If you want to see the whole of Norfolk in a day on the bike then this event is for you! The event follows the perimeter of the entire Norfolk border taking in all of the stunning coastline. When you sign up to a 200mile sportive you know it is going to be an early start on the day and this did not disappoint as I set my alarm for the 3am wake up call to drive to Great Yarmouth for the event start at 5am! Luckily the weather was [...]
This is my favourite sportive and my second year of riding it so I now know what to expect so can hopefully complete it faster than last year. The event consists of 8000 riders tackling 15,000ft of climbing over 312km on closed roads. There are also options of riding 167km or 225km on the day tackling most of the major climbs which you can decide during the event or the decision can be made for you if you don’t make the cut off times. The cut off times to complete [...]
Paris Roubaix Growing up watching this event it has always been one for my bucket list and having cycled to Paris before I was really looking forward to riding through this amazing French capital again however, after a last-minute check of the route it appeared to start nowhere near Paris! Arriving at the venue to sign on in good time, which is unlike me, we queued for the doors to open only to be told that they are delaying getting registered by 1 hour with no reason, this would [...]
The Mallorca 312 event is now one of the biggest sportives of the year with over 8,000 riders from all over the world taking on 3 separate routes around the beautiful closed roads of Mallorca. The 167km route is challenging with plenty of climbs. But with lots of groups to ride the flats in it makes it the ideal sportive for most riders. The route The 225km route includes an additional loop by the coast with stunning views and is well worth the extra 60km. Then there is the ultimate [...]
On the weekend of March 22nd – 24th an intrepid band of ten adventurers from Drayton Insurance are embarking on a charity cycle ride from London to Brussels in order to raise for money for Harry vs Neuroblastoma. Harry is 2 years old and suffers from a rare condition known as high-risk neuroblastoma. He is currently undergoing immunotherapy, however this treatment will be finishing soon. With Harry nearing the end of his frontline treatment, everyone is hopeful he will be in remission when he has his next scans in April. [...]
Having completed this event last year and being really impressed we decided to complete it again. However, due to the logistical nightmare of getting to the start we decided to complete it as a 225 mile round trip leaving our car at Dunwich packed with a stove for making coffee and bacon rolls at the end! Good coffee as we know is a key theme for us cyclists and with the impending ride going through the night it was probably even more of a priority. It wasn’t long before we [...]
Evanton – John O’ Groats 101miles This is the last (well hopefully) day of riding as we plan to reach John O’Groats by the end of the day. This was the worst nights sleep that we have had on the journey due to the fact that a seagull was practically in our room making all sorts of noises throughout the night! This only stopped when our alarm went off as think he was scared Robert was going to get his air gun! We managed to get away early again and [...]
Tyndrum – Evanton 128miles We decided to go for an early start this morning although due to a slight mix up between me and Rob as to who was in charge of setting the alarm it was not as early as it should have been! Alistair was already down enjoying the continental breakfast and his opening comment was “I cannot even touch my arse today”, we did think why would you even want to? We left Steve at the hotel to go for his daily swim and wash in the loch. [...]
Crawford to Tyndrum 98miles The topic we debated at breakfast this morning was why do they have square sausages up in Scotland but could not come up with any reasonable explanation in the end. Robert is still struggling to get his brain in gear in the morning as left his glasses, well Alistair’s actually as borrowing them, at the B&B! Thankfully Steve drove back for us and delivered them back to us in the van Tour De France style. I’m sure Robert hung on to the van for a little [...]
Milnthorpe – Crawford 110miles The mood in the camp this morning was mixed. Rob woke up and tried to get his brain in gear just to get himself dressed, I was trying to book the next night’s accommodation and ended up ringing up the same B&B twice only to be told again they had no availability! The focus of today was getting over Shap pass which is a 9mile climb totalling 1,200ft. Alistair’s arse was still a little bit sore and we made a slight adjustment to the [...]
