Robert Winder

I’ve been out of the UK since 1999, good for them, bad for me.  Before I left we would ride an annual event of over 120miles with lots of climbing and some remote countryside.  It was part of a series held under the rules of Audax, one of the rules was that this was non-competitive.

Since I’ve been gone cyclosportives have become incredibly popular in the UK and also across Europe.  Cyclosportives are semi-competitive in the same way that a marathon is.  One thing that struck me is that we’ve got a dearth of popular century rides (Wine Country is one I did a few years ago), we’ve got some challenging rides like the Death Ride, but we don’t have any cyclosportives.

Judging by the popularity of these events in UK and other places, and the popularity of cycling in our region I’m thinking there could be an untapped demand for such an event in California… There could be a good section of the public that might be looking for a cross-over event, and I don’t mean seeing MH in his white skinsuit.

How about a cyclosportive in CA next time the ToC comes through - maybe we could organise the Sausilito to Santa Rosa stage route as a course, any thoughts or takers?