Southern Sportive Duncton Preview
Posted Tuesday 10th May 2011 –
There’s still chance to sign up for the second event in the Southern Sportive season, the Duncton Sportive which is coming up next weekend.
The South Downs based event is supported by Wilier and Geared Bikes of Chichester, and features all the usual organisation and support that riders have come to expect from the Southern Sportive team. The route is meticulously planned and signed for the best ride possible, feed and support stations and vehicles will be on the route for all riders and electronic chip timing will give instant feedback on your performance at the finish.
The event, nicknamed the Southern Sting for it’s hard closing miles, is the first of two visits to the South Downs for the series in 2011; the second being the headline Southern Sportive itself in September. The two events approach the same set of hills from different ends, yet somehow manage to feel quite different to ride.
The Southern has long been famed a classic course; flowing you into a series of challenges evenly throughout it’s duration and rewarding each hit with some fluid recovery riding. It’s the bigger of the two courses, at 155km and 2250 metres of climbing, yet somehow the shorter Duncton course manges to match it in severity.
At 139km with 2115 m of climbing, Duncton actually packs an extra metre an extra metre of climb per kilometre. But it’s a look at the two profiles that shows the different characters of the rides.
The Southern’s course challenges you throughout, but gives sense of rhythm that will sustain you into the later stages, while Duncton clearly takes more time to start putting you into the red, but when it does, it gives you less breathing space between efforts.
This different approach to pacing and the different start points and course layouts makes for two very distinct days out, for two events that share quite a bit of the same stunning scenery.
You can still enter for this years Duncton Sportive online up until 5pm on Thursday 12th or registration is available on the day of the event from 8:00am. The Southern Sportive is open for booking through the summer while places last, it’s sold out in previous years so best to enter early if you want to guarantee a place.
For more details –
