The Great Western Sunday Sportive

Rated Event: 91.1%

Andy247 wrote:

Good course, good company, well organised and a fair challenge

Rated Event: 92.2%

wrote:

Superb event in beautiful countryside - really enjoyed it

Rated Event: 97.8%

wrote:

Great event. Lovely route.

Registration on the day was a bonus for those of us who missed earlier announcements! :-)

Rated Event: 90.0%

wrote:

The start parking and registration was very good. The route was enjoyable with some tasty hills thrown in also very well signed and foodstops were great manned by very freindly people with good food stuffs. Thanks for a great event and will be doing it next year, a great T shirt aswell.

Rated Event: 95.5%

wrote:

very very good i only give 10/10 to hq's with showers but this is still spot on

Rated Event: 89.9%

wrote:

I mistakenly took the long route as the turn-off for this was just before the mid-route divide with no indication that I should carry straight on. Guess I should have checked the map more thoroughly- stupid thing is I'd recced the ride by car the week before. Have to agree about the terrible and hugely dangerous road section on Ashbury Hill- though the major potholes were outlined in fluoro yellow. This was way too dangerous!! My saddle broke and threw me off the bike on Blowingstones Hill- god I hate that place- please remove from next years event. Otherwise, stunning scenery and good organisation, but what happened to the 2000 rider field advertised???

Rated Event: 87.7%

wrote:

Beautiful route - really enjoyed the ride. 3rd feed station seemed a long way, although I don't really know if it actually was. However, overall really enjoyed it. Beautiful weather and beautiful countryside.

Rated Event: 96.6%

wrote:

Excellent new event taking the old Sunday Sportive to a new level. An interesting and sufficiently challenging 170k route on very quiet roads with great scenery. The organisational standards were as expected by this team now. Well done on bookng the sun too.

Rated Event: 88.8%

unknown wrote:

An enjoyable event, professionally organised and with friendly, helpful staff. The medium route passed through some wonderful scenery with enough challenging climbs to keep it interesting, without being brutal. I have just a few criticisms: the instruction route signs (not arrows) were so small you had to be almost next to them to read them; some confusion occurred because a local run had been organised on part of the same route as the sportive, using very similar signage, again the difference was only apparent quite close to; a stretch of road in the last 20 miles, I think it was Ashbury, was one of the worst road surfaces I've ever ridden a road bike on, and I'm no stranger to bad roads, to make it worse it was on a rapid descent and overhung by trees causing dappled shade, making it too dangerous for a sportive. Overall, a good sportive that I hope develops year on year.

Rated Event: 99.9%

Hosser wrote:

Perfect Sportive. Great route and well organised. Breathtaking scenery on very quiet roads - relatively very few cars seen. Great support from the 'sagwagon' a friendly chap got me going again after a tyre blow out. Perfect weather made for a perfect sportive. Looking forward to next year's.

Rated Event: 94.4%

wrote:

Excellent Sportive. Definately deserves to become Southern Englands Premier Sportive.

Rated Event: 95.5%

wrote:

Some roads very poor surfaces after rough winter. Missed one poorly marked turn in a fast moving pack and nearly brought us all down as we braked to turn around. Only a couple of decent hills. Finish into Swindon awkward and sort of petered out.

Rated Event: 88.8%

wrote:

First the plusses - A well organised event and a good challenging route with a few fairly steep climbs. Good parking facilities. Mainly traffic free route. Plenty of post-event snacks and beverages on offer.
Now the minuses - I was disappointed to find that the entrance fee would only afford me half a banana and not a whole one at the feed stations. There were no toilets provided at the feed stations.
Some of the roads were in a poor state of repair and the route had some dangerous sharp turns with less than adequate signage.
The souvenir t-shirt was not very appealing and will probably end up being used to clean my bike.
I've done three sportives this year and this one gets the lowest mark from me.