasantly undulating terrain and a fast-ish run back to the finish.

Numbers for the 100 mile version are limited, and we're approaching it fast - all the details and online entry at www.shakespeare100.org.uk

Rob

 

[Bodie]

Thanks Rob, be interested to know what he thinks.

After yesterday I'm really looking forward to this one now

 

[robgul]

Thanks Rob, be interested to know what he thinks.

After yesterday I'm really looking forward to this one now

This is what he said :

Both courses make use of the stunning scenery and undulating topography of the region. The Blenheim route features more vertical metres climbing and takes in a couple of very steep sections, whilst the Shakespeare offers more accessible but challenging ascents. The Blenheim may be the more difficult in some ways, but they both test the experienced sportive rider to the full.'

This is from a man that rode the Ride Across Britain JOGLE this year and was "disappointed at not achieving his target average speed of 17mph for the complete ride" ... he fell short at just over 16.5 mph!

Rob

 

[Bodie]

Hmm....I’ll certainly be tested then as I’m hardly experienced! Apart from Blenheim I have only done B’ham-Oxford in 2008 and B’ham-Cheltenham in 2009 (both run by ‘Bike Events’, the latter went up Snow Hill from Broadway which was a nasty shock). I was climbing really well on Sunday so I’m just going to hold those positive memories and get stuck in, its supposed to be a challenge after all!

To be honest, I wish I could go down hill with the confidence I go up, I was genuinely shocked on Sunday at how long some of the downhill sections were and how fast I was going. I’m not used to it and my nerves were shot to pieces by halfway L



Anyway, thanks for you help Rob and I’ll see you on the 11[sup]th[/sup].

 

[abchandler]

I do most of my cycling around Knowle/Tanworth/Studley/Claverdon which although hardly flat certainly isn’t the Cotswolds.

If you ride near Studley, try heading out to Astwood Bank/Feckenham. The Sambourne to Astwood Bank climb and the Church Road climb back from Feckenham to Astwood Bank are both good training