Mark and I have signed up to do our first sportive. For those not familiar with this, a sportive (or cyclosportive) is a mass-participation bicycle event that combines elements of road bicycle racing and long distance bicycle touring. Some cyclosportives offer a choice of routes of different lengths or difficulty. Although a cyclosportive is definitely not a cycle race, to define it you could say it falls between a traditional road race and a non-competitive event. Riders sometimes carry a number and the time they take to complete the course is recorded, and there is sometimes an upper time limit within which the course must be completed. The routes will usually be well sign-posted and/or marshalled riders will be able to use feeding stations positioned at intervals along the route to replenish their food and drink supplies, and mechanical and medical support may also be provided.
The name of the sportive we are doing is the Cheshire Cat, a loop ride based out of Knutsford. The event has three lengths at 37, 66 and 102 miles. Since it is the first ride of the year and we (well me really) have put on a nice layer of winter fat, we will be riding the 37 mile (60 km) event. We are thinking that we should be able to do this in the required 2 hours if we put in some saddle time. I have been using my turbo trainer which is great if a little boring. The cold weather we have been having looks to break soon so we should be able to hit the lanes!
Chuck
