THERE’LL definitely be more ‘up’ than ‘under’ over 100 gruelling miles, and former England rugby captains Martin Johnson and Will Carling are both prepared to go through the pain barrier in Sunday’s biggest-ever Dartmoor Classic Cyclosportive.
Johnson, who skippered England to victory in the 2003 World Cup, and Carling, who led his country 59 times in 72 international appearances, are both tackling the ‘Grande’ 100-mile version of the UK’s favourite sportive, based for the first time this year at Newton Abbot Racecourse.
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CLASSIC: Above, riders in the Dartmoor Classic; right, former England rugby captain Will Carling is in this year’s event​
More than 3,000 riders will pedal their way over the 100-mile, 100-kilometre ‘Medio’ and the new 35-mile ‘Devon Debutante’.
The Debutante has been introduced to give 200 inexperienced local ladies a chance to savour a long-distance event for the first time.
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Johnson is returning to the Classic for a second year, but Carling, who has ridden several other events for various charities, this week confirmed his first entry.
The organisers of the seventh Classic – the Mid-Devon CC/Colin Lewis Cycles club – are buoyed by their runaway victory in Cycling Weekly magazine’s poll to name the UK’s favourite sportive in 2012.
The Classic, run in association with bike manufacturers Specialized, now appears to have caught up, and even passed, several other longer established marathons in the affections of the cycling public.
For the first six years the event was based at the Mid-Devon club’s HQ at Abbrook Park, Kingsteignton, but the move to Newton Racecourse is seen as a big step forward.
The Classic’s Depart Village is one of the most colourful annual scenes in South Devon sport, open from Saturday afternoon when riders, many of them after journeys from all over the UK and beyond, arrive to register for the big day.
The two main courses take the field to Chudleigh Knighton and Bovey Tracey, up to Manaton past Becky Falls, onto Dartmoor past Houndtor and Haytor, down to Ashburton and back onto the moor via the climbs over Holne Chase, Hexworthy and out to Princetown.
There the 100-mile and 100-kilometres routes split, the longer course taking the riders on a ‘figure-of-eight’ loop to Yelverton, Lydford and Tavistock.
Both routes return home over the moor, through Two Bridges and Postbridge to Moretonhampstead, where one last hill awaits, over Doccombe, before a long descent to the Teign Valley and back to Newton Abbot.
The ‘Medio’ involves nearly 6,700 feet of climbing, the ‘Grande’ 10,700ft!
A small army of volunteers, including registration officials, parking staff, marshals and feeding station helpers, get the Classic onto the road.
The first 100-mile riders will start leaving the Racecourse, in groups of 150, at 7am. The 100K field will set out from 8am.
They will return to see whether they have qualified for gold, silver and bronze prizes, awarded for finishing inside age-related target-times.
But everyone who crosses the line at the Racecourse will receive what’s now become one of the iconic ‘trophies’ in British cycling, a mounted lump of granite.
For everyone has to be as tough as a top rugby star to complete the Dartmoor Classic.
Article source: http://www.skysports.com/rugbyunion/match_preview/0,,11069_60550_1,00.html
Ex-England rugby stars among field for Dartmoor Classic cycling sportif
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