Selkirk Vitus Sportive

For the past 5 years, i've taken part in the Selkirk MTB marathon. I've done various distance over the years from 50k - 100k (although they are always shorter than the advertised distance) This is usually held in the first weekend in August, and has always been a great way to end my Summer Holidays. 

 
This year, they decided to bring it forward to Mid May.

They introduced a road sportive to the weekend a couple of years ago, and earlier in the year I thought about doing both events.  This idea was quickly quashed by my wife, so I decided to the sportive for a change, as a fiew of my friends were also doing it.

The route was a shortened version of the Moffat Toffee i did last weekend, so I wasn't expecting any difficulties.

The weather leading up to the event was dominated by long spells of rain (as everywhere else in the country) but the event day stayed dry. The wind had changed from the southerly to a northerly, so the fast finish from last weekend wouldn't be repeated. Fortunately it had also dropped, and there was no rain forecast.

It was still cold enough (in May Ffs) for tights although there were a few in bibs.

Almost 300 road enthusiasts turned up to enjoy the fantastic roads around the greater Selkirk area. The route took the riders through the Yarrow and Ettrick valleys starting with a long yet gentle climb following the Ettrick River upstream.

But it wasn’t all easy going. The course designer Pete Laing had some ‘proper’ climbs up his sleeve to turn what appeared to be a gentle stroll into a real challenge. The route made the most of the network of narrow hill roads linking the river valleys that the Scottish Borders is so famous for. The climb tot-up is, 95 mile: 8 climbs. 

None of the climbs were Alpine in scale but only one is less than 100m vertical and if you check the course profiles, there isn’t a flat road in between, so the ascent total soon builds up.

Map and Profile can been seen here

Next up - snow Roads Audax