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The Tour of the Borders came up on FB a few days ago, i had a quick look at it, closed road sportive event, 55 or 80 miles route. Nice rolling roads, a few dragging hills,great scenery, looks to be a good day out, especially the closed roads bit. But the price - £79!
Has anyone done it?
Worthwhile?
I did it when it in 2014 when it wasn’t anywhere near that price and run by the local cycling club I believe
Since then it’s been taken over by the usual suspects for maximum profit, however the local cycling club now run their own separate event later in the year. It’s not on closed roads but that doesn’t really affect it as the roads are all deserted anyway. And it’s less than half the price, and money doesn’t go to a big corporation.
I rode the club version in 2019 and it was one of the best days I’ve had out on a bike
It’s not on closed roads but that doesn’t really affect it as the roads are all deserted anyway.
Ironically, that's one of the reasons these sorts of routes are chosen - because they're so quiet in the first place they're a lot easier and cheaper to close down than something like RideLondon. Must be 10+ years ago, I rode the route of the Etape Caledonia (with some people off STW actually) and it was a great day out, hardly any traffic.
However, the event itself was routinely blighted by protests, tacks in the road, disruption from Outraged of Pitlochry etc and (to my mind) it made it far too much of a risk to enter.
TotB is a nice route though, there are some great roads up that way and the Devil's Beeftub is kind of a classic climb - not difficult by any means but just a lovely bit of road.
Must be 10+ years ago, I rode the route of the Etape Caledonia (with some people off STW actually)
* waves *
TBF the tacks only made an appearance one year and any ill-feeling towards the event was restricted to a handful of folk. Some noise was made about folk not getting to their church service in Fortingall but the organisers laid on minibuses and the congregation were out cheering the riders on as we went past 😁
There was a time when people joined a cycling club and, then went on club runs.
Back when Ken Laidlaw was a lad
https://www.entrycentral.com/Ken-Laidlaw
In previous years the TotB was on
a week or two before the Ken Laidlaw .
And went over similar roads, but in the opposite direction eg the Swire / Witchie Knowe .
If you like that sort of thing check out Audax UK.
By which I mean riding on quiet roads.
https://www.audax.uk/choose-a-ride/
Never ridden the Etape or anything like that - but rode a very similar route to the Etape for a few £ as an Audax (with an extra 100 miles added on the route because it's more fun that way) and led a Cycling UK tour on the same route the week before for nothing.
Devil’s Beeftub is kind of a classic climb – not difficult by any means but just a lovely bit of road.
It's not on the tob though for that you get the wall of talla and Witchy Knows etc. The route is great but the event all rather depends on what you want, the climbs are somewhat marred by the number of people who can't get up them and get off and push. Bit as a trade off there are feed stations and they kinda make a difference to people less used to the lack of options in that regard.
It’s not on the tob though for that you get the wall of talla and Witchy Knows etc
All the more reason to ride the club run version a month later. It goes up beeftubs (or it did in 2019) plus twice up the wall of talla
If you fancy an other alternative with funds going to Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland (and the best feedstops I've experienced) then try the Tour de Lauder: Link
89 miles with outriders/junction control and a great atmosphere.
I've done it the last two years and I've signed up again for the long one next year. A closed road sportive is more akin to the European counterparts and trumps non closed road ones by a fair margin. If you don't enjoy fast descents and barreling along in a big group then maybe it would be money wasted but I'd at least give it a go. It doesn't really compare to an audax either imo. I've ridden the Ken Laidlaw ride a couple of times as well as a good few other well known sportives and ToB is definitely up there with the best. The wall of talla is brutal and I've not ridden on a push bike down into moffat via the beef tub,(have done on motorcycle and ridden up and out) but it should be well worth the ££ for the closed roads.
It wasn't Fortingall or Pitlochry but a church elder , retired solicitor who got off with his crime
It was not too far from Loch Rannoch
Fortingall is on the road to Glen Lyon further south
All the more reason to ride the club run version a month later. It goes up beeftubs (or it did in 2019) plus twice up the wall of talla
I quite agree.