THE DAVE LLOYD MEGA CHALLENGE 2009 !
Article Published : 21/11/08
Event Date : 21/06/09
DAVE LLOYD MEGA CHALLENGE 2009
THIS IS ONE SPORTIVE YOU HAVE TO ENTER. FORGET THE MARMOTTE, THE L’ETAPE DU TOUR AND THE GRAN FONDO CAMPAGNOLO…
YOU CAN GET ALL THIS AND MORE IN THIS COUNTRY… SO >>>>
ENTER IT NOW ON… www.davelloydmegachallenge.com
SIMPLY THE TOUGHEST OF THEM ALL !
THAT’S THE IDEA OF DAVE LLOYD’S MEGA CHALLENGE…..(ALTHOUGH THERE ARE TWO SHORTER ALTERNATIVES FOR THE LESS EXPERIENCED!)
WHY THE “DAVE LLOYD MEGA CHALLENGE”? ……..
I am absolutely hooked on Cyclo Sportives ! In 2006 I rode 12 of these “new” type of events on the British Calendar and I have become a “Sportive Bore” spreading the word on just how great the events are and how well organised they have been. But for me this is definitely the way forward for this great sport of ours that will bring it into the 21st Century and bring new cyclists and younger cyclists into the game…The bottom line is that , yes, they are a challenge and yes, they are very difficult, but they are also just so much fun! So why is Dave Lloyd riding Sportives? A little bit of background is called for…
I had not ridden the bike much over the previous 20 years since I stopped my competitive career. I had remained fit, however, and in December 2005 I was asked to coach at a training camp the following March, run by SportActive in Majorca. I therefore thought I’d better get back out on the bike to get in shape. So I started a training regime to get my legs ready for the following March. At the training camp I found I was climbing well and feeling great. To such effect that the word from the other athletes at the camp was that I should race again.. I had vowed, and promised Chris that I would never race again, but on returning home , I was eager to use my “new found” form and my rekindled passion for riding my bike… FAST!! I had heard that there were non-competitive events called “Sportives”, not just on the Continent, such as the L’Etape and Marmotte etc. but over here in mainland Britain…. So, I made some enquiries, found the Cyclosport.org website and discovered that there were events almost every week.
I eased my way into these Sportives with the very friendly Merseyside Wheelers event in May 2006, and then the much more demanding Etape du Dales a week later. This was a mega-hilly event, run by my old mates Billy Holmes, Sid Barras and Keith Lambert, and was a really hard 105 mile leg breaker. The organisation and the format was something I have never seen in this country before. It was brilliant, I WAS HOOKED…..
Since then I have ridden scores of Sportives , both in the UK and even ventured over to the Marmotte last year, and I have enjoyed every one of them, to such an extent that last year, about mid way through the year I thought, “Why shouldn’t I organise a Sportive ?”, and make it really hard ,as most of the ones I had ridden had been very hilly and long! I thought of holding the event in my old training grounds of Mid Wales and North Wales and take in all the hills I used to train over.
I used to use the hills of North Wales as an amateur when I lived in Liverpool to train for the Tour of Britain and the William Tell GP ( amateur Tour of Switzerland), and The Girvan etc. . I would use Rhosesmor, Moel Arthur, The Shelf, The Horseshoe Pass, Worlds End, “The Road to Hell” and many, many more on mega hilly training routes either alone or with the lads from the Kirkby CC… I loved the quietness of the roads and I loved the climbs and the scenery.. Beautiful training ground and SO hard… Training in this terrain was a pleasure for me, and although very hard, it was so exhilarating to go up some of the hardest climbs in Wales….and some of the descents were awesome too…
When I was a Pro bike rider and my mother and father were still alive , I used to come home with Chris from my “temporary” home in Holland to Mid Wales and train over the huge hills in the Mid Wales region in preparation for the Paris–Nice, Liege- Bastogne- Liege and the Tour of Switzerland.. Many times I used a route that went over towards Dollgellau and then to Dynas Mawddwy and then up the notorious Bwlch y Groes… Probably the most feared and hardest hill in the whole of Wales… I would then take in all the climbs around Lake Vyrnwy before returning home after 7-8 hours of climbing hell !!
So the idea was hatched to put all of these climbs together and join them all up to make a route that would make the best Sportive ever in my mind! I spent hours and hours trying to get a route that was suitable, took in all the climbs that I wanted included and was a coherent loop. It proved very, very difficult, but finally I had a route I thought worked, so I recced it on the bike and it took me just under 7 ½ hours to do the 130 miles I had designed.
I put this idea to a seasoned Sportiver who I thought could help me organise such an event and he was really enthused by it. He was a little disappointed I had left out my “Killer Climb” of the Bwlch pen Barrass, but I told him there was nowhere to put it. I had chosen Ruthin School as my headquarters and to take in the Bwlch would mean going through the finish and coming back, which was a bit false, I thought. He just said “Put it in at the start!” and after much debate about getting me hung, we did just that… My fellow Sportiver and I decided to join forces and try to organise “The Best Sportive in the UK !” I booked the venue for the 29th June, got a sponsor in the shape of Richard Chapman and his company “Chapco”. My partner in crime came up and we both went around the circuit with him taking Video and pics here and there and together we produced a top class Website to promote the event.
This was all done and dusted before Christmas, and as the Sportive wasn’t until the end of June , we had plenty of time. So we took our foot off the gas for the Christmas period and soon after the festive period I had signed up Tim Lawson and SIS to do some of the food for the event. I was looking for marshals all the time and offered the North Wales CTC a donation to do it for us, but nothing came of that. The foot went off the gas again as I was approaching the Dave Lloyd Training Camp in Denia and had lots to organise. The Sportive took a back seat and Denia took over.
I went over to Denia for the first two weeks of March this year and all seemed to be going swimmingly. But, with 2 days to go before I was due to come home, I was forced off the road on a 45 mph descent by a lorry! I just had to bail out and in doing so injured myself badly.. A broken wrist in 3 places a very badly injured back and other bumps and bruises…I was hospitalised for a day and a half and on returning home, I realised we were in trouble with the Sportive! We were running out of time to get everything done. I was laid up and the enormity of what we had taken on was beginning to sink in. My partner was having problems with his business by outside influences, and I couldn’t get out of the house. WE WERE IN TROUBLE!! We had taken on a monster we couldn’t control and had no idea how to get the rest of the work needed finished off. There was just so much to do. We thought we had it under control, but time passes very quickly and we didn’t have the experience to know what to do… The question was whether to pull the event and lose all credibility in the Sportive world, or find someone to help us. I, of course, was in favour of the latter course of action!
My favourite Sportive of 2007 had been the Three Counties, organised by a guy I had coached for a while called Terry Bell. I remember him as being a great guy and a superb organiser as the Three Counties had proven in spades. I gave him a call to explain the situation and just see if he had any ideas to get us out of the mess we had backed ourselves into. He just said “No problem!” and just sort of took over the reigns and ran with it. He really got stuck into the event with a gusto, as only Terry can and I was blown away. We had very little time now and things were desperate, but Terry just coolly and calmly got everything sorted and eventually EVERYTHING was miraculously in place for the 29th of June. How on earth he got so much done in the time he had , I have absolutely no idea, he just DID!
So, the first Dave Lloyd Mega Challenge had been saved and went ahead on the 29th June 2008 and was a huge success. Terry Bell had saved the day and the feed back we had from the riders was wholly positive. OK, I got quite a bit of stick for putting the Bwlch pen Barrass after 1 mile, but everyone had a great time and I just knew this was going to become a GREAT event …
We had split the 2008 edition of the event into two distances from the original route. We had a 70 mile event and with the addition of the Bwlch pen Barrass the long route was 140 miles. The climbing on the long route was about 5,000 metres.
When all the dust had settled, I asked Terry if he would become co-organiser for the 2009 "DAVE LLOYD MEGA CHALLENGE".. Although Terry still had his Three Counties to organise, he didn’t hesitate to come on board with me. We were now ready to make 2009’s event bigger and better, which is what we are doing as we speak!
I was happy with the 2008 route, but there were a couple of niggles I was concerned about, and I did want to make the next Mega Challenge bigger and better. The biggest disappointment for me was having to go up the Bwlch y Groes from the “easy” side. How great it would be to actually take in the hardest, longest, steepest road in Wales ! I had a chat with Terry about it and he came up with the wonderful idea of finishing the event ON TOP of the Bwlch pen Barras (a la Marmotte) thus giving us 10 miles to play with.
I decided to recce a route from Bala, down towards Dolgellau and cut across to the Dynas Mawddwy road and down the valley to the Bwlch y Groes. Then climb this “killer” and join the original route over to Lake Vyrnwy. I did this with Steve Henson on what was a lovely sunny day. Steve was blown away with the beauty of the ride, although wasn’t that enthusiastic when he saw the Bwlch for the first time…
In any case IT WORKED. The mileage was only 5 miles more than the original route at 145 miles and now we had the Bwlch y Groes on the route and a unique finish on top of the other “killer climb” The Bwlch pen Barrass ! This was going to work ! This was going to be the longest, hardest, hilliest (6,000 metres of climbing!) and best Sportive in the UK….
Terry, Sue, Chris and I have finalised the route now and it’s absolutely EXACTLY what we wanted. I just can’t think of any way to better it.
SO, COME ON.... ENTER THIS COMPLETELY UNIQUE SPORTIVE… NO NEED TO GO TO THE CONTINENT, WHEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING JUST AS SPECTACULAR, AND HARDER THAN LA MARMOTTE !!
www.davelloydmegachallenge.com