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Ride with the Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins

'Ride with Brad' sportive in Lancashire includes KOM challenge...

Fancy riding a sportive with Bradley Wiggins, champion of the Tour de France and Olympic hopeful? That's not a question you get asked every day - so if you're keen, get your entry in now. We wrote about the event a few weeks back when entries opened - it's to raise money for the also recently launched Bradley Wiggins Foundation.

What with the recent events in France we thought it was probably worth another mention especially as British Cycling have made this reccee video avaiable too.

If you want to ride it's on the 19th of August get yourself down to the Lancashire town of Barnoldswick to test your mettle on some of the routes Wiggo uses to train his way to victory, on one of two routes, either 160km or 100km.

Pleasingly, the ride finishes up in Victory Park, where you can celebrate alongside Wiggins, who'll be there to cheer riders in.

Here's a cheeky preview of the event:

 

Mark Sandamas of Pennine Events spoke to British Cycling about how the event shaped up.

He said: “Since last year Brad has been considering having a sportive in his name, like some of the Italian ‘Gran Fondos’ that are named after their top riders, held over some of their favourite training routes. Brad was keen to create a foundation and launch it with this ride, where he would be the public face of it – you know ‘Come and ride with me'.

“We’ve taken the route over a lot of the roads Brad trains on, over the Nick, over Waddington Fell, over the Trough of Bowland."

The event will also feature a King of the Mountains challenge, where riders will be timed up each climb and compete for the shortest cumulative time.

“With the support of Lancashire Police, we’re able to do a King of the Mountains Challenge supported by Map My Tracks on the climbs of Waddington Fell, the Trough of Bowland and Nick O’Pendle," said Mark.

"Riders will be timed from the bottom to the top of each climb and their cumulative times will be put together. There’s an Adidas Team Sky jersey signed by the whole team for the quickest up the hills on the 160Km and 100Km rides plus runner up prizes.”

Both routes will be signed and marshalled and the ride is being organised by Pennine Events. The 160Km ride features four feed station and you'll need them with 3122m to tackle and a ride profile that suggests you won't be spending much time spinning it along in the big ring. The route takes you through some beautiful scenery including the Forest of Bowland and the Ribble Valley before taking you up on to the moors as it loops around the quiet corners of East Lancashire.

The 100Km route packs in almost 2000m of climbing with two feed stops - so it isn't the soft option - basically this route cuts out the norther section of the longer route, but you still get to climb Barley Fell, Waddington Fell, Chipping Longridge Fell (there's a theme developing here) and Nick O' Pendle.

Both routes start and finish at the Victory Park in Barnoldswick and entry for both is £40. The money raised will go to helping the new formed Bradley Wiggins Foundation in its objectives of promoting participation in sport, supporting keen and talented athletes who have the potential to take their talent to the next level; and providing equipment or facilities to allow participation in sports.

You can enter the event and find out more about the Ride With Brad Sportive on the Bradley Wiggins Foundation website.

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WolfieSmith | 11 years ago
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It's a great route of beautiful quiet countryside and longish climbs. The whole area really is a cyclists dream. The only patch of bad gradient is the bottom of Waddington Fell coming out from Newton. It's a nasty steep ramp so be warned.

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phax71 | 11 years ago
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Was gonna sign up to this a few weeks back, unfortunately gonna be down Brizzle way though...

I have a strange feeling that it may now BE VERY VERY BUSY!!!!

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