| Date: | Sunday 16th, October 2011 |
|---|---|
| From: | Claremont Hospital, Sheffield |
| To: | Claremont Hospital, Sheffield |
| Mileage: | 100km / 50km |
| Ascent: | 1300m / 560m |
| Total miles to date: | n/a |
| Total ascent to date: | n/a |
It was a clear but chilly start from Claremont Hospital on Sunday morning for the 200 plus riders for the Ride of the Falling Leaves sportive, organized by CSMAPC and the Out of the Saddle Cycle Club.
Ahead lay a choice of two routes – a challenging 50km route and the full 100km route desgned by Team Sky’s Russell Downing and using the roads he trained on for this year Giro d’Italia.
The ‘road’ pros from the previous day’s Rollapaluza event – Russell Downing (Team Sky), Dean Downing and James McCallum (Rapha Condor Sharp), Tom Barras (CyclePremier.com-Metaltek), Liam Holohan (Team Raleigh) and Hannah Barnes (Motorpoint Pro Cycling) stayed on to ride with the entrants, mixing freely and chatting with riders along the course and were joined by British cycling legend Malcolm Elliot (Motorpoint Pro Cycling).
As the route sped away from the hospital on a long gentle descent the riders could be forgiven for wondering what all this ‘professional training route’ fuss was about, but they were soon to find out…
A right turn onto the appropriately named Long Lane revealed the first incline, and it was straight up! A tricky descent was followed immediately by an even steeper climb up to Grenoside before two further long drags took riders to the most northern point of the route.
Turning south we headed onto the infamous Strines – one of Downing’s favourite roads and where he really finds out where his form is at. After an initial climb is was steep descent followed by steeper climb, followed by… well, you get the idea.
The key to the Strines is that it’s what you make it. Although the climbs are incredibly steep they’re all short, so most riders can grind their way up them, meaning that however you attacked them, everyone got a feeling for what an average day at work for a pro can feel like.
Following a welcome feed stop, the second half of the route consisted of two long climbs and two rewarding long descents then a pleasant run back to Claremont Hospital.
The first climb from Bamford to Stanage consists of two steep sections separated by a rolling middle section. The descent down ‘Fiddlers Elbow’ from the top is an epic though.
The final climb of Froggat is long for Britain at over 3 miles. Although never too steep it seems to go on forever, especially with 50 miles of tough cycling already in the legs. Nevertheless, by now the sun was breaking through and reaching the top signaled that the hard work was over.
Danny and many of the From Surgeon to Surgery riders completed the 50km course, thoroughly enjoying themselves riding with Dean Downing.
Myself and a couple of other of the Danny Porter Foundation riders took on the 100km route, Pete Cholerton and Glen Saxton taking things in their stride whilst new recruit Phil Wilkinson, who ridden for us in the Rollapaluza event at short notice the day before, stormed round to finish near the head of the field.
I thoroughly enjoyed myself, the mixture of a great cycling route and seeing so many riders out enjoying themselves whilst contributing to the Danny Porter Foundation cause was very rewarding. I had the delightful (and always cheerful) Hannah Walker as a riding companion across the Strines and cycled into the finish with another group who seemed to have enjoyed their day out.
A massive, massive thank you to Tony Barrett of Claremont Hospital/CSMAPC who put in lots of effort and resources to make sure the weekend ran smoothly. Thanks to Dean and Russ Downing for encouraging the pro riders to come along, their presence certainly gave the event a special flavor. Thanks (if that’s the right word) also to Russ for the route.
The staff at Claremont Hospital were superb and looked after us all weekend with some amazing food and last but not least the masseurs who donated all their takings to the Foundation and looked shattered when I stumbled in for my post ride rub!
Stuart Grainger, Trustee, Danny Porter Foundation
All photographs on this page used with kind permission of Martin Holden, EnergyPics Photography
