Wiggle Hellfire Corner

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4 Replies to “Wiggle Hellfire Corner”

  1. Hi Vince,
    nice write up!
    living on Sheppey i couldn’t believe Wiggle had put on an event on my door step.
    myself and 3 others booked up early and prayed for good weather, in hindsight we should have prayed for good weather the day before as it didn’t stop raining until late hours of sunday. The storm the previous week had littered the course in debris too.
    checking the route i wasn’t sure on some of the roads? and was surprised to find several of the local big hills were not part of the route? (hollingbourne and boxley)
    due to the weather and my buddy riding on his steel winter bike i decided to ride on my MTB and fitted some slick tyres and mud guards, what a good idea that was! my Viner would have been screwed!
    the decent from detling was like a tractor lane, and passing 10+ riders with punctures was not looking good.
    the route was ok, but some lovely smooth roads and scenery were sadly missed?
    at one point we came across a farmer in his 4×4 blocking the road while he closed a gate and was yelling for us to “f*cking go back” ???
    a young rider and his dad were just infront of me, who i felt so sorry for! he’s trying to encourage his boy into cycling and yet this rude intimidating bloke was screaming at him to go back. idiot.
    after stopping for hot soup (my mate carried in his pannier) at doddington it was my turn to puncture.
    then on in was further dodging potholes and mud, until the soul destroying climb upto the finish, where i wish id left the off road tyres on!
    all in 52 miles in 3:22 avg 15.5mph (strava)
    official time 3:41:54 so a silver time. happy with that on a 14kg MTB
    hopefully wiggle will take on peoples comments for next year, change the route and make the kent sportive truly amazing.

    1. Hi Nathan,

      Thanks for your report. And well-done for that time on a MTB! Looks like you picked the right bike, but maybe the wrong tyres. “Soul-destroying” is a very apt description of those last 4 miles! Although a friend of mine who suffered five punctures described the whole event as “character-building”! The more comments I read, the more I realise how bloody lucky I was not to puncture, even though I was often travelling at speed straight through those large piles of debris that accumulate in the centre of the road. And I had racing tyres on!

      That farmer sounds like a total jerk!

      Good luck on the next one!

  2. Completed standard yesterday and was my first sportive. Whilst I enjoyed the challenge of the climbs the roads were very bad with debris and potholes and had 4 punctures. (the riders in the car parked next to me said they had five punctures between them and decided to complete the standard course instead of epic mid-race because of the condition of roads. I think they definitely need to re-consider the route as there are much better conditions over towards gravesend/all hallows.

    1. Hi Gary, thanks for your comments. There seems to be a general consensus of opinion about this sportive. I guess we should all feedback to the organisers about this. In case anyone wants to, the details are http://www.ukcyclingevents.co.uk/contact/.
      I’m sorry to hear about your punctures. I’m beginning to feel a bit guilty about getting away scot-free! If there’s anyone out there who didn’t puncture, please comment! I’m starting to feel left out!

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