Sportive

Seven of the UK’s toughest sportives to ride in 2015

Britain's hardest sportives to add to your must-ride list

The Monster - July 11

There's no shortage of challenging sportives in the UK (Pic: Anthony Pease)
British climbs are shorter than their European counterparts, so you have to use your imagination to make the most of your time in the hills (Pic: Anothony Pease)
The Wiggle Dragon Ride is a long-standing fixture on the UK sportive calendar (Pic: Human Race)
The Fred Whitton Challenge is widely regarded as the UK's toughest sportive (Pic: Andrew Griffiths/Saddleback)
The Etape du Dales takes in some of Yorkshire's toughest climbs (Pic: Simon Wilkinson/SWPix.com)
Riders take in the scenery on the Tour of Wessex. (Pic: Tour of Wessex)
The sweeping hairpins of Bealach na Ba (Pic: Stefan Krause, via Wikimedia Commons)
The Exmoor Beast is the sting in the tail of the sportive calendar (pic: Exmoor Beast)

The Monster - July 11

Organisers of The Monster say the mid-Wales sportive ‘packs a punch that will rip your legs off’.

Limited to 100 entries for 2015, the sportive is aimed at experienced riders ‘bored of the standard, easy sportive events’ and including the 30 per cent Devil’s Staircase climb, pictured above.

Rolling out of Llangadog, the event packs 4,400m of climbing into 192km of riding. To be classed as a ‘finisher’ you must complete the ride within 10.5 hours – and less than 65 per cent of last year’s entrants made the grade.

Are you tough enough? Entries open on Sunday (March 1) at 7pm.

Website: The Monster