Cheshire Cobbled Classic - Anyone Done It?

Beeston Brow was, well, a beast really. Wasn't expecting another section that late. Followed my mate burning up for the photographer who promptly collapsed around the corner - just where it gets steep - I felt obliged to crack on to the top. Last stretch through the Park was great, found a great cadence to just push on.

Did it on my trusty cube cross bike pro, managed all climbs and won some beer for getting up the corkscrew, Great event very well organized will be back next year.

I did it on my winter/cross bike. With bombproof 32mm Marathon tyres on. So no puncture problems. Was a good event I thought - I think I spent 70% of the ride on the small ring. Sure theres just 12 sections of cobbles - but theres a lot of hills.
And some hills are cobbled too. Didnt attempt Corkscrew as it was too congested at the start and not very clear on the route. Walked it up just to see though.

Last hill - Beeston Brow foiled me too - got about half way before an attack of cramp convinced me to walk the rest.

That beer was nice at the finish.

Anyone else there yesterday? Fairly tough day in the saddle I thought. Regular carbon road bike with usual 23s on. Lots of people got up the corkscrew this year. I would have of course but got stuck in traffic when the guy in front fell off. Cough, that's it yes. Cobble now in back garden, Leffe drunk. Waffles are my new gel for sure, went down nicely!

Me and a mate did ToBC last year, and he also did CCC.
Well organised rides, and the parcours having pave etc. means it puts off many of the idiots you get in most sportives these days.
Plus the feed stops are immense!

Can not do June as prepping for the Alps, but looked at the July one but booked in for one run by MAMIL in Bridgnorth/Shropshire hills.

That stafford ride one would be fun as I often ride in that area and would book end the Stafford CC reliability ride which is on next weekend and I am going to.

I saw this a few weeks ago and could not do this one but doing the Tour of the Black Country instead which is based on Paris-Roubaix with a velodrome finish. Really looking forward to this one as not many good quality sportives locally.

I rode on ribble carbon with Vittoria pave no problems, plan to use cross bike this year and a camel back, as I was a bit worried about damage to frame from lots of pave, and won't need to worry about losing bottles.

Did this last year, got my cobble very good sportive only criticism was the feed station wasn't great (take a few extra gels) but didn't spoil the day. The ride was great as was signage and marshaling. I'm going to ride this year.

I rode it on my carbon road bike, kept the existing 23mm tyres on, well pumped up as usual (110 psi) and had no issues. Compact was fine. In the dry I don't see what all the fuss about cobbles is really. They're fun, don't grip the bars for grim death, just keep pedalling.

Loads of other peoples water bottles were going flying on the cobbled sections, and just near the end, as I thought I'd got away with losing one of mine, I looked down to see one had made a bid for freedom and I hadn't noticed. So if you can bend your cages so they fit tightly round your bottles, all the better.

The corkscrew wasn't all that. It was more the fact the cobbles up it were muddy and I lost grip due to this rather than "45%" being too steep to ride. Tarmac that steep would have been fine. Apparently, only a guy on a mountain bike made it up.

I live fairly local to the route, done variations on a theme of it loads of times. In fact I've still got a KOM on one of the cobbled bits!

I got in with the Sportive last year quite by accident, didn't even know it was on until I overtook a group of riders going up Beeston Brow, got talking to them and found out about it. I turned off onto a different route after a while because the standard of riding from some of the participants was frankly awful, I witnessed one very near miss with a car solely caused by rider stupidity.

Obviously can't comment on the feed stations or sportive logistics but the route itself is pretty good, got some nice little testing climbs in it. In dry weather you can do it all on a standard road bike; doing it in winter I'd use a CX.

A lot of this is the edge of High Peak. I know the Brickworks but it seems a shame to come down Blaze hill not go up (seems like a waste of Kinetic Energy going into heating my rims, increasing entropy and bringing on the end of the Universe and that, thanks Prof Cox.) Go the other way from Wilmslow towards Jodrell Bank and Northwich and knutsford and it is just rolling.

How much of this is actually cobbled?

https://www.strava.com/activities/203739709

Yep, I did it this year with a mate.

Good fun, the cobbles add an element of interest - fortunately it was dry this year, I dread to think if it had been wet.

It was fairly low key, only about 200 riders, so not one of these massive sportive events. Food stops had belgian waffles, dark chocolate and other belgian themed treats.

And it was also surprisingly hilly. I was thinking Cheshire plains but I couldn't have been more wrong.

Well worth doing!