Strade Shropshire Sportive | Long

Strade means Streets in Italian and is a term often used in road Cycling, we think it’s a term fitting well with this new event. Velo29 started largely in Yorkshire but since taking over the Cheshire Cat and following the huge success of the Tour of Lancashire we’ve been asked a lot to bring more North West events to the calendar, we think Strade Shropshire is an awesome addition! Those who don’t know Velo29 Sportives will be blown away by the quality of route signage, the variety of food at the feeds (incl. award-winning pies!), the awesome ride support and most of all, the friendly atmosphere with every turn of the pedal! The 3 new routes depart from Shrewsbury FC stadium and head South into the Shropshire Hills, an AONB. The short route at 37 miles has some challenges of its own, at over 3,000ft of vert, it’s no ride in the park! We enjoy The Stiperstones National Nature Reserve on both in and out sections of this stunning route! Medium distance dips deep into the Shropshire Hills and at 68 miles and 5,387 ft of vert it’s a tough day out but the rewards in the roads and scenery are totally worth the effort. Long is the BIG test and at over 100 miles and over 8,000ft of vert, it represents a challenge for any rider. We’ve done our best to make every mile a pleasure, never riding down a busy/ tedious road just to reach a money shot! Every turn of the pedals enjoys this stunning area! Back at HQ, we’ve got an awesome custom medal as well as your free beer and BBQ hot sausage bun whilst you sit back and reflect upon a great day on the streets! N.B. some of the roads encountered on Strade Shropshire are of a varied nature. The only way to exploe this wonderful part of the World is on the routes we use. In places we encounter some less than perfect roads. For the main the route is on good quality road surface but there are sections with pot holes, lose gravel, poor verges etc. This is of course dependant on recent weather.