Sportives are big business these days. With increasing numbers of cyclists wanting to prove themselves in mass participation events (not races) there’s serious money to be made from a pretty ‘loaded’ demographic.
Don’t believe the hype (of other events)
You don’t need to be seduced by glossy ads to be assured of a high quality event. Indeed, the Wild Wales Challenge might just take the title of the best value sportive ever. Value might not be the right word though… If you were to play a word association game on that theme, you might end up going down a cheesy, tacky alley, with connotations of low budget and compromise. Make no mistake, this is not the Ryanair of cycling sportives.
Yes, it may cost only a fraction of some of the ‘mainstream’ events.
The feedstations might not be sponsored by commercial energy product providers and it may not be as well supported in terms of marshalls and signage, but one could argue that other events spoon feed people too much anyway, discouraging the development of essential skills like being able to navigate a route for yourself.
Wonderful Welsh Wilderness
The real star of the show of course, is the countryside. This is Wales after all. Even as a local, I’m always delighted that the route always delivers a fresh perspective with some hitherto unknown stretch of road. Guaranteed to blow your mind, and possibly your legs too.
I’ll be filming again this year so give us a wave and say hi to the Rhyl CC crowd. You can’t miss us in our orange jerseys.
The route has been carefully prepared using ridewithGPS, and is available here. (beware of inaccurate duplicates on the site, created by non official sources)
The official route is set to private, so would not display within the widget below. Therefore, I’ve duplicated it within RWGPS, in order to display it properly within the widget. It is an exact clone of the official route file.
Hey, why not ‘like’ the Wild Wales Challenge facebook page?
First WWC for me. Like a kid at Christmas just now – I can’t wait to get over the start line. Probably a good thing I’m working tomorrow to give me something else to think about. Look out for us in the Chorley CC black and green.