With a choice of 130kms, 80kms or 40kms routes riders will be
given a time based on their age and gender, and can try for a gold, silver or
bronze standard time. All riders are given an electronically operated tag to
wear and their times are recorded as they pass under the finish banner.
However, it is not a race and entrants have the choice of riding as slow
or as fast as they wish. The route follows quiet roads and is clearly
arrowed and/or marshalled.
Download Cycling Weekly 2012 review
Download Cycling Weekly 2009 review
Download Cycling Weekly 2007 review
"The route of the Sportive follows the countryside of the Darling Buds of May, of oast houses, orchards and hop fields, and of some imagined rural idyll of the early 1950s. Although close to London, the "Garden of England" is, once you get south of Maidstone and the M20, a rural paradise of tiny lanes meandering between sleepy villages.
"...once I had wolfed down what can only be described as some of the best post-event food I have ever experienced, I was able to look back on an event which for grandeur cannot rival the great mountainous cyclo-sportives of the Alpes or Dolomites, but certainly matches them for charm, accessibility and enjoyment."