Anyone lose a jacket on the Dragon Sportive ?

[Banjo]

I picked one up off the road, meant to hand it in but forgot.

Send me a message stating make size and colour and I will post it.

Ride went great right up until my rear gear cable broke at 150 km point. Tried tying it to a cable guide to keep it in low gear for climbing the Bwlch but it kept slipping, remembered a trick someone told me ,loosened a bottlecage bolt tensioned it up and clamped it down under the bolt head.

This kept it in low gear and was ok on the climbs but very frustrating on the flat bits.

With all this faffing about it took me 10 hours 20 minutes for the 200 kms, I had been on track for about 9 up till then so was a bit dissapointed but pleased to get around without resorting to the sag wagon.



Quite an experience doing a ride with over 4000 riders.

[bikey-mikey]

Hi Banjo

I rode the Dragon Ride, but don't get excited, as it wasn't my jacket. 

However, re the mechanical, I read somewhere that when your gear cable snaps you can adjust the high / low screws, which stop the changer from going into the spokes, or into the dropout so that you can only get one sprocket.  I know it's too late now, but then again it probably will happen to someone reading this someday....

I had a really good day, catching several high speed mini leadout trains, and as a result I got round in 7:43:23

[Banjo]

Good time that BM. The Descent from top of Rhigos to Glyn Neath is something to remember.  Didnt like the scary steep descent off the Cimla hill though especially in the wet.

Not sure if the stop screws would push it right across a 10 speed cassette though as I needed my bottom gear to do the climbs.  Will have to try it one dayt for future reference.

[bikey-mikey]

I know whqt you mean about that descent - we were following a tractor which had to stop for a bus coming the other way, and it was chaos...

Almost as much fun as when someone lost their chain two minutes after the start just after we went under the motorway, at which time we were ten abreast and going at around 200mph....

[Banjo]

Apparently there's been a problem with the timing recording. Lots of peoples timing chips didn't work. I think mine was a duff one as I heard the machine beep when someone rode over but not when I did. Personally I am not bothered but suspect some of the more competitive riders will be fuming.

[Double J]

Apparently there's been a problem with the timing recording. Lots of peoples timing chips didn't work. I think mine was a duff one as I heard the machine beep when someone rode over but not when I did. Personally I am not bothered but suspect some of the more competitive riders will be fuming.

Just been on Dragon website to see official times and hardly any times listed. Those times which are listed many seen dodgy (e.g. 120km in 2 hr 14 minutes). Notice says they have had problems with timing chips, so all pretty embarrassing for organisers Wiggle. That's enough of sportives for me, should have saved the £30+ and the hour waiting to cross the start line and just rode around with my old reliable Timex.

Never have these problems with AUDAX events.

[Banjo]

Have to agree the timing thing is not good and the start procedure needs thinking about. One obvious answer would be to start the medio 120 km riders after the gran fondo200 km riders.

I think the dodgy finish times are due to people entering a longer event than they actually rode. 

My chip only worked once on ther split time mat by the hardware shop on the Bwlch  but as my time was embarrasing Im not bothered

Having said all that I still enjoyed the day and will do more sportives in future The speed some of the club groups powered up hills astonished me, I only got to see this due to being near the front of the starting que then watching them power past me.

[bikey-mikey]

Total balls up.. 'Computer says' top 5 men completed 200 k in under 4 hours..  

They say they did not give people enough information on how to attach the chips.  Mine is still attached with, if you look closely, the slightest of bends (maybe 1 cm top to bottom), but the green plastic wire supplied was too short to let them hang free, and anyway if they were loose they would have been flapping all over the place and bent more than that in the wind...

One thing that was OK were the bananas, (both of them) cos the accelerade (that's what they called it) tasted like dishwater..  a few swigs and I chucked it...

Next year I may wait in the road without a number, and ride it anyway as a protest - lets all do that - MAYBE WE COULD HAVE AN AUDAX ON THE SAME ROUTE ON THE SAME DAY for £4-50 ??

And I want my money back.........  

[Banjo]

Re the ridiculuously fast  timings ,in fairness to the organizers they are caused by people entering the 200 then doing the 120.

 re the timing thing.The green twist ties supplied wouldnt fit my oversize bars so i used some cable ties left slack enough to keep the thing straight, Still didnt work.

Re the comparison with Audax  I did the Rhonndda traverse this year over the Bwlch Rhigos and a few other significant South Wales climbs . My time was recorded  accurately by Dai Mountaingoat with a pen at Merthyr Leisure Center and my split timings by the girls in the 2 cafe stops.

Not quite as many riders though

[Double J]

Re the comparison with Audax  I did the Rhonndda traverse this year over the Bwlch Rhigos and a few other significant South Wales climbs . My time was recorded  accurately by Dai Mountaingoat with a pen at Merthyr Leisure Center and my split timings by the girls in the 2 cafe stops.

Not quite as many riders though

I was also on the Traverse a couple of months back and it was significantly harder than the 120 dragon, which I have my suspicions was a few K short of 120.

Likewise, to be fair to the dragon entrants, you would have thought the organisers of the biggest sportive in UK would have tried and tested all the timing gear rigorously before the event. You would also think that if the cards had been found to be susceptible to damage by any margin of bending, then they should have been mounted on a rigid background.

It looks like the organisers are attempting to provide times if you submit the query sheet, but how accurate this will be is questionable, as there are probably a bunch of guys going through video tapes I type.

I agree, next year there will probably a lot of riders without tags and timed watches, me included.