Wildwood CX Sportive Beats The Weather

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Posted Saturday 2nd February 2013 –

The third Wildwood CX Sportive took place at the weekend in the Chilterns. After three years, the event is a growing hit with riders (drawing 500 entries), and after a week of every kind of winter weather, the organisers say the event format has proved itself too.

“The last couple of weeks have seen the conditions you dread as an event organiser”, says Phil Harrison from the Cycle Events Organisation. “A week before the event, there was practically a blizzard, then snow and ice everywhere for days. Just the day before the event, there was still a lot of half thawed snow and ice high up, and on the day itself, all that was replaced by the inevitable floods. The event was great though; maybe all the better for it!

CX Sportives are designed to take in a variety of terrains, rewarding a versatile bike (and rider). The beauty of the format is that, by constantly shifting from tarmac to dirt and back, a good course designer can create a circuit that is rideable and robust in even the worst conditions. “There’s no doubt, we would have cancelled a road event that day. A full MTB event could have gone ahead, but would have been pretty unpleasant. But the CX was just huge fun, splashing through mud and water, then zipping along the back lanes. We were getting great feedback from riders at the finish. We’re in no doubt, the CX movement is going places, and we’ll be expanding our CX calendar next season!”

cx-sportive-dirt-bike

The next CX Sportive is the Southern Sting on March 10th, on the South Downs near Petworth, you can find full details and entry at –

cxsportive.com