Sportives without a car?

Quite late in the season, but a short ride from penzance train station is the Lands End 100 in october, really spectacular route, well worth the trip, and the train journey has some pretty amazing views between plymouth and exeter too. http://www.tempusleisure.org.uk/default.aspx?page=587

There's also the plymouth gran fondo, also on the penzance/paddington line in May.

Maybe join a club and share transport to some events ?

Train is great but a lot of sportives take place on a Sunday which means fewer trains. It can sometimes be hard to get to the start on time. Some alternatives are B&B the night before close to the start, or hire a car or join a car club.

The alternative is don't do the sportive, but do the same/similar route yourself on a different day, which gives you more flexibility in terms of mode of transport. Sportives are getting very expensive so I'd avoid them to be honest (with one or two exceptions for the really great events). Do your own thing or stick to audaxes.

Another Dorking based event is Cycling Weekly Surrey Cyclone:
http://www.ukcyclingevents.co.uk/events/cycling-weekly-surrey-hills-cycl...

The SRS events rides are usually crackers. I've done a few based out of Burgess Hill. Ridden there from London, ridden the sportive, ridden back. Or you could get the train to Brighton and nip over the Beacon...

I'm doing the prudential ride London 100 in August. I'm riding my bike to the Travelodge at Waterloo, from Southampton, on the Saturday, staying over night Saturday and Sunday, then riding back to Southampton on the Monday. When I lived in Fulham, I used to ride down to Ashurst in the new forest, do the Wiggle Sportives, stop overnight in one of the myriad of hostelries round that way, then ride back to Fulham the following day. It helps with the post sportive stiffness no end, and I always found I recovered more quickly doing it that way.

Thanks JonD, I think I ran into them riding up Ranmore Hill when I was on my way home

I'm in the same situation but the problem I find is that the trains don't run early enough on the Sunday. Hoping to Chiltern 100 with the train but most events can be a bit tricky. I would suggest you join a club though. Sunday club rides are great.

If the event is is close enough and they do a shorter route, then cycle out, do the short sportive, then cycle home. I did this last year, I cycled 20 miles to the start, chose the 60mile route, then cycled 20 miles home. You still get in the century and the last few miles are on roads you already know.

much as I'm an advocate of train travel... if you've got a licence, a small hire car really isn't that expensive for a weekend. Might need to take the wheels off, and it won't be fun to drive, but often cheaper than a late-booked train. if you can find a friend even cheaper.

Audax. Save yourself a fortune.......just two....
http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/15-583/
http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/15-112/

Hundreds more.

Enjoy.

One word of caution if using a train.

If you're travelling from London to a sportive I'm thinking that there may well be others with the same idea and bike space on the train might be limited. Up here (in Scotland) you can reserve your bike space a week in advance on some intercity routes. Costs nowt. Maybe it's the same down south?

Get the train to Manchester then ride home?

Monksie from STW rode from the velodrome in London to the velodrome in Manchester in a day, he loved it.... (when he got off his bike!)

Best check details on the web, but there's the (Sutton & Cheam CTC ?) Hilly50 tomorrow - only 50km but hilly Starts from Rykers cafe at the bottom of Box Hill, nearest station Boxhill & Westhumble.

On sunday is the Surrey Rumble, run by Twickenham CC, goes from Cobham.

First is mebbe a fiver, the second 17..

One I'm entering this year for the first time, the Chiltern 100, starts from Bovingdon, which is a short (uphill) ride from Hemel Hempstead train station (itself a 30 min journey from Euston)

For the ones I know about/am attending:

Wiggle Up&Downs Sportive + Wiggle Work From Home Sportive. Both start out of Dorking, so that's a 45-60 minute train journey from Victoria, depending on which train you get. I reckon it's 5-10 minutes on the bike to get to the Friends Life building (guess as I'm not 100% sure where Dorking Station is!). You could also get off at Box Hill & Westhumble - that's ~5 minutes to the race start.

Wiggle Chiltern Classic - High Wycombe. This is about ~40 minutes on the train from Marylebone (NOTE: I'm not sure what Chiltern railways bike policy is, been years since I've got a train there, usually drive). Wycombe is actually pretty big, I reckon it's a 15 minute ride to the Ground - I'd suspect that's not a nice ride either if you went down the main road out of Wycombe - I've never looked into back roads as I drive there.