Report on my 3-Day Tour on my Cyclosportif

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Day 1 - Port Talbot to Church Stretton
Day 2 - Church Stretton to Preston (Goosnargh)
Day 3 - Preston to Middlesbrough

Bike - Thorn Cyclosportif with a new Campag Centaur groupset but with an old pair of wheels slotted in (Veloce hubs, MA3 rims with Conti 25C Grand Prix 4 Seasons). I used a part broken in Brooks B17 which became completely broken in en route!

Luggage - Carradice Super C (brilliant quality).

Well that was fun! About 330 miles in 3 hard days but, all in all, it went like a dream and so did my 'new' Cyclosportif.

Day 1 was great with superb weather and fantastic scenery although the last few miles on the A49 between Craven Arms and Church Stretton were a bit hairy with lorries passing ever so close.

Day 2 had just one hours rain at the start and a delightful argument with a van driver who had parked on the cycle lane in Shrewsbury but was uneventful after that although Warrington isn't an easy place to get through on a bike. If anyone is planning an End-to-End with Preston as a stop-off then I can thoroughly recommend Isles Field Barn Farm at Goosnargh as a brilliant guesthouse although slightly tricky to find.

Day 3 was just as enjoyable as I thought it would be. A fairly fast run over to Clitheroe and Skipton and then up into the Yorkshire Dales which were fantastic even though I was staggering up one brute of a climb on 39x26! Then Wensley (as in Dale) and Leyburn before plunging down to Catterick and a generally flat run in to Acklam (Middlesbrough).

I've got a cracking cyclists tan, sore legs and great memories!

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Just to add a bit more about the bike and set-up...

I recently bought my Cyclosportif frame off ebay and built it up with new Campag Centaur kit but used a pair of 36-spoke Veloce/MA3 wheels which turned out to be overkill. I use ITM bars and stems and tried out their new(ish) Forged Lite seatpin with my B17. I built my bike up quite easily and had a short spin on it a few days before setting off and thought that I was all set but I hadn't quite realised that my new Carradice Super C saddlebag would sit on the rear wheel (this seems so obvious now but I've never used one before). Luckily, I had an alloy rear rack to the spares box and made use of the Cyclosportif's rear eyelets to keep the bag off the wheel! Unfortunately, this particular Cyclosportif had no pump peg so I bolted a Specialized mini-pump onto the side of a bottle cage which looked a bit untidy but thankfully wasn't needed.

The top tube is just 5mm shorter than my Bob Jackson custom-built frame so I felt quite at home on it and found the frame to be stiff and efficient. With a steel fork, heavy wheels, big saddlebag and rack then the weight seemed really heavy when I picked the bike up but on the road it was hardly noticeable and the handling was superb. In particular, this bike was the best 'descender' I've ever had and I feel that it's to do with the steel fork and oversized steerer - it just feels rock solid. There was a lot of up and down on Day 3 and the confidence I gained in this bike on the long, fast descents was amazing.

The groupset performed faultlessly at first but a bit of cable stretch must have crept in which affected just one gear (gear 4 - the 16t) but I lived with it. The wheels were a bit heavy though and I've now picked up some new 32-hole Centaur hubbed wheels although I'll still stick with 25c Conti tyres until it's mudguard time and might need to go down to 23c's.

I haven't done a lot of cycling really so three consecutive 'century' rides were a bit of a stretch for me but the bike was fine and I might just have become a convert to Brooks saddles. After five rest days (well I was on a family holiday!) I sat on my B17 and it just felt fantastic - so either it (or my ar5e) have been broken in!