Supported feature in partnership with Compton Care
If you’re looking for a great event to ride in the West Midlands this May, sign up for the Carvers’ Round The Wrekin Sportive and you’ll be supporting a deserving local charity at the same time.
The sportive on Sunday 22 May offers three marked routes over 25 miles, 64 miles and 101 miles, to suit all levels of ability and starts at the Dudley Kingswinford Rugby Club (postcode DY6 0AW), with start times of 8 a.m., 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. depending on the distance you’ve opted for.
The Carvers’ Round the Wrekin Sportive is organised by Wolverhampton-based charity Compton Care and is part of its 40th anniversary celebrations, returning after a two year absence. Compton Care provides care and support for patients who are living with incurable conditions and their families across Wolverhampton, the Black Country, South Staffordshire and East Shropshire. It offers a wide range of services, including home-based community care, social work and an 18-bed en-suite Inpatient Unit, as well as advice and support.
The Carvers’ Round the Wrekin Sportive has been supported since its inception by cycling legend and West Midlands local Hugh Porter MBE, who was one of the UK’s most successful track cyclists in the 1960s and 70s and still regularly commentates on cycle races on television.
Hugh Porter has been a long term supporter of the sportive
(Image credit: Compton Care)
The sportive entry fee varies between £25 and £35 depending on the route length you’ve chosen. This covers the cost of staging the event and includes feed stations, electronic timing, mechanical support, first aid and broom wagons, as well as parking and catering at the start.
Compton Care is also asking you to help raise funds through sponsorship and will send you out a sponsorship pack with your entry. Raise over £250 and you’ll get a Compton Care cycle jersey, and there are also gifts for the top ten fundraisers. You can buy a Compton Care jersey when you sign up if you wish to do so.
Since it was first run in 2016, the Compton Care sportive has raised almost £110,000 in sponsorship for the charity.
Varied routes
All the routes follow quiet roads out into the Shropshire countryside. As well as course marking there are downloadable route maps for you to follow on a bike computer, so you can be sure not to get lost.
The 25 mile Hugh Porter Challenge route has 1000 feet of climbing and one feed station and has been designed to be suitable for the novice rider.
There are 3,800ft of climbing and two feed stations on the 64 mile Compton Care Classic route, which takes in Bridgnorth and the Ironbridge Gorge.
The 101 mile route includes some punchy climbs
(Image credit: Compton Care)
Opt for the 101 mile Carvers’ Epic and there are 6,700ft of climbing, including The Wrekin, and you can also tick off the two mile long Burway near Church Stretton, which features in the 100 Greatest Climbs list. You get three feed stations along the route too.
Sign up now
Start times and entry fee vary by distance:
Entries close at midnight on Tuesday 17 May and there’s no on-the-day entry option.
All entrants to the two shorter routes must be 13 years or older and those aged 13 to 15 must be accompanied by an adult entrant. For the 101 mile Carvers’ Epic, entrants must be 16 or over. All entrants for any of the distances who are under 18 need a signed parental consent form. There’s a full list of terms and conditions here.
Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.
He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.
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