Billing itself as ‘the UK’s toughest sportive’, The Monster is a 195km ride in beautiful southwestern Wales with 4,200m / 13,000ft of climbing, much of it by way of sharp ramps on tiny roads that kick to 25 percent. As I was in the UK visiting our home office in Bristol in early July, I borrowed a bike and gave The Monster a go.
For most of our Horse for the Course features, we pick a bike specifically for an event, usually selecting components and definitely tires we believe best suited for the task at hand. For The Monster, my selection process consisted of an email: “Hey, Jonny, do you have a 56cm bike I could borrow, please?â€
Jonny Ashelford runs The Shed in Bristol, an ever-shifting bike rider’s dream of dozens and dozens of test bikes for BikeRadar, Cycling Plus, What Mountain Bike, Mountain Biking UK and Procycling. Jonny’s patience is clearly wearing thin with the likes of me asking for favors, but he pulled an S3 off the top rack.
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“This is probably the raciest thing we have in 56cm right now,†he said.
At the time, I had not yet even heard of The Monster, and was just planning on riding the bike around Bristol.
I gave it a quick check, mostly to make sure the saddle and my backside would be on friendly terms. Shimano Ultegra 11-speed with a 52/36 Rotor crank, a 3T cockpit, and some skinny-looking Mavic clinchers on Mavic Elite wheels with an 11-25 on the back rounded out the aero frameset.
- The course: 195km with 4,200m / 13,000ft of climbing on quiet, narrow and sometimes rough lanes in Wales
- The Horse: A Cervélo S3 with Shimano Ultegra 11spd, Mavic Cosmic Elite wheels and 23mm Mavic Yksion Comp clinchers, Mavic Zxellium pedals — 6.91kg / 15.23b all in
- The equipment goals: Efficiency, comfort and stability on a tricky course — and low gearing for 25 percent climbs!
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