Off-road sportives

There's an upsurge of cross-country sportives this winter, with series of events mainly down south and around London.  An off-road event isn't totally tracks and bridleways; there can be 60% or more of tarmac and then plenty of gravel and solid farm roads, and then may be just 25% or so of dirt, single-track and mud...

For the normal roadie, used strictly to tarmac, this sort of mixture of surfaces can be definitely challenging.  No doubt experienced mountain bikers will smile when I say that for a roadie any deviation of direction taken by the bike is alarming.  If the front wheel moves from under you then a crash is likely to happen, if your back wheel loses traction you may well fall off.

Off-road, though, is different.  It involves almost constant deviation.  Your wheels are rarely going in the same direction, its best not to be too precious about where your front wheel is going - just so long as it generally in the direction you want.  If your back wheel is sliding left and right that's not a problem - just keep it turning around and everything will be alright, probably.

Here's a couple of events I've reviewed for Cyclosport:

Wiggle Wildwood 80km CX sportive

Evans Ride It Hampshire Sportive Cross