I have to echo all that has been said before…it was a really good sportive and true to it”s name a “challenge”-especially at the end!
I’m not ashamed to say I walked a section of the 25 % monster at 80 odd miles ( I can’t remember the last time I walked…I think I must have been under 10! ). I was “trying” to cycle up but zig zagging made me cross the rubbish in the middle of the road and the wheel slipped and that was it..it was impossible to restart…quite frankly, I didn’t want to anyway! I take my hat off to Andrew and Mark they should be rightly proud of cycling up ….even though I suspect I wasn’t going much slower pushing ! If it had been wet,as one could have expected in March, then none of us would have cycled up and at least one of us would have had problems with some precipitous descents.I think the organisers were slightly taking the piss!…where does road biking end and mountain biking begin? Anyway it doesn’t detract from being one the best sportives I’ve been on so far and I thoroughly enjoyed the day – thanks boys 