Events To Do This Summer

Winter is a distant memory and it’s time to reward yourself for training through the gloom. Select one of these summer events and let the good times roll.

CORSA BELLISSIMA

Wilier White Roads Classic Sunday July 22 | £29 | 128km

Most UK sportives follow a similar tarmac based format, leaving those looking for a bit of variety heading to Europe for sportives that take in the cobbles of Flanders or the route of the Strade Bianche Classic. But don’t book your flight for the latter until you’ve seen the route of the Wilier White Roads Classic that takes in 25 kilometres of white gravel and chalk roads around the Ridge way in Oxfordshire and is reminiscent of the great Italian event. www.cycleclassics.co.uk/white-roadsclassic-sportive

I did it

Iain MacGregor, author of To Hell on a Bike

The white gravel sectors, which mimic the sterrati (dirt roads), have been carefully selected so that they are generally taken in the downhill direction, where the chalk Ridge way descends to the Thames at Goring and Streatley. This means they can be ridden fast in a high gear, with enhanced sensations of speed over the rough surface. This is in line with the general aesthetic of Cycle Classics, with routes designed to amplify and intensify speed. The landscape is sparse and austere, with minimal vegetation — wide-open grassy slopes with a few scattered trees. The White Roads are hot, arid and dusty in July, and the riders throw up white dust clouds as in Paris- Roubaix and the Strade Bianche. As with the Giro’s Colle delle Finestre, the White Roads provide a link back to earlier days of road racing.

UNDISCOVERED ROADS

Tour de Môn | Sunday August 19 £23.99-39.99 | 46-107 miles