Rated Event: 91.111%
Lisa N wrote:
I rode the 88 mile Bronte Monster. It's a very tough route - by far the hardest thing I've ever done - but a hugely rewarding one. Riding part of the Tour de France route with the riders' names still painted on the tarmac is pretty inspiring, the scenery is stunning and some of the descents are incredible! The course designer definitely knew what they were doing with the extra bit on the Monster compared with the 71 mile route - it's definitely not 'just' an extra 16 miles, lining up some of the toughest climbs of the day back to back. The category 3 final climb maxing out at over 20% is just brutal.
Communication in advance and afterwards was very good, route signage and GPX file were spot on and feed stations were well positioned and well stocked. A very high standard of event considering it's run by volunteers for charity. My only criticisms are very minor ones - it would have been nice to have isotonic/energy drinks at feed stations (but at least this was made clear in advance, meaning I came prepared with tablets to add to the water) and also (for me as a non-coffee drinker) the option of gels without caffeine, if the day hadn't been so warm I'd probably have been inconvenienced by the lack of toilets at feed stations, and the gold/silver/bronze standards are very ambitious (nobody at all got gold - it requires 88 miles and 10,000ft at >19mph!) which might annoy those interested in that kind of thing. But none of these detracted from a fantastic day in the saddle - chapeau to all involved!
