The ride was taking part in a very nice part of the World, Pembrokeshire, which made it a bit nicer - I'll try not to get too distracted talking about the place. By the date of the ride over 1000 riders had signed up, there were three choices 50, 75 and 100 mile (although all were slightly over) with the 100 mile riders starting first between 7-8, 50 milers between 8-9 and 50s thereafter. The weather on the day was slightly overcast and very blustery - still managed to get tan lines though!
This was me (on the left) and my friend Paul at the start. Paul was riding in the 50 mile ride and as such left an hour before me and we met back up in the pub beer garden at the finish.
The ride itself was quite enjoyable, the freshly shit-sprayed fields and their stench aside, with many ups and downs. The biggest of the climbs was on the half way point where we climbed a 903 foot climb with a 3.4% gradient, relatively speaking it was mostly downhill after that. Early on there were a few nice descents down to sea level before ascending steep, short climbs to get back out but the views were great.
At the final feed station they had some unique items to choose from including cold welsh faggots (http://bizarrebritain.com/welsh-faggots-a-meaty-treat/ - yes it is strange to have these a) cold and most certainly b) on a ride) and dahl samosas oddly enough. The final stretch then was back into St David's where the ride started. What they didn't let on is that the final part of the course takes you down to the cathedral, of which the place is famous for (smallest city in the World due to said cathedral), and then has a last steep climb up to the finish line - which was tiring!
Overall I finished in 5hours and 23 mins - this of course includes the stopping times at the feed stations and all the pics I took along the way, more on that later.
For a first sportive I would recommend a 50 miler as opposed to anything more, purely because you know you can finish it and don't have to worry about making it back on time - on top of all the other things you will be constantly thinking about on the way round.
I would recommend the Pembrokeshire sportive: http://www.tourofpembrokeshire.co.uk/ it was well organised and the help on hand by Pembrokeshire bikes was great; I had a minor drama with my crank shaft and brakes - no thanks to Evans Bikes who I will never be using again (might tell you more about this later). I would highly recommend staying in the lovely city of St David's if you do intend riding this in future, there are some lovely pubs and some excellent food if you look for it.
All in all, a lovely ride in a lovely part of the World.
