Whats next?

[Heltor Chasca]

How was the badger

Chuffed to bits. Rode off on a swanky, new bike.

 

[Sharky]

Chuffed to bits. Rode off on a swanky, new bike.

… to win another Tour de France?

 

[Bhitucyclist]

How was the badger

)

 

[mjr]

Also look out for "Reliability Trials". The name does not really describe what they are. They usually take place in Jan/Feb and were the predecessors of so called sportives. Much more informal and probably about a fiver to take part. They are usually early season warm up events for club riders, but you just go round at whatever pace is comfortable to you.

Beware: not all seem to run like that any more. Some of them seem to have become basically club-ride-seeding races with start waves with vague names like "espresso", "cappucino" and "latte" with different start times but each wave basically full of people trying to hammer round the course to be hailed as the "winner" of their wave on social media later in the day. As far as I can tell, submitting a GPX has replaced route card stamps, so now no stopping is required. So, I now "look out for" certain ones, but to avoid their route if possible

As ever, ask questions about a new event with a new group. If they won't answer friendly questions from a newcomer, I tend to think they're a bunch of selfish self-gratification artists I probably don't want to ride with anyway

 

[johnblack]

Beware: not all seem to run like that any more. Some of them seem to have become basically club-ride-seeding races with start waves with vague names like "espresso", "cappucino" and "latte" with different start times but each wave basically full of people trying to hammer round the course to be hailed as the "winner" of their wave on social media later in the day. As far as I can tell, submitting a GPX has replaced route card stamps, so now no stopping is required. So, I now "look out for" certain ones, but to avoid their route if possible

As ever, ask questions about a new event with a new group. If they won't answer friendly questions from a newcomer, I tend to think they're a bunch of selfish self-gratification artists I probably don't want to ride with anyway

I was going to say the same thing, some reliability rides are nothing more than an early season man-off, choose wisely.