by Andrew G » Thu May 10, 2007 8:10 pm
[quote="Maria David"]...Also to Sean, Andrew, David, Adrian et al, have fun riding your nine hills - remember it's only nove colli if you do the whole 200km...
Thanks Maria, I know what you're saying about doing the full distance. I was humming and harring for quite a long time about doing the full 9 hills. I think I could do it, but have decided to stick to the short one for the following reasons. (I've quite a big bag of excuses I rummage around in periodically
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1) It's my first cycling holiday and I want to enjoy a decent amount of cycling in the week before, if I did the long one I think I'd need to rest up for a while before and miss out on some of this.
2) Doing the long one I'd have to use real tortoise pacing techniques, which I know I wouldn't enjoy as much.
3) I'm NOT a climber of any description so I think I'd get fed up with that much climbing, again spoiling my enjoyment.
4) I think I can have a fair go at a reasonable pace for the shorter route. Again I think I'll get a lot more enjoyment out of this than a longer slower ride.
5) I've never done a sportive before so probably best to start steady. Hence doing a more exotic one in Italy than heading for Wales or Yorkshire.
6) I'm not as tough as you are, bit of a wuss really.
7) Smallest gear is 53/29 so no emergency super twiddling gear if it goes badly wrong.
Is that enough, I could rummage about and come up with some more.
I like the sportive idea of a challenging ride but would prefer the challenge to be flatter / more rolling and quicker, rather than just relentless climbing. I'm going to look at the Picardie one You and Aodan mentioned.
To be honest I think the long/short route split is a bit out of kilter. I'd like the shorter one to be 20k longer with a 5th climb, I think that would make for a very good ride.
Cheers and thanks for the tips in your talk,
Andrew.