English
The New Forest Sportive event was held on Sunday 11 October 2009 with the HQ in the lovely town of Brockenhurst which is situated in the heart of the New Forest National Park.
When entering the event you could choose from three different routes – Fun, Standard or Epic, depending upon your cycling ability. The Fun route took you on a 40 mile ride around Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst and Beaulieu, cycling through some lovely areas of the New Forest. The 70 mile Standard route and the 100 mile Epic route took you around Brockenhurst, Lyndhurst and Beaulieu, but these routes also took you further North heading towards Salisbury and as far South as Norkywood.
Due to my lack of fitness and recent arm injury thanks to crashing in a circuit race 5 weeks ago chipping my bone in my elbow, I decided to ride the Standard route which would take me on a lovely 70 mile journey through the forest and heath land. My partner Nikki, with good cycling form coming out of her year’s racing, decided to keep me company for the day.
The trip to Brockenhurst College, the event HQ, took us around 40 minutes from Denmead and was pretty much straight forward as we travelled down the M27 towards junction 2 (Cadnam). The only slight hold-up we encountered after leaving the M27 was when we approached Lyndhurst. Lyndhurst has a one-way system and in the summer months is a bit of a nightmare to travel through. It’s a great little beautiful place to visit though, but be prepared for some heavy traffic as you approach it.
We soon entered Brockenhurst and found the entrance to the college very quickly and were welcomed by the friendly ukcyclingevents team who directed us to the large car park areas. The weather earlier in the morning had not been great – raining, but as we parked up this had blown over thanks to the strong winds. The roads remained damp, but I was just glad to be starting in the dry. For me there’s nothing worse than starting a race, or cycling event, when it’s tipping down with rain and you are getting cold waiting for the off. Many of the entrants had started early, as we had originally planned, but due to our slight laziness in the morning we commenced our 70 mile cycling journey at about 9.20 am as a small group of 5.
Before setting off, the ukcyclingevents team gave us instructions to follow the white arrows on a green background and to observe the caution signs on route, as well as take note of the split direction signs at key points on the course. The route took the riders out of Brockenhurst and into the New Forest itself and through open heath land. Apart from the local traffic, the only other obstacles you had to be careful of were the local wildlife. Horses, cattle, wild pigs and donkeys are allowed to run freely across the land and more often than not they usually decide to hang around the roads like teenagers hanging around parks or street corners.
The sportive event also coincided with CTC Bournemouth’s Gridiron, a 100 mile ride around the New Forest. It made a pleasant change to see cyclists being the more dominant road user on certain parts of the course. As described earlier the route took you through some stunning scenery as you entered the deep lush green forest of the New Forest. The forest hides many quiet lanes and they were a joy to cycle on as they twisted and turned, showing off various open grass areas ideal for family picnics, etc. The New Forest has a lot of small rivers to walk alongside and vast open heath land to walk on or MTB over.
As our ride progressed we came across many other riders enjoying the day out – some racing, some just taking it leisurely, and others just riding at a tempo speed like us. In my mind I wanted to complete the route within 4 hours so every now and then I got on the front, with Nikki tucked in behind me sheltering from the wind, keeping a good speed going.
The route was very well signed and you couldn’t go wrong. Large white arrows on a green background directed the way, and with two feed zones on route that kept you topped up with food and drink. Thanks to High5 there was plenty of energy drinks on hand to complete the ride. We stopped at both feed zones meeting Aaron, one of the organisers, and also a female racing competitor of Nikki’s (during the racing season). Aaron’s brother, Martin, who we met at the start, is also the other half of the organising team.
Thankfully the weather improved during the morning and the roads started to dry out, which was good. On parts of the course we had a lovely tailwind, but on other parts, especially nearing the end, we had a strong headwind. The next feed zone came very quickly after the first feed zone, perhaps too quickly I thought, but I did stop to try out some very tempting chocolate cake. I also picked up some more food bars as I knew we had a fairly big chunk of the ride still to complete and it would be into a headwind for the majority of it. After the second feed zone the 70 mile route took us towards Beaulieu Railway station and over some heath land. I recognised these roads instantly thanks to local road racing held here. These events started at the sports centre in Applemore and ventured into the New Forest heath land and were known as the Heath Races.
We continued southwards passing the Beaulieu entrance and shortly after turned Westerly towards Norkywood. These roads became very quiet and narrow in places, but the strong headwind made this a hard section to cover. We had now covered about 55 miles and with the bulk of the ride behind us we carried on. Around the 60 mile mark my arm injury started to play up and riding became rather uncomfortable, especially as we came across a very bumpy road with potholes every 10 yards or so, which felt like upside down speed bumps, so my arm started to hurt. I kept on changing my position to ease the pain, but the constant vibration through the bars and up my arm caused me to ride towards the centre of the lane where the road surface was much smoother. Eventually we came to the 5 miles to go junction and we were now on a smoother road. Time to rest up I thought, but the 4 hour mark was quickly looming, so with this in mind I kept up the tempo with Nikki behind me and the miles rolled by.
We soon entered Brockenhurst and came up to the finish area. I thought it would be a close call and wondered whether we had managed to finish the ride in less than 4 hours. We entered the finish area and Martin greeted us and asked us for our comments on the route, which I had planned on doing for him a few weeks before the event. After a chat we headed over to the sports hall and took off our cycling shoes before walking in to the hall to grab some refreshments before sitting down at a table to enjoy a well deserved slice of homemade cake and a cup of tea.
In the hall three masseurs were giving massage treatment for free so I decided to write our names down on their waiting list. In the meantime 4 riders from the Southdown Velo Cycling Club entered the room and Shaun Smart, whom we both know very well, was one of them so we had a catch up with him.
I have to say that this event was extremely well organised by Martin and Aaron and the rest of his team of helpers from ukcyclingevents. The whole event was professionally run with plenty of friendly advice and help from start to finish. The routes were well signed and a joy to ride. Next week Martin and his team are organising another sportive ride which starts in the town of Chichester and takes in climbs in and around the South Downs.
Our final time for the ride was 3 hours, 59 minutes and 11 seconds, so we just made the 4 hour target I had set ourselves. It would have been faster by 10 minutes perhaps if we hadn’t stopped and chatted, but we weren’t in any particular hurry.
This was a great event that we both enjoyed immensely and next year we will definitely be back for more of the same.