Dan McCausland is an overweight occasional gambler who returned to road biking in middle age after a gap of 20-odd years. The Etape du Dales 2014 was his first proper sportive. It was part of his preparation for the Marmotte - he blames his entry on drink.
2017-10-30 18:45:46 - Black and white photos of suffering on every wall, staff in RCC jerseys with reflective stripes, hi-viz throw cushions, Rapha Performance Merino duvet covers, shower...
2017-08-31 12:04:35 - Past Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, past Downing Street and the Cenotaph, and up towards Nelson's Column, tired legs squeezed out a final burst of pace....
2017-05-24 10:07:50 - New York City is not normally associated with cycling. Skyscrapers, yellow cabs and baseball at Yankee Stadium definitely - cycling, not so much, apart perhaps for bike...
2017-05-11 06:30:02 - The Amgen Tour of California has seen cycling luminaries of the like of Peter Sagan and Sir Bradley on the top step of the podium in recent years. The 2017 version...
2016-12-14 13:24:34 - Winter has arrived. As the Norwegians supposedly say: "There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes." So, rather than retreating to the masochism of the turbo...
2016-06-08 16:37:37 - In what looks like an uncommon outbreak of common sense, the UCI has clarified that riders at "mass participation events" such as gran fondos, sportives and centuries...
2016-03-23 16:10:09 - I never ride with headphones. I like to listen to what is going on around me, both the sound of the bike and the road, and motor vehicles. I think it's a bit silly to...
2016-03-18 18:04:15 - Spring is not too far away, and in the cycling calendar that means Classics. The Hell of the North, La Classicissima, Vlaanderens Mooiste, the Walloon Arrow and La...
2016-01-22 09:00:01 - The Chinese group that bought Ironman last year and was rumoured to be sizing up cycling's crown jewels looks set to become a player in the sportive and granfondo scene....
2015-10-29 14:02:36 - The winner of the 2015 Gran Fondo New York men's race and the third-place finisher on the women's side returned positive drug tests at the May 17th event. Oscar Tovar...
2015-07-29 17:35:07 - Keep your eyes peeled for the organisers of Gran Fondo New York if you are one of the thousands heading to the three-day Prudential RideLondon Cycling Show at the ExCel...
2014-11-13 17:55:19 - Uli Fluhme wants to bring a slice of Italy to Britain via the Big Apple. The expansion of the Gran Fondo New York series of events around the globe will include the...
2014-07-08 16:31:14 - In October 2013 Sportive.com publisher Joe Saumarez Smith challenged Dan McCausland to ride a sportive for the first time. He suggested the Marmotte, perhaps the...
2014-07-03 17:36:37 - Dan McCausland writes for Sportive.com about his experiences training for La Marmotte. Not a twinge for six months and then two and a half weeks before the off in Bourg...
2014-05-20 17:22:35 - If there was a better place in the United Kingdom to be riding a bicycle on Sunday the 18th of May than around the Etape du Dales circuit then I would like to know where...