We launched the Wiggle The Rocket Epic Course, did an orbit and safely landed at Amberley Space Station. Rode the route unsupported the day after it had been cancelled. A sublime​ route in gorgeous countryside.

After yesterday’s shenanigans on the MTB’s we were looking forward to a much more straightforward day today.

The Southern Rough Ride MTB Sportive was already cancelled so we planned to ride The Rocket Epic Course on our road bikes under our own steam. At least we’d get to ride a full sportive route and the weather looked to be really nice today – it was blue skies, sunny, quite warm and most importantly, not icy at all.

We drove over to the event HQ in Amberley and had a chat with the UK Cycling Events staff about our ride yesterday before setting off on our ride.

The route turned out to be a really lovely one with just the right combination of ingredients for an early season sportive: lower mileage than normal, plenty of elevation gain (but nothing too taxing) and absolutely gorgeous scenery.

Just before where the first feed stop should have been at Wisborough Green, we passed a lovely looking country pub and decided to stop for a quick coffee. The pub was not quite open but a member of staff had just arrived and let us in and sorted us out with coffee. Lovely!

We then pressed on into Surrey, along sometimes familiar roads from other sportives in the area and were soon at the northern end of the route by Dunsfold Airfield, where they used to film Top Gear (do they still film here, I’ve no idea?).

We planned to stop in Plaistow for another coffee as this is where the second feed stop should have been, but the only place open was a pub and they did not do coffee. We instead ploughed on and stopped at a lovely village cafe in Kirdford.

Right after the cafe, the main climb on the route started. It turned out to not be too bad but just meandered upwards for quite a while.

After that, it was all pretty much downhill and a fast ride back to the event HQ in Amberley. We did manage to miss a turn on the way, just as we were distracted by a freak hail storm catching us for a minute or two. Thankfully we soon spotted our error and did not go too far off track.

Back at the event HQ, we loaded our cars up and said our goodbye’s.

A really fun weekend, which did not go at all according to plan but we managed to salvage lots of great cycling out of it anyway and had a great time.

Route: click here