Location - Clipstone Mansfield
Date - 20 July 2024 My plans for lots of gravel riding fell apart this year, I had planned to do the Glorious Gravel Slovenia, but my anxieties had to settle for something a little more local, so Sherwood Forest is was
Travel There
It was only a couple of hours drive from mine to the place that we booked, so
Before the event
So I did very little planning for the day, turn up and ride being my moto these days, but in this case I wish I had done a little more, the night before I had discovered that the route went past that cottage that we were staying in, and putting the post code of the start location, gave me a two mile ride to the start, with that i went to bed
Next morning, woke early, felt good and made early start to the start of the race, which is a good job, as the route that I had plotted the night before finish in the middle of a housing estate, hmm this doesn't sound right, thankfully I had the great idea to load the actual route and let the Garmin navigate to the start ... it was another 3 miles on, I made it in plenty of time, but better planning next time please
The Event
The roll out was pretty steady, I was already warmed up with my getting lost getting there, so moved myself to the front without maying myself out to be a dick, and just settled into riding, about 5 miles in 3 guys came past me a little quicker than me, and I decided to tack onto them, which was kinda fun and did some turns. the first stop came up rather quickly, only 20 miles in, we spoke grabed some food, I did a little bit of faffing with my GoPro and when I came out of the toilet, the group had already gone, which made me a little sad, but is the way of these things
About 2 miles after 1st stop I caught up to the little group again, they had got lost, we gained another one in the group, and we push on to the next feed stop, all of them were doing the medium route which slit just after feed station 2, I stopped they went on, be we weren't going the same way anyway
I'd enjoyed the route up until this point, seemed like a good mix of gravel roads and forest single track, but when then middle and long routes parted it seemed like a "bolt on" I didn't see as many people and there was a fair bit of sides of fields, good ride, but not as good as the early parts of the ride, this pretty much contined until the final feed station, where the forest feel of the ride returned The third and final feed station was at the 77Km mark, which left it a fairy way from the end, I'd been eating well, but stopped to fill up the water and take on some more food, at this point (like I just said) the route became a lot more forestry with a lot more single track, there were a few places were the long and short seperated, but that was fine
Came off the fireroad around the 90km mark turned left onto a road section only to find that the police were shutting the road due to and accident, I made the stupid comment to the police officet that I didn't know where I was and was doing an event, but god knows what he was going to do, thankfully I came to me sense and applogised and discovered that there were a group of other riders coming back down the road, we all stopped together and planned out escape, well I just let them sort it out and I followed, and we head of in a deviation of the course, I really am unimpressed by the Garmin 1040's ability to help in these situations, all it wanted to do is guide me back to where I left the course, but I have to give it the other guys, we found our way, and after a while the Garmin started to want to guide me back to the course
Summary
These Glorious Gravel events are good, I enjoyed the ride, getting in a little group and riding where you don't know is fun, but don't feel that they are great value, £60 for the long, and it was a nice route, but the food stops where basic,
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